Spatiotemporal changes of vegetation and their responses to temperature and precipitation in upper Shiyang river basin

Abstract The Shiyang river basin is a typical arid inland river basin in northwestern China, where significant climate change and ecological environment deterioration has been observed over the past several decades. The vegetation in Shiyang river basin is mostly concentrated in its upstream, and plays an important role in ecological environment of this watershed. However, how the regional vegetation responds to such climatic change is poorly understood. To address this question, the spatiotemporal changes of vegetation growth in upper Shiyang river basin together with their responses to climate changes were investigated using SPOT VEGETATION Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and climate datasets from 1999 to 2013. Results reveal that about 81.3% of the study area shows an increasing trend in NDVI. The average NDVI of the study area increases at rates of 7.75% for the growing season (March–November), 11.75% for spring (March–May), 9.62% for summer (June–August), and 5.98% for autumn (September–November) over the study period. The increase of NDVI in spring and autumn suggests the growing season of the vegetation in this study area has been prolonged. The effects of climate changes on vegetation growth vary with the types of vegetation and seasons, which shows a large spatial and temporal heterogeneity. As compared with temperature, precipitation is the dominant climatic factor affecting the interannual variations of vegetation. If the temperature and precipitation continue to increase in the study area, the sensitivity of vegetation growth to temperature and precipitation may decline.