scholarly journals Vegetation Greenness Variations and Response to Climate Change in the Arid and Semi-Arid Transition Zone of the Mongo-Lian Plateau during 1982–2015

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 4066
Author(s):  
Risu Na ◽  
Li Na ◽  
Haibo Du ◽  
Hong S. He ◽  
Yin Shan ◽  
...  

Vegetation greenness dynamics in arid and semi-arid regions are sensitive to climate change, which is an important phenomenon in global climate change research. However, the driving mechanism, particularly for the longitudinal and latitudinal changes in vegetation greenness related to climate change, has been less studied and remains poorly understood in arid and semi-arid areas. In this study, we investigated changes in vegetation greenness and the vegetation greenness line (the mean growing season normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) = 0.1 contour line) and its response to climate change based on AVHRR-GIMMS NDVI3g and the fifth and latest global climate reanalysis dataset from 1982 to 2015 in the arid and semi-arid transition zone of the Mongolian Plateau (ASTZMP). The results showed that the mean growing season NDVI increased from the central west to east, northeast, and southeast in ASTZMP. The vegetation greenness line migrated to the desert during 1982–1994, to the grassland during 1994–2005, and then to the desert during 2005–2015. Vegetation greenness was positively correlated with precipitation and negatively correlated with temperature. The latitudinal variation of the vegetation greenness line was mainly affected by the combination of precipitation and temperature, while the longitudinal variation was mainly affected by precipitation. In summary, precipitation was a key climatic factor driving rapid changes in vegetation greenness during the growing season of the transition zone. These results can provide meaningful information for research on vegetation coverage changes in arid and semi-arid regions.

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 1962
Author(s):  
Zhilong Zhao ◽  
Yue Zhang ◽  
Zengzeng Hu ◽  
Xuanhua Nie

The alpine lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are indicators of climate change. The assessment of lake dynamics on the TP is an important component of global climate change research. With a focus on lakes in the 33° N zone of the central TP, this study investigates the temporal evolution patterns of the lake areas of different types of lakes, i.e., non-glacier-fed endorheic lakes and non-glacier-fed exorheic lakes, during 1988–2017, and examines their relationship with changes in climatic factors. From 1988 to 2017, two endorheic lakes (Lake Yagenco and Lake Zhamcomaqiong) in the study area expanded significantly, i.e., by more than 50%. Over the same period, two exorheic lakes within the study area also exhibited spatio-temporal variability: Lake Gaeencuonama increased by 5.48%, and the change in Lake Zhamuco was not significant. The 2000s was a period of rapid expansion of both the closed lakes (endorheic lakes) and open lakes (exorheic lakes) in the study area. However, the endorheic lakes maintained the increase in lake area after the period of rapid expansion, while the exorheic lakes decreased after significant expansion. During 1988–2017, the annual mean temperature significantly increased at a rate of 0.04 °C/a, while the annual precipitation slightly increased at a rate of 2.23 mm/a. Furthermore, the annual precipitation significantly increased at a rate of 14.28 mm/a during 1995–2008. The results of this study demonstrate that the change in precipitation was responsible for the observed changes in the lake areas of the two exorheic lakes within the study area, while the changes in the lake areas of the two endorheic lakes were more sensitive to the annual mean temperature between 1988 and 2017. Given the importance of lakes to the TP, these are not trivial issues, and we now need accelerated research based on long-term and continuous remote sensing data.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 669
Author(s):  
Hanchen Duan ◽  
Xian Xue ◽  
Tao Wang ◽  
Wenping Kang ◽  
Jie Liao ◽  
...  

Alpine meadow and alpine steppe are the two most widely distributed nonzonal vegetation types in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In the context of global climate change, the differences in spatial-temporal variation trends and their responses to climate change are discussed. It is of great significance to reveal the response of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to global climate change and the construction of ecological security barriers. This study takes alpine meadow, alpine steppe and the overall vegetation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as the research objects. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data and meteorological data were used as the data sources between 2000 and 2018. By using the mean value method, threshold method, trend analysis method and correlation analysis method, the spatial and temporal variation trends in the alpine meadow, alpine steppe and the overall vegetation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were compared and analyzed, and their differences in the responses to climate change were discussed. The results showed the following: (1) The growing season length of alpine meadow was 145~289 d, while that of alpine steppe and the overall vegetation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was 161~273 d, and their growing season lengths were significantly shorter than that of alpine meadow. (2) The annual variation trends of the growing season NDVI for the alpine meadow, alpine steppe and the overall vegetation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau increased obviously, but their fluctuation range and change rate were significantly different. (3) The overall vegetation improvement in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was primarily dominated by alpine steppe and alpine meadow, while the degradation was primarily dominated by alpine meadow. (4) The responses between the growing season NDVI and climatic factors in the alpine meadow, alpine steppe and the overall vegetation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau had great spatial heterogeneity in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. These findings provide evidence towards understanding the characteristics of the different vegetation types in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and their spatial differences in response to climate change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 193 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Erasmi ◽  
Michael Klinge ◽  
Choimaa Dulamsuren ◽  
Florian Schneider ◽  
Markus Hauck

