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Association analysis between spatiotemporal variation of vegetation greenness and precipitation/temperature in the Yangtze River Basin (China)

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Abstract

The variation in vegetation greenness provides good understanding of the sustainable management and monitoring of land surface ecosystems. The present paper discusses the spatial-temporal changes in vegetation and controlling factors in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) using Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for the period 2001–2013. Theil-Sen Median trend analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients, and residual analysis have been used, which shows decreasing trend of the annual mean NDVI over the whole YRB. Spatially, the regions with significant decreasing trends were mainly located in parts of central YRB, and pronounced increasing trends were observed in parts of the eastern and western YRB. The mean NDVI during spring and summer seasons increased, while it decreased during autumn and winter seasons. The seasonal mean NDVI shows spatial heterogeneity due to the vegetation types. The correlation analysis shows a positive relation between NDVI and temperature over most of the YRB, whereas NDVI and precipitation show a negative correlation. The residual analysis shows an increase in NDVI in parts of eastern and western YRB and the decrease in NDVI in the small part of Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and the mid-western YRB due to human activities. In general, climate factors were the principal drivers of NDVI variation in YRB in recent years.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) for providing the meteorological data.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41601044), the Special Fund for Basic Scientific Research of Central Colleges, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan (Nos. CUG150631, CUGL170401, and CUGCJ1704), and the Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Hubei Province of China (No. 2016CFA051).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Critical Zone Evolution, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Lifang Cui, Lunche Wang, Zhongping Lai & Rui Yao

  2. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, 92866, USA

    Ramesh P. Singh

  3. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Liangliang Jiang

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Liangliang Jiang

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  1. Lifang Cui
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  2. Lunche Wang
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  4. Zhongping Lai
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  5. Liangliang Jiang
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Correspondence to Lunche Wang.

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Cui, L., Wang, L., Singh, R.P. et al. Association analysis between spatiotemporal variation of vegetation greenness and precipitation/temperature in the Yangtze River Basin (China). Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 21867–21878 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2340-4

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