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photo of Zheng Duan on Lund webpage

Zheng Duan

Associate senior lecturer

photo of Zheng Duan on Lund webpage

Changes of Grassland Rain use efficiency and NDVI in Northwestern China from 1982 to 2013 and its response to climate change

Author

  • Juan Chang
  • Jiaxi Tian
  • Zengxin Zhang
  • Xi Chen
  • Yizhao Chen
  • Sheng Chen
  • Zheng Duan

Summary, in English

The grasslands in arid and semi-arid regions rely heavily on the use of rain, thus, improving rain use efficiency (RUE) is essential for securing sustainable development of grassland ecosystems in these areas with limited rainfall. In this study, the spatial and temporal variabilities of RUE for grassland ecosystems over Northwestern China during 1982-2013 were analyzed using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and precipitation data. Results showed that: (1) Although grassland area has decreased gradually over the past 30 years, the NDVI in most areas showed that the vegetation was gradually restored; (2) The trends of RUE increased in the east of Northwestern China and decreased in the west of Northwestern China. However, the trends of RUE for the high-coverage grasslands (vs. low-coverage grassland) increased (decreased) significantly over the past 30 years. (3) The RUE for the grasslands was positively correlated with air temperature, while it was negatively correlated with the change of annual mean precipitation in northwestern China. Moreover, the obvious RUE increasing trends were found in the vegetation restoration areas, while the RUE decreasing trends appeared in the vegetation degradation areas. This study will be helpful for understanding the impacts of climate change on securing the sustainable development of grassland ecosystems in arid and semi-arid regions.

Publishing year

2018-11-19

Language

English

Publication/Series

Water

Volume

10

Issue

11

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

MDPI AG

Topic

  • Climate Research

Keywords

  • Degradation
  • Grassland
  • NDVI
  • Rain use efficiency
  • Vegetation restoration

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2073-4441