Hydrothermal conditions dominated sensitivity and lag effect of grassland productivity in Yunnan Province, China: Implications for climate change

Yan Fang, Long Wan, Jing Tong, Guijing Li, Jing Pang, Enfu Chang, Linglan Chen and Zixuan Shi

Agricultural Water Management, 2025, vol. 308, issue C

Abstract: Net primary productivity (NPP) is an important indicator of carbon and water cycles in grassland ecosystems and is highly sensitive to climate change. This study focused on grassland and its sub-regions in Yunnan Province and analyzed the productivity of grassland ecosystems under different hydrothermal conditions from 2001 to 2021. The results indicated that grassland experienced a warming and drying trend, with an overall upward trend averaging 5.30 gC·m−2·a−1. Notably, the central Yunnan Plateau region boasted the highest productivity growth rate, reaching 7.67 gC·m−2·a−1. The response of grassland productivity to climate change under different hydrothermal conditions exhibited distinct spatial heterogeneity and complexity. Grasslands in the hot and humid zone of southwestern Yunnan presented the highest sensitivity to changes in precipitation, temperature, and solar radiation, at 3.08 (gC·m−2·a−1)/mm, 53.3 (gC·m−2·a−1)/°C, and 4.07 (gC·m−2·a−1)/(MJ·m−2), respectively. In the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau alpine region, rising temperatures contributed to productivity growth. In contrast, warmer temperatures and water stress led to a decline in grassland productivity in the hot and dry vally of the Jinsha River. In addition, grassland productivity showed variable lag effects in different hydrothermal regions. The areas where grassland productivity with a 3-month lag effects in response to temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation accounted for 25.26 %, 34.52 %, and 16.04 % of the region, respectively. The grassland productivity responses to temperature and precipitation exhibited a long lag effect, primarily observed in dry and hot areas. This study is crucial for guiding adaptive vegetation management in Yunnan grassland ecosystems under different hydrothermal conditions to better cope with climate change.

Keywords: Climate change; Grassland; Hydrothermal difference; Net primary productivity; Time lag effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377425000071
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:308:y:2025:i:c:s0378377425000071

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109293

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().