Vegetation dynamics and its relationship with climatic factors in the Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve

• Published in: Journal of Mountain Science
• Main Authors: Hou, Guanglei, Zhang, Hongyan, Wang, Yeqiao
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@URI 2011
• Subjects: Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve; Climatic factors; Remote sensing; SPOT/VGT NDVI; Tundra
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/nrs_facpubs/871; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-011-2206-4

This study examined the temporal variation of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and its relationship with climatic factors in the Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve (CMNR) during 2000-2009. The results showed as follows. The average NDVI values increased at a rate of 0.0024 year-1. The increase rate differed with vegetation types, such as 0.0034 year-1 for forest and 0.0017 year-1 for tundra. Trend analyses revealed a consistent NDVI increase at the start and end of the growing season but little variation or decrease observed in July during the study period. The NDVI in CMNR showed a stronger correlation with temperature than with precipitation, especially in spring and autumn. A stronger correlation was observed between NDVI and temperature in the tundra zone (2,000-2,600m) than in the coniferous forest (1,100-1,700m) and Korean pine-broadleaved mixed forest (700-1,100m) zones. The results indicate that vegetation at higher elevations is more sensitive to temperature change. NDVI variation had a strong correlation with temperature change (r=0.7311, p<0. 01) but less significant correlation with precipitation change. The result indicates that temperature can serve as a main indicator of vegetation sensitivity in the CMNR. © 2011 Science Press and Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.