Soil moisture seasonality alters vegetation response to drought in the Mongolian Plateau

作者：Zihan Lu, Shushi Peng, Ingrid J. Slette, Guoquan Cheng, Xiran Li, Anping Chen · 发表于：Environmental Research Letters · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1088/1748-9326/abd1a2 · 被引用次数：30 · 研究领域：Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics、Tree-ring climate responses、Remote Sensing in Agriculture

Abstract The Mongolian Plateau (MP) experienced the most severe decadal drought of the past two millennia from 2000 to 2009 and several shorter-term droughts in the 2010s. Using satellite-based near-infrared reflectance of vegetation ( NI R V ), we examined changes in vegetation productivity of the MP from 2000 to 2018. During this time, soil moisture in March ( S M Mar ) mainly determined spring NI R V , and early-summer (June and July) precipitation mainly determined summer NI R V . Our study revealed three distinct periods: the severely dry period of 2000–2009, recovery in 2010–2012, and a relatively stable period with occasional short-term droughts after 2012. While vegetation productivity experienced a significant decrease during the severe decadal drought, summer and spring productivity quickly recovered after 2010, following an increase in growing season (GS) rainfall and winter snowfall. Greater S M Mar , which resulted from previous GS precipitation, contributed to smaller declines in vegetation productivity during the short-term droughts in 2014, 2015 and 2017. The decline in vegetation productivity during the severe decadal drought damaged livestock operations in Mongolia, but had a limited effect on operations in Inner Mongolia of China, where human intervention is stronger. Given evidence that drought ...