{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,2]],"date-time":"2026-07-02T00:17:01Z","timestamp":1782951421550,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":64,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,11]],"date-time":"2015-08-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1439251200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study investigated the spatiotemporal variation of vegetation growth and the influence of climatic drivers from 1982 to 2011 across China using datasets from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and climatic drivers. Long term trends, significance and abrupt change points of interannual NDVI time series were analyzed. We applied both simple regression and multi-regression models to quantify the effects of climatic drivers on vegetation growth and compare their relative contributions. Results show that on average, the growing season NDVI significantly increased by 0.0007 year-1, with 76.5% of the research area showed increasing NDVI from 1982 to 2011. Seasonally, NDVI increased at high rates during the spring and autumn while changed slightly during the summer. At a national scale, the growing season NDVI was significantly and positively correlated to temperature and precipitation, with temperature being the dominant factor. At regional scales, the growing season NDVI was dominated by increasing temperature in most forest-covered areas in southern China and dominated by precipitation in most grassland in northern China. Within the past three decades, the increasing trend of national mean NDVI abruptly changed in 1994, slowing down from 0.0008 year-1 to 0.0003 year-1. To be regional specific, the growing season NDVI in forest covered southern China has accelerated together with temperature since mid 1990s, while parts of the grassland in northern China have undergone stalled NDVI trends corresponding to slowed temperature increment and dropped precipitation since around 2000. Typical region analysis suggested that apart from long term trends and abrupt change points of climatic drivers, the processes of NDVI variation were also affected by other external factors such as drought and afforestation. Further studies are needed to investigate the nonlinear responses of vegetation growth to climatic drivers and effects of non-climate factors on vegetation growth.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs70810243","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,11]],"date-time":"2015-08-11T10:38:57Z","timestamp":1439289537000},"page":"10243-10268","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":112,"title":["Responses of Natural Vegetation Dynamics to Climate Drivers in China from 1982 to 2011"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Yanlan","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1175-2334","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Huimin","family":"Lei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"692","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2010.10.011","article-title":"Analysis of monotonic greening and browning trends from global NDVI time-series","volume":"115","author":"Schaepman","year":"2011","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1240","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1014425108","article-title":"Spring temperature change and its implication in the change of vegetation growth in North America from 1982 to 2006","volume":"108","author":"Wang","year":"2011","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"4","article-title":"Estimation of soil evaporation and plant transpiration of sparse steppes by using ground-based infrared thermal images","volume":"1","author":"Qiu","year":"2011","journal-title":"AGU Fall Meet. Abstr."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"115","DOI":"10.1016\/j.agrformet.2014.01.011","article-title":"Transpiration in the global water cycle","volume":"189","author":"Schlesinger","year":"2014","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"580","DOI":"10.3390\/rs6010580","article-title":"High spatial resolution WorldView-2 imagery for mapping NDVI and its relationship to temporal urban landscape evapotranspiration factors","volume":"6","author":"Nouri","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"164","DOI":"10.1016\/S0022-1694(02)00395-5","article-title":"Parameter uncertainty and the significance of simulated land use change effects","volume":"273","author":"Eckhardt","year":"2003","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ecolmodel.2014.03.006","article-title":"Sensitivity of simulated productivity to soil characteristics and plant water uptake along drought gradients in the Swiss Alps","volume":"282","author":"Manusch","year":"2014","journal-title":"Ecol. Model."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2004","DOI":"10.1126\/science.287.5460.2004","article-title":"Contribution of increasing CO2 and climate to carbon storage by ecosystems in the United States","volume":"287","author":"Schimel","year":"2000","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"795","DOI":"10.1029\/1999GB001138","article-title":"Testing the performance of a dynamic global ecosystem model: Water balance, carbon balance, and vegetation structure","volume":"14","author":"Kucharik","year":"2000","journal-title":"Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"044006","DOI":"10.1088\/1748-9326\/3\/4\/044006","article-title":"Protecting climate with forests","volume":"3","author":"Jackson","year":"2008","journal-title":"Environ. Res. Lett."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"821","DOI":"10.5194\/gmd-7-821-2014","article-title":"Effects of vegetation structure on biomass accumulation in a Balanced Optimality Structure Vegetation Model (BOSVM v1. 0)","volume":"7","author":"Yin","year":"2014","journal-title":"Geosci. Model Dev."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Parry, M.L. (2007). Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2335","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1365-2486.2009.01910.x","article-title":"Intercomparison, interpretation, and assessment of spring phenology in North America estimated from remote sensing for 1982\u20132006","volume":"15","author":"White","year":"2009","journal-title":"Global Chang. Biol."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"698","DOI":"10.1038\/386698a0","article-title":"Increased plant growth in the northern high latitudes from 1981 to 1991","volume":"386","author":"Myneni","year":"1997","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9701","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.96.17.9701","article-title":"Phenological changes reflect climate change in Wisconsin","volume":"96","author":"Bradley","year":"1999","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"184","DOI":"10.1007\/s00484-001-0109-8","article-title":"Higher northern latitude normalized difference vegetation index and growing season trends from 1982 to 1999","volume":"45","author":"Tucker","year":"2001","journal-title":"Int. J. Biometeorol."