The Ongoing Greening in Southwest China despite Severe Droughts and Drying Trends

Xin Chen; Tiexi Chen; Qingyun Yan; Jiangtao Cai; Renjie Guo; Miaoni Gao; Xueqiong Wei; Shengjie Zhou; Chaofan Li; Yong Xie

doi:10.3390/rs13173374

Remote Sensing (Aug 2021)

The Ongoing Greening in Southwest China despite Severe Droughts and Drying Trends

Xin Chen,
Tiexi Chen,
Qingyun Yan,
Jiangtao Cai,
Renjie Guo,
Miaoni Gao,
Xueqiong Wei,
Shengjie Zhou,
Chaofan Li,
Yong Xie

Affiliations

Xin Chen: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Tiexi Chen: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Qingyun Yan: School of Remote Sensing and Geomatics Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Jiangtao Cai: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Renjie Guo: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Miaoni Gao: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Xueqiong Wei: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Shengjie Zhou: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Chaofan Li: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Yong Xie: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13173374
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 13, no. 17
p. 3374

Abstract

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Vegetation greening, which refers to the interannual increasing trends of vegetation greenness, has been widely found on the regional to global scale. Meanwhile, climate extremes, especially several drought, significantly damage vegetation. The Southwest China (SWC) region experienced massive drought from 2009 to 2012, which severely damaged vegetation and had a huge impact on agricultural systems and life. However, whether these extremes have significantly influenced long-term (multiple decades) vegetation change is unclear. Using the latest remote sensing-based records, including leaf area index (LAI) and gross primary productivity (GPP) for 1982–2016 and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) for 2001–2019, drought events of 2009–2012 only leveled off the greening (increasing in vegetation indices and GPP) temporally and long-term greening was maintained. Meanwhile, drying trends were found to unexpectedly coexist with greening.

Published in Remote Sensing

ISSN: 2072-4292 (Online)
Publisher: MDPI AG
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Science
Website: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/

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