Responses of Vegetation Dynamics to Climate along A Precipitation Gradient in Northeast China Transect

Abstract:

Vegetation plays an important role in terrestrial ecosystems. Vegetation dynamics, expressed by Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), is controlled by climate including precipitation and temperature. The Northeast China Transect (NECT), one of the IGBP terrestrial transects with a precipitation gradient from 100 mm to 1000 mm, is selected to understand the mechanisms of climate control on ecosystem processes. Along the precipitation gradient, the NDVI of growing season is increasing, and the vegetation types are grasslands, croplands and forests, respectively. We found positive correlations between NDVI and precipitation and negative correlations between NDVI and temperature in the west (mainly grasslands). Meanwhile we found negative correlations between NDVI and precipitation and positive correlations between NDVI and temperature in the east (mainly forests). We also found that the correlations between vegetation dynamics and climate variables changing along the precipitation gradient for one specific vegetation type, but the response patterns of vegetation dynamics to climate remain the same.