Vegetation responses to climate change in the Qilian Mountain Nature Reserve, Northwest China

Gao, Xiang; Huang, Xinjian; Lo, Kevin; Dang, Qianwen; Wen, Ruiyang

doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01698

Cited by 43 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…When the vegetation cover degree was high, NDVI and SPEI were negatively correlated; i.e., aridification promoted vegetation growth [63]. Guo et al [64] studied the response of vegetation with high coverage to precipitation and temperature in China's Qilian Mountain Nature Reserve, and the results show that there is a significant positive correlation between NDVI and temperature on an annual scale. This result is completely consistent with the results of this study on the NDVI of high-coverage vegetation with climate change.…”

Section: Impact Of Human Activities On Ndvimentioning

confidence: 99%

Influences of Climate Change and Human Activities on NDVI Changes in China

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The spatiotemporal evolution of vegetation and its influencing factors can be used to explore the relationships among vegetation, climate change, and human activities, which are of great importance for guiding scientific management of regional ecological environments. In recent years, remote sensing technology has been widely used in dynamic monitoring of vegetation. In this study, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and standardized precipitation–evapotranspiration index (SPEI) from 1998 to 2017 were used to study the spatiotemporal variation of NDVI in China. The influences of climate change and human activities on NDVI variation were investigated based on the Mann–Kendall test, correlation analysis, and other methods. The results show that the growth rate of NDVI in China was 0.003 year−1. Regions with improved and degraded vegetation accounted for 71.02% and 22.97% of the national territorial area, respectively. The SPEI decreased in 60.08% of the area and exhibited an insignificant drought trend overall. Human activities affected the vegetation cover in the directions of both destruction and restoration. As the elevation and slope increased, the correlation between NDVI and SPEI gradually increased, whereas the impact of human activities on vegetation decreased. Further studies should focus on vegetation changes in the Continental Basin, Southwest Rivers, and Liaohe River Basin.

show abstract

Section: Impact Of Human Activities On Ndvimentioning

confidence: 99%

Influences of Climate Change and Human Activities on NDVI Changes in China

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, the lower limit of J. przewalskii occurs at 2600 m in the Qilian Mountains [79], whereas its higher distribution range in southeastern Tibet (4200-4700 m a.s.l) [19] suggests a correlation with the higher elevation occurrence of BP there. In addition, our results demonstrated that the higher habitat suitability of EP and BP is strongly influenced by the temperature of the warmest month and annual mean temperature, respectively (Figure 4), which might be explained by the fact that temperature directly affects the distributional and seasonal changes of vegetation and then indirectly affects the potential distribution of Galliformes in the QMNNR [55,69]. There is a significant positive correlation between temperature and NDVI in the vegetation-climate relationship [69].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Similarly, we also assessed a monthly change in the number of different group sizes captured for each month in which camera traps were active. Based on the breeding phenology of the two target species [17,58] and local climate characteristics in the QMNNR [55,69], we divided the year into breeding (from April to July), non-breeding (from August to October) and winter seasons (from November to March). To explore if the degree of interspecific overlap in activity between EP and BP changes across seasons, we estimated the diel activity for both species by fitting a non-parametric circular kernel density estimation function [39] to the radian-transformed occurrence records, regarded as a random sampling from 24 h per day reflecting the animals' maximum true diel activity pattern [39].…”

Section: Data Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Camera Trapping Reveals Spatiotemporal Partitioning Patterns and Conservation Implications for Two Sympatric Pheasant Species in the Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China

