Response of Vegetation Photosynthetic Phenology to Urbanization in Dongting Lake Basin, China

Abstract

Urbanization can induce environmental changes such as the urban heat island effect, which in turn influence the terrestrial ecosystem. However, the effect of urbanization on the phenology of subtropical vegetation remains relatively unexplored. This study analyzed the changing trend of vegetation photosynthetic phenology in Dongting Lake basin, China, and its response to urbanization using nighttime light and chlorophyll fluorescence datasets. Our results indicated the start of the growing season (SOS) of vegetation in the study area was significantly advanced by 0.70 days per year, whereas the end of the growing season (EOS) was delayed by 0.24 days per year during 2000–2017. We found that urbanization promoted the SOS advance and EOS delay. With increasing urbanization intensity, the sensitivity of SOS to urbanization firstly increased then decreased, while the sensitivity of EOS to urbanization decreased with urbanization intensity. The climate sensitivity of vegetation phenology varied with urbanization intensity; urbanization induced an earlier SOS by increasing preseason minimum temperatures and a later EOS by increasing preseason precipitation. These findings improve our understanding of the vegetation phenology response to urbanization in subtropical regions and highlight the need to integrate human activities into future vegetation phenology models.

Synergistic Impacts of Built-Up Characteristics and Background Climate on Urban Vegetation Phenology: Evidence from Beijing, China

“…Exploring the drivers of vegetation phenology can also help to understand the complex relationship between local climate and urban morphology, which is a prerequisite for mitigationadaptation strategies [24,25]. Previous studies have focused on exploring the relationships between built-up environmental factors (e.g., impervious surfaces, blue infrastructure, and population) and vegetation phenology [13,19,26]. Furthermore, vegetation growth can be potentially regulated by the background climate (e.g., hydrothermal conditions) and its synergy with local drivers, whereas this has received limited attention [11,[27][28][29].…”

Study on the Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Urban Vegetation Phenology by Local Climate Zone and Urban–Rural Gradient Approach

“…In summary, vegetation and urban greening were found to alleviate the negative effects of urbanization in Xi'an City [41]. In addition, Li et al (2021) incorporated night light and chlorophyll fluorescence data to analyze vegetation phenological changes and reactions to urbanization in the Dongting Lake Basin [42]. Other studies have conducted spatial and temporal analyses of vegetation phenology based on the UHI effect in urban areas such as Wuhan, Boston, and the suburbs of Milton, Ontario, Canada [43][44][45].…”

The Agricultural Application of Full Polar and Quantification S-band SAR Subsystem of Chinese High-Resolution Aerial Remote Sensing System

“…The main objective of the experiment is: to carry out the first quantitative application of airborne S-band SAR polarization and radiation in China through precise calibration of the system. To study the demonstration applications in agriculture, forestry, grassland, wetland and water surface observation, feature classification, and straw field cover [18][19][20][21][22][23] . In addition, the ability of S-band SAR to reflect changes in soil water content and crop growth is explored through multi-temporal observations, and the interaction law between S-band electromagnetic waves and landforms is further explored.…”