Influence of Meteorological Elements on Summer Vegetation Coverage in North China

Vegetation coverage is extremely sensitive to climate change. North China is located in the semiarid and subhumid transitional region of China. Meteorological factors have an important impact on the vegetation coverage in this area. However, effective mathematical models to quantitatively describe the influences of meteorological elements on vegetation are lacking. Therefore, based on the vegetation coverage data of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and main meteorological element data in North China from 2000 to 2018, the authors analyzed the influence of multiple meteorological elements on vegetation coverage and initially established the relationship between the summer vegetation coverage and meteorological elements in North China. The main study conclusions are summarized as follows: (1) A trend toward warm and dry climate conditions in North China is observed, and summer vegetation coverage is positively correlated with precipitation and relative humidity and negatively correlated with temperature, sunshine hours, and ground temperature. (2) The most important meteorological element affecting the vegetation coverage in North China is relative humidity, which reflects the combined effect of temperature and precipitation. (3) The multiple regression and least squares methods can quantitatively describe the possible impact of the changes in meteorological elements on vegetation coverage. Therefore, the five-variable combination of meteorological elements can better simulate the change in vegetation coverage. Results elucidate how meteorological elements affect vegetation ecosystem and provide a theoretical reference for constructing national ecological civilization.