Stronger Warming Amplification over Arid Ecoregions and Its Relationship to Vegetation Cover in China since 1982

Qinghan HUANG; Haishan CHEN; Wenjian HUA

doi:10.3878/j.issn.1006-9585.2016.16216

Volume 23 Issue 1

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Qinghan HUANG, Haishan CHEN, Wenjian HUA. Stronger Warming Amplification over Arid Ecoregions and Its Relationship to Vegetation Cover in China since 1982[J]. Climatic and Environmental Research, 2018, 23(1): 72-82. doi: 10.3878/j.issn.1006-9585.2016.16216

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Qinghan HUANG, Haishan CHEN, Wenjian HUA. Stronger Warming Amplification over Arid Ecoregions and Its Relationship to Vegetation Cover in China since 1982[J]. Climatic and Environmental Research, 2018, 23(1): 72-82. doi: 10.3878/j.issn.1006-9585.2016.16216

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Stronger Warming Amplification over Arid Ecoregions and Its Relationship to Vegetation Cover in China since 1982

doi: 10.3878/j.issn.1006-9585.2016.16216

Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Ministry of Education/Joint International Research Laboratory of Climate and Environment Change/Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044

Funds:

National Natural Science Foundation of China 41475083

National Natural Science Foundation of China 41625019

Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province BK20160948

Natural Science Foundation for Higher Education Institutions in Jiangsu Province 16KJB170007

Received Date: 2016-12-09
Available Online: 2017-06-22
Publish Date: 2018-01-20

Abstract

Abstract

To analyze vegetation variability and its relationship with summer air temperature variability in China, this study classifies various ecoregions based on the climatological Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values. Results show that there is a decreasing spatial distribution of vegetation from east to west in China. Arid ecoregions are the most obvious areas for summer warming since 1982. The warming rates over arid ecoregions for summer mean air temperature and mean maximum air temperature are 0.6-1.0℃/10 a and that for summer mean minimum air temperature is 0.8-1.4℃/10 a. Furthermore, summer air temperature variations have a significant negative correlation with vegetation conditions since 1982. In other words, the lower the vegetation greenness is, the stronger the warming trend is. It is worth noting that the negative correlation is most significant between mean minimum air temperature and vegetation conditions. In each ecoregion, the long-term trend of temperature is largely affected by changes in albedo and clouds. In the sparse vegetation regions, the increased albedo leads to a decrease in latent heat transport and increases the sensible heat flux, which intensifies the warming trend. In the dense vegetation regions, the decline in albedo leads to increases in evaporative cooling, which slows the rate of increase in the air temperature. Overall, vegetation activities play an important role in regional climate change, especially over the arid regions, where significant changes in surface radiation balance and energy flux amplify the rate of warming.
- Summer air temperature,
- Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI),
- Warming trends,
- Arid ecoregions

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References(50)

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