Cumulative Effects of Climatic Factors on Terrestrial Vegetation Growth

Abstract

Extensive studies have focused on instantaneous and time-lag impacts of climatic factors on vegetation growth; however, the chronical and accumulative indirect impacts of antecedent climatic factors carrying over for a period of time on vegetation growth, defined as cumulative effects, are less investigated. Here we aimed to disentangle the cumulative effects of climatic factors on vegetation growth by using vegetation indexes and accumulated meteorological data. First, we investigated the explanation and fit of climate changes on vegetation variations by applying stepwise multiple linear regression with Akaike information criterion. Then, we obtained the correlation coefficients and lagged time of climatic factors on vegetation growth whereby partial correlation and time-lag effect analyses. Results showed that (i) consideration of cumulative climate effects increased the explanation and fit of climate changes on vegetation dynamics for more than 77% of vegetated surface with an average global explanation of 68.33%, which was approximately 3.35% higher than the scenario when only time-lag effects were considered; (ii) big differences exhibited in the correlation coefficients and lagged times under the scenarios with cumulative climate effects considered or not; and (iii) positive accumulated temperature (accumulated solar radiation) effects with zero (three-month) time lag dominates most mid-high latitude ecosystems, and negative accumulated temperature effects with three-month delay dominates the temperate arid and semiarid regions and tropical dry ecosystems. By comparison, accumulated precipitation had relatively complex cumulative effects on vegetation growth. We concluded that climatic factors had significant cumulative effects on vegetation growth; consideration of the cumulative effects helps us better understand the climate-vegetation interactions. Key Points: • The climatic factors had significant cumulative impacts on vegetation growth, which were varied by climatic factors and spaces • Additional consideration of the cumulative impacts increased the explanation and fit of climatic factors on plant growth • The correlation coefficients and lagged times of climatic factors on plant growth were very different if we included cumulative impacts Supporting Information: • Supporting Information S1

The Relationship between NDVI and Climate Factors at Different Monthly Time Scales: A Case Study of Grasslands in Inner Mongolia, China (1982–2015)

“…Vegetation is sensitive to climate change, but under a specific environment, vegetation may also have some adaptability to climate change; that is, the NDVI-climate relationship may have a lag effect [35]. Lag correlation coefficients are used to analyse the lag period of NDVI response to climate change.…”

Satellite Observed Positive Impacts of Fog on Vegetation

“…The relationships between 8‐day vegetation indices and fog at both sites illustrate that fog has cumulative effects in maintaining vegetation function during rainless periods at both sites. This result can be related to the cumulative effects of water input on vegetation dynamics (Papagiannopoulou et al, 2017; Wen et al, 2019).…”

“…maintaining vegetation function during rainless periods at both sites. This result can be related to the cumulative effects of water input on vegetation dynamics (Papagiannopoulou et al, 2017;Wen et al, 2019).…”

Warming enhanced the climate temporal effects on vegetation across Siberia

“…The EVI, LST, PRE and SR were linearly detrended before analysis to reduce the impacts of temporal autocorrelation between vegetation and climate factors. The cumulative effects were analysed under 1-, 3-, 6-and 12-month time scales, and the time-lag effects were analysed under 0-, 1-, 2-and 3-month time scales according to other studies (Wu et al 2015;Wen et al 2019;Ding, Li & Peng 2020). In this study, the climate variables were computed by the following equations:…”

“…Time-lag effects refer to the vegetation response to previous rather than current climate factors, as terrestrial ecosystems are resilient to external factors (Willis, Jeffers & Tovar Ingar 2018). Once cumulative and time-lag effects are considered, the analysis of the impact on climate factors on vegetation activities can be assessed in greater detail (Wu et al 2015;Wen et al 2019).…”