Changing Trends of NDVI and Their Responses to Climatic Variation in Different Types of Grassland in Inner Mongolia from 1982 to 2011

Jie Yang, Zhiqiang Wan, Suld Borjigin, Dong Zhang, Yulong Yan, Yali Chen, Rui Gu and Qingzhu Gao
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Jie Yang: College of Grassland and Environmental Economics, Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics, Hohhot 010020, China
Zhiqiang Wan: College of Geographical Science, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot 010022, China
Suld Borjigin: School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China
Dong Zhang: School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China
Yulong Yan: School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China
Yali Chen: School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China
Rui Gu: College of Grassland, Resources and Environment, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010020, China
Qingzhu Gao: Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, CAAS, Beijing 100081, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-12

Abstract: Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is commonly used to indicate vegetation density and condition. NDVI was mostly correlated with climate factors. We analyzed changing trends of NDVI in different types of grassland in Inner Mongolia and the response of NDVI to climatic variation from 1982 to 2011. NDVI of meadow steppe increased significantly in spring while it decreased in other seasons. The annual mean NDVI in typical steppe and desert steppe increased significantly in the last 30a. However, in the greatest area of steppe desert, the NDVI had no significant change in summer, autumn, and the growing season. In meadow steppe, typical steppe, and desert steppe, the area showed a positive correlation of NDVI to temperature as highest in spring compared to other seasons, because warming in spring is beneficial to the plant growth. However, in the greatest area of steppe desert, the correlation of NDVI to temperature was not significant. The NDVI was positively correlated to precipitation in four types of grassland. In the steppe desert, the precipitation had no significant effect on the NDVI due to the poor vegetation cover in this region. The NDVI was not significantly correlated to the precipitation in autumn because of vegetation withering in the season and not need precipitation. Precipitation was a more important factor rather than temperature to NDVI in the region. The response of NDVI to temperature and precipitation in different seasons should be studied in more detail and the effect of other factors on NDVI should be considered in future research.

Keywords: temperature; precipitation; NDVI; steppe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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