AbstractThe monitoring of the spatial and temporal dynamics of vegetation productivity is important in the context of carbon sequestration by terrestrial ecosystems from the atmosphere. The accessibility of the full archive of medium-resolution earth observation data for multiple decades dramatically improved the potential of remote sensing to support global climate change and terrestrial carbon cycle studies. We investigated a dense time series of multi-sensor Landsat Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data at the southern fringe of the boreal forests in the Mongolian forest-steppe with regard to the ability to capture the annual variability in radial stemwood increment and thus forest productivity. Forest productivity was assessed from dendrochronological series of Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) from 15 plots in forest patches of different ages and stand sizes. The results revealed a strong correlation between the maximum growing season NDVI of forest sites and tree ring width over an observation period of 20 years. This relationship was independent of the forest stand size and of the landscape’s forest-to-grassland ratio. We conclude from the consistent findings of our case study that the maximum growing season NDVI can be used for retrospective modelling of forest productivity over larger areas. The usefulness of grassland NDVI as a proxy for forest NDVI to monitor forest productivity in semi-arid areas could only partially be confirmed. Spatial and temporal inconsistencies between forest and grassland NDVI are a consequence of different physiological and ecological vegetation properties. Due to coarse spatial resolution of available satellite data, previous studies were not able to account for small-scaled land-cover patches like fragmented forest in the forest-steppe. Landsat satellite-time series were able to separate those effects and thus may contribute to a better understanding of the impact of global climate change on natural ecosystems.


2002 ◽  
Vol 139 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. SHINDE ◽  
RAGHAVENDRA BHATTA ◽  
S. K. SANKHYAN ◽  
D. L. VERMA

A study of the physiological responses and energy expenditure of goats was carried out from June 1999 to May 2000 by conducting two experiments: one on bucks maintained on stall feeding in autumn 1999 (Expt 1) followed by year-round grazing on native ranges over three seasons: monsoon, winter and summer (Expt 2). Physiological responses and energy expenditure (EE) measurements of housed and grazing goats were recorded at 06.00 h and 14.00 h for 5 consecutive days in each season. Goats were fixed with a face mask and meteorological balloon for collection of expired air and measurement of EE. Respiration rate (RR) at 06.00 h was similar in all seasons (14 respiration/min) except in the monsoon, where a significantly (P<0.05) higher value (26 respiration/min) was recorded. At 14.00 h, RR was higher in monsoon and summer (81 and 91 respiration/min) than in winter (52 respiration/min). Irrespective of the season, heart rate (HR) was higher at 14.00 h (86 beat/min) than at 06.00 h (64 beat/min). The rise of rectal temperature (RT) from morning (06.00 h) to peak daily temperature (14.00 h) was 0.9 °C in housed goats in autumn and 1.0, 2.1 and 2.0 °C in grazing goats during monsoon, winter and summer, respectively. The mean value was 1.7 °C. Skin temperature (ST) was lowest in winter (30.1 °C) and highest at 14.00 h in summer (40.3 °C). Energy expenditure of goats at 06.00 h was 32.7 W in winter and significantly (P<0.05) increased to 52.0 W in summer and 107.8 W in monsoon. At 14.00 h, EE was 140.2 W in winter and increased to 389.0 W and 391.3 W respectively in monsoon and summer. It is concluded that monsoon and summer are both stressful seasons in semi-arid regions. Animals should be protected from direct solar radiation during the hottest hours of the day to ameliorate the effect of heat stress.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nitya Rao ◽  
Elaine T. Lawson ◽  
Wapula N. Raditloaneng ◽  
Divya Solomon ◽  
Margaret N. Angula

Author(s):  
Alberto S. de Melo ◽  
Yuri L. Melo ◽  
Claudivan F. de Lacerda ◽  
Pedro R. A. Viégas ◽  
Rener L. de S. Ferraz ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Global climate change tends to intensify water unavailability, especially in semi-arid regions, directly impacting agricultural production. Cowpea is one of the crops with great socio-economic importance in the Brazilian semi-arid region, cultivated mainly under rainfed farming and considered moderately tolerant to water restriction. This species has physiological and biochemical mechanisms of adaptation to these stress factors, but there is still no clear vision of how these responses can not only allow survival, but also ensure yield advances in the field. Besides acclimation mechanisms, the exogenous application of abiotic (salicylic acid, silicon, proline, methionine, and potassium nitrate) and biotic (rhizobacteria) elicitors is promising in mitigating the effects of water restriction. The present literature review discusses the acclimation mechanisms of cowpea and some cultivation techniques, especially the application of elicitors, which can contribute to maintaining crop yield under different water scenarios. The application of elicitors is an alternative way to increase the sustainability of production in rainfed farming in semi-arid regions. However, the use of eliciting substances in cowpea still needs to be carefully explored, given the difficulties caused by genotypic and edaphoclimatic variability under field conditions.


Author(s):  
Imefon Udo Udo ◽  
Imekan Isaac Akpan

Inland fisheries of arid and semi-arid regions of Africa are seriously threatened by negative impacts of climate change. Literature and several models show increase in temperature of 1.1oC in some areas. Sea level rise is projected to increase to 0.8 m by the year 2100. Fish yields have increased almost linearly by around half a million metric tons per decade over the past 60 years, while clear cyclical variations in the residuals of about 20 years' periodicity above and below the trend line have been observed. Although fisher folks, their communities, and local institutions are already constantly adapting to various forms of change, flimsiness in the wider governance and macro-economic environment has weakened the overall adaptive capacity of these regions and fishers are vulnerable to projected climate change. For significant benefits of inland fisheries to be accomplished, planned adaptation at scales from the local to the regional is very necessary.


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