Human Impact on Vegetation Dynamics around Lhasa, Southern Tibetan Plateau, China

Li, Haidong; Li, Yingkui; Gao, Yangchun; Zou, Changxin; Yan, Song Y.; Gao, Jixi

doi:10.3390/su8111146

Cited by 40 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…Relationships between NDVI and other variables are generally examined via a correlation analysis [17,20,22,34,40]. In this study, the linear regression analysis was undertaken between mean annual G-NDVI and climate factors (G-P, G-T) to explain the spatial variabilities of G-NDVI.…”

Section: Analyzing the Sensitivity Of G-ndvi To Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In cities, urbanization may be the crucial driver of effects on vegetation cover change and can be greater than climate factors [20,34] and hence mask the climate effects. For instance, urban land expansion, driven by urbanization in cities, could directly transform a large amount of agricultural lands to urban lands [43,44,47].…”

Section: Driving Forces Of the Temporal Variability Of G-ndvimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on GIMMS NDVI datasets, Eastman et al [19] indicated that the changing trend of NDVI during 1982-2011 exhibited significant spatial differences over global land surfaces. Differences in spatiotemporal variations of vegetation could be largely attributed to the effects of climate factors [10], anthropogenic activities [20], and their interactions [15,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Responses of Vegetation Cover to Environmental Change in Large Cities of China

Jin

Wang

2018

Sustainability

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Vegetation cover is crucial for the sustainability of urban ecosystems; however, this cover has been undergoing substantial changes in cities. Based on climate data, city statistical data, nighttime light data and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) dataset, we investigate the spatiotemporal variations of climate factors, urban lands and vegetation cover in 71 large cities of China during 1998-2012, and explore their correlations. A regression model between growing-season NDVI (G-NDVI) and urban land proportion (PU) is built to quantify the impact of urbanization on vegetation cover change. The results indicate that the spatiotemporal variations of temperature, precipitation, PU and G-NDVI are greatly different among the 71 cities which experienced rapid urbanization. The spatial difference of G-NDVI is closely related to diverse climate conditions, while the inter-annual variations of G-NDVI are less sensitive to climate changes. In addition, there is a negative correlation between G-NDVI trend and PU change, indicating vegetation cover in cities have been negatively impacted by urbanization. For most of the inland cities, the urbanization impacts on vegetation cover in urban areas are more severe than in suburban areas. But the opposite occurs in 17 cities mainly located in the coastal areas which have been undergoing the most rapid urbanization. Overall, the impacts of urbanization on G-NDVI change are estimated to be −0.026 per decade in urban areas and −0.015 per decade in suburban areas during 1998-2012. The long-term developments of cities would persist and continue to impact on the environmental change and sustainability. We use a 15-year window here as a case study, which implies the millennia of human effects on the natural biotas and warns us to manage landscapes and preserve ecological environments properly.

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Section: Analyzing the Sensitivity Of G-ndvi To Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Driving Forces Of the Temporal Variability Of G-ndvimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Responses of Vegetation Cover to Environmental Change in Large Cities of China

Jin

Wang

2018

Sustainability

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“…These vegetation fragments in São Paulo City are managed locally and designated as areas for leisure and sports, as well as biodiversity conservation. Like larger forest fragments, these areas are subjected to such stresses as fire, pollution, urban growth and even vandalism [3,4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Biodiversity in Urban Forests as a Consequence of Litterfall Management: Implications for São Paulo’s Ecosystem Services

