Unraveling the effects of snow cover change on vegetation productivity: Insights from underlying surface types

Abstract

Changes in snow cover have an important effect on vegetation gross primary productivity (GPP), but the role of underlying surface types in this effect still remains unclear. The underlying surface refers to the surface of the Earth and is located at the bottom of the snow cover during the snow season. Here, we focus on the influence of snow cover change on GPP in Northeast China from 1982 to 2015, revealing the various dependencies of the association between snow cover and GPP on forest, grassland, and dryland. The results show that the increases in GPP in dryland and grassland are primarily influenced by the increase in snow water equivalent, while the variations in GPP in forest are primarily influenced by snow phenological indicators, with snow cover end date and snow cover days dominating GPP in the early and peak growing seasons, respectively. Additionally, snow cover can have a rather strong time‐lagged effect on GPP by changing the soil temperature in dryland. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering underlying surface types in the snow–GPP relation and provide insight into how climate change may affect ecosystems in regions with comparable underlying surface types.