{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,16]],"date-time":"2026-03-16T05:52:54Z","timestamp":1773640374303,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"23","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,27]],"date-time":"2021-11-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1637971200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004543","name":"China Scholarship Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["201908510014"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["201908510014"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004543","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Key Project of Education Department of Sichuan Province of China (Natural Science)","award":["16ZA0087"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["16ZA0087"]}]},{"name":"National Nature Science Foundation of China","award":["81961128002"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81961128002"]}]},{"name":"U.S. National Science Foundation","award":["OIA-1911955"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["OIA-1911955"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The vegetation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), China, is diverse and sensitive to climate change. Because of extensive grassland degradation in the QTP, several ecological restoration projects, which affect the livestock population, have been implemented in the QTP. Although many studies have reported the impacts of climate change on vegetation in the QTP, our knowledge on the impacts of both climate change and livestock on vegetation remains very limited. Here, we investigated the impacts of climate change and livestock population on vegetation growth by using the annual maximum normalized difference vegetation index (NDVImax) and growing-season climate data from 1981 to 2019. We analyzed the relationship between NDVImax and climate and livestock population using the modified Mann-Kendall trend Test and Pearson correlation analysis. For the entire QTP, NDVImax had a two-phase trend, with a slow rise during 1981\u20132000 and a rapid rise during 2000\u20132019. Overall, NDVImax in the QTP increased and decreased in 63.7% and 6.7% of the area in 2000\u20132019. In areas with significant changes in NDVImax, it was strongly correlated with relative humidity and vapor pressure. The small positive trend in NDVImax during 1981\u20132000 was influenced by warmer and wetter climate, and the overgrazing by a large population of livestock slowed down the rate of increase in NDVImax. Livestock population for Qinghai and Tibet in recent years has been lower than in the 1980s.The warmer and wetter climate and substantial drops in the livestock population contributed to large recovery in vegetation during 2001\u20132019. Vegetation degradation in Qinghai during 1981\u20132000 and central-northern Tibet during 2000\u20132019 was driven mainly by drier and hotter climatic. Although 63.7% of the area in the QTP became greener, the vegetation degradation in central-northern Tibet should not be ignored and more measures should be taken to alleviate the impact of warming and drying climate. Our findings provide a better understanding of the factors that drove changes in vegetation in the QTP.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13234808","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,1]],"date-time":"2021-12-01T01:45:02Z","timestamp":1638323102000},"page":"4808","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Climate Change and Livestock Management Drove Extensive Vegetation Recovery in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Enqin","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Earth Sciences, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0956-7428","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiangming","family":"Xiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Earth Observation and Modeling, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA"}]},{"given":"Huaiyong","family":"Shao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Earth Sciences, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China"}]},{"given":"Xin","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Earth Sciences, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China"}]},{"given":"Yali","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Earth Sciences, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China"}]},{"given":"Yang","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Earth Sciences, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108","DOI":"10.1016\/j.palaeo.2012.06.005","article-title":"Dry periods on the NE Tibetan Plateau during the late Quaternary","volume":"346","author":"IJmker","year":"2012","journal-title":"Palaeogeogr. 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