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Variation in vegetation greenness along China’s land border

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Abstract

Fourteen countries share about 22000 km land border with China, but not much is known about the variation in vegetation in such a large diverse area. By employing the remotely-sensed vegetation indices the vegetation greenness along the border was discussed. Our results show that since the early 21st century, similar trends in vegetation greenness have occurred along most of China’s border, but differences occurred on either side of the border. Along the border with North Korea and South Asian nations, greater increasing trend in vegetation greenness occurred inside China’s border, suggesting that China’s vegetation protection programs have been successful. Spatial and temporal variations in vegetation greenness trends were observed along China’s border with Russia, Mongolia, and Central Asian nations. Vegetation variation was lower inside China, along the Russian border, and China’s eastern border with Mongolia. Along most borders with Central Asian nations, rates of vegetation change inside China’s border during the growing season were higher than the rates outside the border. The results suggest that social customs, resource exploitation patterns, and national environmental conservation programs may profoundly affect vegetation greenness.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, Chiba University and collaborating organizations for providing the land cover data. Special thanks are given to the anonymous referees for their constructive criticisms. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0601900), Key Frontier Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. QYZDJ-SSW-DQC043), and the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 41225001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle & Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    XunMing Wang, WenYong Ma & DanFeng Li

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

    XunMing Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Cold & Arid Regions Environmental & Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Ting Hua

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  1. XunMing Wang
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Correspondence to XunMing Wang.

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Wang, X., Ma, W., Hua, T. et al. Variation in vegetation greenness along China’s land border. Sci. China Earth Sci. 60, 2025–2032 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-016-9078-8

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