Thermal growing season and response of alpine grassland to climate variability across the Three-Rivers Headwater Region, China

Abstract Daily temperature data from 1960 to 2013 and field-observed phenology data were used to investigate the spatiotemporal changes in thermal growing season and their relationship with the response of alpine grassland to climate variability in the Three-Rivers Headwater Region (TRHR) during the recent decades. We found a significant extension of the thermal growing season by 8.3 d per decade ( p p p