et al. 2018

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Abstract:The growth of urban centers, along with the fragmentation of natural habitats, can interfere with the distribution pattern of species and their abundance, thus compromising the conservation of urban biodiversity. Principal players in this biodiversity are arthropods that help to decompose litterfall, favoring the recycling of nutrients and, hence, are an important part in sustaining the forest fragments that remain in urban areas. Therefore, it is important to study arthropod biodiversity in green urban areas, especially those areas where litterfall management is an important part of maintaining biodiversity. Accordingly, this study evaluated arthropod diversity associated with litterfall in three urban forests with different size and litterfall management practices, including Água Branca Park (ABP) and Tietê Ecological Park (TEP)-Núcleo Engenheiro Goulart in São Paulo City and Chico Mendes Park (CMP) in Osasco City, all belonging to the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (MRSP), Brazil. Four litterfall harvests were carried out in each park between April and August of 2015 with twelve samples collected with a wood mold (30-cmx30-cm) at randomly points on the forest floor. The collected material was then screened in the laboratory and the arthropods were visually separated and preserved in alcohol 70%. Arthropods were classified by the order to which they belonged. Litterfall was dried in a forced air oven at 65 • C for seven days. Dried litterfall was then separated into leaves, branches, reproductive parts and miscellaneous fragments and weighed. Arthropod diversity was measured by Shannon, Margalef and Pielou indexes and non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis (NMDS) using the Manhattan distance index. Litterfall weight was compared by one-way ANOVA. The orders Hymenoptera, Collembola and Isopoda were dominant in CMP, ABP and TEP, respectively but multiple rare orders had a presence in all parks, albeit at different abundance. NMDS showed abundance similarity among the parks; however, TEP showed greater richness, Shannon diversity and evenness. The fractions of leaf litterfall and reproductive parts were different between the CMP and TEP. Overall, our results confirm that neither litterfall management, nor park size, is a final determinant of arthropod distribution, even though the abundance of dominant species was shown to differ in each park.

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“…In addition, significant relationships between NDVI and indicators of climate have been used to demonstrate that vegetation changes are closely related to variations in the latter [5,11]. Temperature and precipitation are the most significant factors influencing changes in the NDVI [13]; trends in this index in northern mid and high latitudes are controlled by increasing temperature while fluctuations in the semi-arid regions of the Southern Hemisphere are due to decreasing precipitation [5]. Precipitation is known to be more important than temperature as a climatic variable influencing changes in vegetation cover in arid and semi-arid regions [2,9,14], and it has also been suggested that the relationship between the NDVI and temperature is more marked than that between this index and precipitation in temperate monsoonal climate regions [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Driving Force Analysis of NDVI Dynamics in the Trans-Boundary Tumen River Basin between 2000 and 2015

et al. 2017

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Vegetation dynamics in relation to climatic changes and anthropogenic activities is critical for terrestrial ecosystem management. The objective of this study was to investigate spatiotemporal change of vegetation and their driving forces during growing seasons (between April and October and including the spring, summer and autumn) in the Tumen River Basin (TRB) using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and climate data spanning from 2000 to 2015. A linear regression, Pearson correlation coefficients and the residual trend (RESTREND) was applied for this study. Our results demonstrate that vegetation increased during different periods of the growing season in most of the areas of the TRB over 16 years. Our results demonstrate that vegetation increased during different periods of the growing season in most of the areas of the TRB over 16 years; those in growing season (spring, summer, and autumn) were characterized by the increase in rates by 0.0012/year, 0.0022/year, 0.0011/year, and 0.0019/year, respectively. Forested regions are characterized by the largest increase (0.0021/year) in NDVI compared with other vegetation types across the entire study area. The trends in NDVI across the study area were influenced by both climatic variations and human disturbances. The human activities such as reforestation and agricultural practices are the primary driver, greater than climatic factors, during growing season, including summer and autumn. Temperature and precipitation has had a significant influence on NDVI in a limited area (temp = 0.86%, p < 0.05 and precipitation = 1.93%, p < 0.05) during growing season. The significant role of precipitation on NDVI change throughout growing season and the summer is larger than that of temperature across the TRB, although the influence of the latter becomes most significant during the spring and autumn. The RESTREND method shows that human activity during the growing season, including the spring, summer, and autumn, have led to enhancements in NDVI across more than 70% of the TRB over the last 16 years, with the most significant improvements seen in forested land and farmland. At the same time, a significant reduction in residual (i.e., degraded areas) NDVI values for different growing seasons had characterized farmland and urban land at low altitudes. This study provides important background information regarding the influence of human activities on land degradation and provides a scientific foundation for the development of ecological restoration policies within the TRB. We found that the RESTREND method can be used to detect human drivers of vegetation in the regions with semi-humid and humid monsoon, where the significant correlation between NDVI and climatic factors exists.

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Human Impact on Vegetation Dynamics around Lhasa, Southern Tibetan Plateau, China

Cited by 40 publications

References 36 publications

Responses of Vegetation Cover to Environmental Change in Large Cities of China

Responses of Vegetation Cover to Environmental Change in Large Cities of China

Soil Biodiversity in Urban Forests as a Consequence of Litterfall Management: Implications for São Paulo’s Ecosystem Services

The Driving Force Analysis of NDVI Dynamics in the Trans-Boundary Tumen River Basin between 2000 and 2015

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