Widespread Increasing Ecosystem Water Limitation During the Past Three Decades in the Yellow River Basin, China

Zhao, Fubo; Wang, Xi; Ma, Shuai; Wu, Yiping; Sun, Pengcheng; Li, Qiang

doi:10.1029/2022jg007140

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…For example, Wu et al (2018) and Wu et al (2022) both assessed drought legacy effects on vegetation. Zhao et al (2023) indicated that the ecosystem of a typical drylands was facing crucial water limitation in recent decades. Additionally, Wang et al (2021) investigated the changes in the length of the four seasons and their impact on vegetation in the drylands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased response of vegetation to soil moisture in the northern hemisphere drylands

Wang

Zhao

2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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Vegetation plays a significant role in terrestrial ecosystems due to its strong carbon absorption capability and multiple feedback effects on the climate system. The soil moisture availability determines vegetation growth, especially in the drylands. Although there has been increasing interest in issues such as the vegetation’s response to a specific climate variable, it remains unclear how soil moisture can quantitatively influence the vegetation in the drylands. In this study, we investigated the increased response of the vegetation to soil moisture and identified its key mechanism in the northern hemisphere drylands (NHD) from 1982 to 2010. The Methods included the use of the Lindeman-Merenda-Gold method. The results showed that the sensitivity of the vegetation dynamics to soil moisture significantly increased over the past 29 years (slope = 0.008, p < 0.0001), and the trend during 1996–2007 (slope = 0.025 m3/m3/yr, p < 0.0001) increased more rapidly than the trend during 1984–1995 (slope = −0.005 m3/m3/yr, p = 0.0143), which indicates increased water restrictions in recent years. Further analysis showed that atmospheric CO2 was the major contributor (27.2%) to the sensitivity changes, followed by climate change (27%), and nitrogen deposition (19%). The changes in the ecosystem structure (represented by the non-tree cover areas) and climate vacillation contributed similarly to the sensitivity change (14% and 12%). These findings can help with understanding the spatiotemporal impact of water restrictions on vegetation in the NHD and the related influencing mechanisms of vegetation growth and soil moisture in the greening and warming of the NHD.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased response of vegetation to soil moisture in the northern hemisphere drylands

Wang

Zhao

2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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“…Different land covers can have varying effects on SM (S. Wang et al, 2012); therefore, it can provide insights into the sensitivity of vegetation to SM. Also, our selection of these variables is informed by prior research (Jiao et al, 2021; F. Zhao et al, 2023) and combined with the specific context of the LP.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased sensitivity of vegetation to soil moisture and its key mechanisms in the Loess Plateau, China

Wang,

Zhao,

2023

Ecohydrology

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Soil moisture (SM) plays a crucial role in connecting various ecological processes in terrestrial ecosystems, as vegetation growth heavily relies on SM availability. Despite many studies evaluating the impacts of SM on vegetation activity, changes in vegetation sensitivity to SM are still poorly understood. In this study, we evaluated the spatiotemporal changes of vegetation sensitivity to SM across the Loess Plateau (LP) region from 1982 to 2010 using satellite‐based normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) and reanalysis SM data. Our results showed a significant increase in NDVI (slope = 0.0015/year, p < 0.001) and a slight decrease in SM (slope = −0.0001 m3/m3/year, p = 0.7) over the past 29 years, indicating a greening trend in the LP. By establishing a multiple linear model, we found that the sensitivity of vegetation dynamics to SM has significantly increased during the same period (slope = 0.029, p < 0.05). Spatially, vegetation in over half (51.2%) of the total area showed enhanced sensitivity to SM. Further analysis using the Lindeman–Merenda–Gold method showed that atmospheric CO2 was the major contributor (27.20%) to the sensitivity changes, followed by nitrogen deposition (23.70%) and air temperature (20.11%). Ecosystem structure changes (represented by non‐tree land cover fractions) and precipitation shifts contributed 16.13% and 12.83%, respectively, to sensitivity changes. These findings provide a better understanding of the spatiotemporal pattern and underlying mechanisms of ecosystem sensitivity to SM in the greening and warming LP.

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“…Some studies have shown that the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is at a high altitude, where the headwaters of the Yellow River is located, but it has warmed significantly in the past few decades (Li et al, 2010;Yang et al, 2014;Kuang and Jiao, 2016), and it is possible that the energy limitation in this area will be transformed into water limitation. However, Zhao et al (2023) showed that the headwaters of the Yellow River are still an energy-restricted area with increasing temperature. This research is generally consistent with our research conclusion, but there are differences in the spatial distribution, which may be caused by the poor simulation effect of the method and CMIP6 precipitation data.…”

Section: Uncertainty and Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on fractional vegetation cover dynamic in the Yellow River Basin, China from 1901 to 2100

Jian

Shi

Cui

et al. 2023

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Increasing climate change makes vegetation dynamic. At the same time, dynamic changes in vegetation not only have a feedback effect on climate change, but also affect the hydrological cycle process. Therefore, understanding the vegetation change and its response to climate change is a priority for predicting future climate change and studying the impact of vegetation change on the hydrological cycle. In this study, the Yellow River Basin in China is the study area. Based on the analysis of the evolution characteristics of meteorological elements and fractional vegetation cover (FVC), the delta downscaling Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models are optimized. The empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and singular value decomposition (SVD) methods are used to investigate the impact of climate change on vegetation in the Yellow River Basin. The results show that: (1) in the four scenarios (SSP126, SSP245, SSP370, and SSP585), FVC in the Yellow River Basin from 2022 to 2100 shows an increasing trend, SSP370 (0.017 10a–1) > SSP126 (0.014 10a–1) > SSP245 (0.0087 10a–1) > SSP585 (0.0086 10a–1). Spatially, FVC in most regions of the Yellow River Basin show an increasing trend under the four scenarios, and the degraded areas are concentrated in a small part of the Yellow River headwaters. (2) There is a significant positive correlation between FVC and precipitation (Pre) and temperature (Tem) under four scenarios in the Yellow River Basin from 2022 to 2100. Under the same scenario, the annual average temperature can be considered as the dominant factor of FVC change in the Yellow River Basin. Under different scenarios, the impact of climate change on FVC under the high emission scenarios is greater than that under the low emission scenarios. This study will help to better understand the response of vegetation to climate change and provide a scientific basis for formulating ecological protection measures to cope with future climate change in the Yellow River Basin.

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Widespread Increasing Ecosystem Water Limitation During the Past Three Decades in the Yellow River Basin, China

Cited by 15 publications

References 68 publications

Increased response of vegetation to soil moisture in the northern hemisphere drylands

Increased response of vegetation to soil moisture in the northern hemisphere drylands

Increased sensitivity of vegetation to soil moisture and its key mechanisms in the Loess Plateau, China

Study on fractional vegetation cover dynamic in the Yellow River Basin, China from 1901 to 2100

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