Remote Sensing Monitoring of the Spatial Pattern of Greening and Browning in Xilin Gol Grassland and Its Response to Climate and Human Activities

Abstract

As a unique ecosystem with multiple ecological functions but high fragility, grassland in arid areas is very vulnerable to changes in the natural environment or human activities, resulting in various ecological and environmental problems. In order to study the degree and spatial extent of the influence of climatic conditions and human activities, especially mining activities, on grasslands in arid regions, we used remote sensing data to monitor the vegetation of the Xilin Gol grassland over a long period. The significant greening and browning areas of Xilin Gol grassland vegetation from 2000 to 2020 were extracted by a time series analysis. At the same time, the correlation analysis method was used to obtain the response of the Xilin Gol grassland vegetation to climatic factors and social and economic factors. In addition, we propose a new method based on buffer analysis and correlation analysis to calculate the influence range of vegetation degradation due to mining. We used this method to determine the influence range of vegetation degradation in the main mining area of the Xilin Gol grassland. The results showed that the vegetation condition of the Xilin Gol grassland were slightly improved from 2000 to 2020. Its vegetation was significantly affected by precipitation, and more than 50% of the area’s vegetation changes were highly correlated with precipitation changes. However, the area with the most serious vegetation degradation was mainly affected by human factors, and this part accounted for about 0.13% of the total area. In the form of direct damage and indirect effects (pulling population and economic growth to expand built-up areas), coal mining has become the main driving factor in the most significant areas of vegetation damage in the study area. Vegetation coverage in areas with significant greening and significant browning was highly correlated with economic factors, indicating that the vegetation changes were significantly affected by economic development. This study can reflect the vegetation changes and main driving factors in the overall and key areas of the Xilin Gol League and is a meaningful reference for the local balance of economic development and environmental protection.

Trend Changes of the Vegetation Activity in Northeastern East Asia and the Connections with Extreme Climate Indices

“…The cold nights (TN10p) show a decreasing trend with a rate of −0.164 %/a (R 2 = 0.11, p > 0.1) during 1982-1998, while they show an increasing trend with a rate of 0.017%/a (R 2 = 0.004, p > 0.1) during 1998-2014. The warm days (TX90p) increase at a rate of 0.313%/a (R 2…”

“…In the context of global warming, global vegetation cover shows different trends of change. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which is defined as the quotient of the difference between the reflectance of the near-infrared channel, can more accurately characterize surface vegetation cover and vegetation growth [2]. The NDVI has the advantages of high sensitivity, wide range of vegetation detection, elimination of some interferences (such as topography, solar altitude angle, atmosphere, etc.…”

Evaluating the Impact of Human Activities on Vegetation Restoration in Mining Areas Based on the GTWR

“…Human activities in mining areas primarily consist mainly of mining activities and ecological restoration. Among natural factors, temperature and precipitation exert relatively significant influences on vegetation [5,6].…”