Precipitation and Minimum Temperature are Primary Climatic Controls of Alpine Grassland Autumn Phenology on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

作者：Shuai An, Xiaoqiu Chen, Xiaoyang Zhang, Weiguang Lang, Shilong Ren, Lin Xu · 发表于：Remote Sensing · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.3390/rs12030431 · 被引用次数：75 · 研究领域：Remote Sensing in Agriculture、Species Distribution and Climate Change、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics

Autumn phenology is a crucial indicator for identifying the alpine grassland growing season’s end date on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), which intensely controls biogeochemical cycles in this ecosystem. Although autumn phenology is thought to be mainly influenced by the preseason temperature, precipitation, and insolation in alpine grasslands, the relative contributions of these climatic factors on the QTP remain uncertain. To quantify the impacts of climatic factors on autumn phenology, we built stepwise linear regression models for 91 meteorological stations on the QTP using in situ herb brown-off dates, remotely sensed autumn phenological metrics, and a multi-factor climate dataset during an optimum length period. The results show that autumn precipitation has the most extensive influence on interannual variation in alpine grassland autumn phenology. On average, a 10 mm increase in autumn precipitation during the optimum length period may lead to a delay of 0.2 to 4 days in the middle senescence date (P < 0.05) across the alpine grasslands. The daily minimum air temperature is the second most important controlling factor, namely, a 1 °C increase in the mean autumn minimum temperature during the optimum length period may induce a delay of 1.6 to 9.3 days in the middle senescence date (P < 0.05) across the alpine grasslands. Sunshine duration is the third extensive controlling factor. However, its influence is spatially limited. Moreover, the relative humidity and wi...