Variation in Vegetation Phenology and Its Response to Climate Change in Marshes of Inner Mongolian

Abstract

Inner Mongolia has a large area of marsh wetland in China, and the marsh in this region is important for maintaining ecological balance. Understanding variations in vegetation phenology of marsh ecosystems and their responses to climatic change is crucial for vegetation conservation of marsh wetlands in Inner Mongolia. Using the climate and NDVI data during 2001–2020, we explored the spatiotemporal changes in the start (SOS), end (EOS), and length (LOS) of vegetation growing season and analyzed the effects of climate change on vegetation phenology in the Inner Mongolia marshes. Results showed that SOS significantly (p p max) and night minimum temperature (Tmin) had asymmetric effects on marsh vegetation phenology. Increasing Tmax had a stronger advancing effect on SOS than increasing Tmin from December to April. The increase of Tmin in August could obviously delayed EOS, while increasing Tmax in August had no significant effect on EOS. This study highlights that the asymmetric influences of nighttime and daytime temperatures should be taken into account in simulating marsh vegetation phenology in temperate arid and semi-arid regions worldwide, particularly in the context of global asymmetric diurnal warming.

Keywords

• marsh
• vegetation phenology
• climatic change
• response
• Inner Mongolia