Examining Fractional Vegetation Cover Dynamics in Response to Climate from 1982 to 2015 in the Amur River Basin for SDG 13

Abstract

The impacts of climate and the need to improve resilience to current and possible future climate are highlighted in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13. Vegetation in the Amur River Basin (ARB), lying in the middle and high latitudes and being one of the 10 largest basins worldwide, plays an important role in the regional carbon cycle but is vulnerable to climate change. Based on GIMMS NDVI3g and CRU TS4.01 climate data, this study investigated the spatiotemporal patterns of fractional vegetation cover (FVC) in the ARB and their relationships with climatic changes from 1982 to 2015 varying over different seasons, vegetation types, geographical gradients, and countries. The results reveal that the FVC presented significant increasing trends (P < 0.05) in growing season (May to September) and autumn (September to October), but insignificant increasing trends in spring (April to May) and summer (June to August), with the largest annual FVC increase occurring in autumn. However, some areas showed significant decreases of FVC in growing season, mainly located on the China side of the ARB, such as the Changbai mountainous area, the Sanjiang plain, and the Lesser Khingan mountainous area. The FVC changes and their relationships varied among different vegetation types in various seasons. Specifically, grassland FVC experienced the largest increase in growing season, spring, and summer, while woodland FVC changed more dramatically in autumn. FVC correlated positively with air temperature in spring, especially for grassland, and correlated negatively with precipitation, especially for woodland. The correlations between FVC and climatic factors in growing season were zonal in latitude and longitude, while 120° E and 50° N were the approximate boundaries at which the values of mean correlation coefficients changed from positive to negative, respectively. These findings are beneficial to a better understanding the responses of vegetation in the middle and high latitudes to climate change and could provide fundamental information for sustainable ecosystem management in the ARB and the northern hemisphere.

Remarkable Effects of Urbanization on Forest Landscape Multifunctionality in Urban Peripheries: Evidence from Liaoyuan City in Northeast China

“…Meteorological data are used to simulate landscape functions, where precipitation, temperature, and potential evapotranspiration data are available in the National Earth System Science Data Center, National Science & Technology Infrastructure of China. The solar radiation data are developed by interpolating from weather station data [30]. Simulate water yield 100 m Team-made 3 Normalized vegetation index Simulate water yield Simulate carbon sequestration 100 m Team-made 4…”

Dissecting the Mutual Response of Potential Evapotranspiration with Vegetation Cover/Land Use over Heilongjiang River Basin, China

“…The FVC classification was based on previous studies combined with the actual situation of the basin to determine the classification boundaries [29,31]. The area with FVC ≤ 10% was classified as "Bare soil or non-vegetation", while 30, 45, and 60% were the upper limit of the status of coverage and were classified as "Low", "Low-medium", and "Medium", respectively.…”

“…As the largest river basin in Northeast Asia, the Heilongjiang River connects 15 firstlevel administrative regions across China, Mongolia, Russia, and North Korea. Changes in its internal resources and environment have a major impact on the green development of the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor (CMREC) [27][28][29]. Approximately 48% of the river basin lies in China, which covers the entire Heilongjiang Province and parts of Jilin Province and Inner Mongolia.…”

Analysis of Short-Term Drought Episodes Using Sentinel-3 SLSTR Data under a Semi-Arid Climate in Lower Eastern Kenya

“…As a key variable, FVC has been widely used for agricultural yield prediction, ecological monitoring, and drought assessment [21][22][23]. In this context, Yang et al [24] indicated that FVC depicts increasing trends in the growing season and insignificant increasing trends in summer, while in some cases, a significant decrease is observed in the growing season. Mu et al [25] used the Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) to investigate the FVC trend in major Chinese cities and quantify CO 2 concentrations caused by urbanization [26].…”