Zhang

Chen

et al. 2022

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Studying the spatio-temporal niche partitioning among closely related sympatric species is essential for understanding their stable coexistence in animal communities. However, consideration of niche partitioning across multiple ecological dimensions is still poor for many sympatric pheasant species. Here, we studied temporal activity patterns and spatial distributions of the Blue Eared Pheasant (EP, Crossoptilon auritum) and Blood Pheasant (BP, Ithaginis cruentus) in the Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve (QMNNR), Northwestern China, using 137 camera traps from August 2017 to August 2020. Kernel density estimation was applied to analyze diel activity patterns, and the Maxent model was applied to evaluate their suitable distributions and underlying habitat preferences. Eight Galliformes species were captured in 678 detection records with 485 records of EP and 106 records of BP over a total of 39,206 camera days. Their monthly activity frequencies demonstrate temporal partitioning but their diel activity patterns do not. Furthermore, 90.78% of BP distribution (2867.99 km2) overlaps with the distribution of EP (4355.86 km2) in the QMNNR. However, BP manifests a high dependence on forest habitats and shows larger Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values, while EP showed obvious avoidance of forest with NDVI greater than 0.75. Hence, differentiation in monthly activity patterns and partitioning in habitat preference might facilitate their coexistence in spatiotemporal dimensions. Conservation actions should give priority to highly overlapping areas in the center and east of the QMNNR and should strengthen forest landscape connectivity, as they provide irreplaceable habitats for these threatened and endemic Galliformes.

show abstract

“…The dynamic pattern of vegetation in the different elevation zones of Heihe River Basin is important to consider when explicating the differences of vegetation distribution and their responses to climate change from the gradient perspective [36]. On the basis of the DEM data and the spatial data of vegetation in the 1980s and 2010s, as well as by operating the ArcGIS software, this study classified the vertical distribution into six elevation zones, which considered the horizontal and vertical characteristics of vegetation distribution and climate elements in Heihe River Basin [14,[37][38][39][40]. Among them, oasis farmland and desert zone is located in the area of elevation less than 1700 m, desert steppe zone is distributed in the elevation range from 1700 to 2100 m, dry scrub-grassland zone is distributed in the elevation range from 2100 to 2500 m, mountain forest-steppe zone is located in the elevation range from 2500 to 3300 m, subalpine scrub-meadow zone is distributed in the elevation range from 3300 to 3800 m, and alpine cold desert-meadow zone is located in the area of elevation more than 3800 m.…”

Section: Classification Of the Vertical Vegetation Zonementioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Patterns of the Vertical Distribution of Vegetation in Heihe River Basin since the 1980s

Fan

2021

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The vertical distribution of vegetation in Heihe River Basin has presented a significant dynamic change in the different elevation zones since the 1980s. To explore the dynamic patterns of vegetation types located in the different elevation zones of Heihe River Basin, this study collected 440 field sampling datapoints of vegetation types, remote sensing images, climatic observation data, and DEM and preprocessed them. On the basis of the vegetation distribution and the terrain characteristics of Heihe River Basin, this study classified the vertical distribution of vegetation in Heihe River Basin into six vegetation zones, namely, the oasis farmland and desert zone, desert-steppe zone, dry scrub-steppe zone, mountain forest-steppe zone, subalpine scrub-meadow zone, and alpine cold desert-meadow zone. Moreover, the mean annual biotemperature (MAB) and total annual average precipitation (TAP) were used to analyze the relationship between vegetation change and climate change in the different elevation zones. The results show that the change rate of vegetation was up to 25.75% in Heihe River Basin. The area of vegetation that changed in the oasis farmland and desert zone was the largest (7224 km2), and the rate of vegetation that changed in the mountain forest-steppe zone was up to 56.93%. The mean annual biotemperature (MAB) and total annual average precipitation (TAP) in the six elevation zones showed an increasing trend, in which the increased rate of TAP presented a downward trend with the increase of elevation, and that of MAB showed a continuous upward trend with the increase of elevation. The change rate of vegetation was generally higher than that of MAB and TAP in the low and middle vegetation zones. The influence intensity of human activities on vegetation change in the lower and middle elevation zones of Heihe River Basin was greater than that in the high elevation zone between the 1980s and the 2010s. MAB is the major impact factor to vegetation change in the alpine cold zone of Heihe River Basin.

show abstract

Vegetation responses to climate change in the Qilian Mountain Nature Reserve, Northwest China

Cited by 43 publications

References 48 publications

Influences of Climate Change and Human Activities on NDVI Changes in China

Influences of Climate Change and Human Activities on NDVI Changes in China

Camera Trapping Reveals Spatiotemporal Partitioning Patterns and Conservation Implications for Two Sympatric Pheasant Species in the Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China

Dynamic Patterns of the Vertical Distribution of Vegetation in Heihe River Basin since the 1980s

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About