},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"ACL3:1","article-title":"Relation between interannual variations in satellite measures of northern forest greenness and climate between 1982 and 1999","volume":"108","author":"Zhou","year":"2003","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. (1984\u20132012)"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"503","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tree.2005.05.011","article-title":"Using the satellite-derived NDVI to assess ecological responses to environmental change","volume":"20","author":"Pettorelli","year":"2005","journal-title":"Trends Ecol. Evol."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3263","DOI":"10.3390\/rs6043263","article-title":"Changes in Vegetation Growth Dynamics and Relations with Climate over China Landmass from 1982 to 2011","volume":"6","author":"Xu","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8337","DOI":"10.3390\/rs6098337","article-title":"NDVI-Based Long-Term Vegetation Dynamics and Its Response to Climatic Change in the Mongolian Plateau","volume":"6","author":"Bao","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2765","DOI":"10.1890\/0012-9658(2006)87[2765:MTEOPV]2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Modeling the effect of photosynthetic vegetation properties on the NDVI-LAI relationship","volume":"87","author":"Steltzer","year":"2006","journal-title":"Ecology"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4381","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2008.08.002","article-title":"Evaluating the species energy relationship with the newest measures of ecosystem energy: NDVI versus MODIS primary production","volume":"112","author":"Phillips","year":"2008","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6145","DOI":"10.1029\/97JD03603","article-title":"Interannual variations in satellite-sensed vegetation index data from 1981 to 1991","volume":"103","author":"Myneni","year":"1998","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. (1984\u20132012)"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4485","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160500168686","article-title":"An extended AVHRR 8-km NDVI dataset compatible with MODIS and SPOT vegetation NDVI data","volume":"26","author":"Tucker","year":"2005","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2547","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2011.05.012","article-title":"Global evaluation of four AVHRR\u2013NDVI data sets: Intercomparison and assessment against Landsat imagery","volume":"115","author":"Beck","year":"2011","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"120","DOI":"10.3390\/rs4010120","article-title":"Detecting climate effects on vegetation in northern mixed prairie using NOAA AVHRR 1-km time-series NDVI data","volume":"4","author":"Li","year":"2012","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4799","DOI":"10.3390\/rs5104799","article-title":"Global trends in seasonality of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), 1982\u20132011","volume":"5","author":"Eastman","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1599","DOI":"10.1016\/j.agrformet.2011.06.016","article-title":"Altitude and temperature dependence of change in the spring vegetation green-up date from 1982 to 2006 in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau","volume":"151","author":"Piao","year":"2011","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Park, H.S., and Sohn, B. (2010). Recent trends in changes of vegetation over East Asia coupled with temperature and rainfall variations. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. (1984\u20132012), 115.","DOI":"10.1029\/2009JD012752"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3228","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1365-2486.2011.02419.x","article-title":"Changes in satellite-derived vegetation growth trend in temperate and boreal Eurasia from 1982 to 2006","volume":"17","author":"Piao","year":"2011","journal-title":"Global Chang. Biol."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lotsch, A., Friedl, M.A., Anderson, B.T., and Tucker, C.J. (2005). Response of terrestrial ecosystems to recent Northern Hemispheric drought. Geophys. Res. Lett., 32.","DOI":"10.1029\/2004GL022043"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"044027","DOI":"10.1088\/1748-9326\/6\/4\/044027","article-title":"Recent change of vegetation growth trend in China","volume":"6","author":"Peng","year":"2011","journal-title":"Environ. Res. Lett."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20069","DOI":"10.1029\/2000JD000115","article-title":"Variations in northern vegetation activity inferred from satellite data of vegetation index during 1981 to 1999","volume":"106","author":"Zhou","year":"2001","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. (1984\u20132012)"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"471","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(02)00135-9","article-title":"Monitoring vegetation phenology using MODIS","volume":"84","author":"Zhang","year":"2003","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1016\/j.agrformet.2014.01.004","article-title":"Spatial and temporal variations in the end date of the vegetation growing season throughout the Qinghai\u2013Tibetan Plateau from 1982 to 2011","volume":"189","author":"Che","year":"2014","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Piao, S., Fang, J., Zhou, L., Guo, Q., Henderson, M., Ji, W., Li, Y., and Tao, S. (2003). Interannual variations of monthly and seasonal normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in China from 1982 to 1999. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. (1984\u20132012), 108.","DOI":"10.1029\/2002JD002848"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"625","DOI":"10.2307\/2260854","article-title":"Climatic change, human influence and disturbance regime in the control of vegetation dynamics within Fiby Forest, Sweden","volume":"80","author":"Bradshaw","year":"1992","journal-title":"J. Ecol."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e57599","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0057599","article-title":"Changing climate and overgrazing are decimating Mongolian steppes","volume":"8","author":"Liu","year":"2013","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1046\/j.1365-2486.2003.00507.x","article-title":"Northern hemisphere photosynthetic trends 1982\u201399","volume":"9","author":"Slayback","year":"2003","journal-title":"Global Chang. Biol."},{"key":"ref_40","first-page":"73","article-title":"Mapping Near-surface Air Temperature, Pressure, Relative Humidity and Wind Speed over Mainland China with High Spatiotemporal Resolution","volume":"31","author":"Tao","year":"2014","journal-title":"Adv. Atmos. Sci."},{"key":"ref_41","first-page":"279","article-title":"Interpolation Methods of China Daily Precipitation Data","volume":"21","author":"Shen","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meterol. Sci."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"534","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2006.01.020","article-title":"Exploiting synergies of global land cover products for carbon cycle modeling","volume":"101","author":"Jung","year":"2006","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"187","DOI":"10.1007\/s12524-013-0308-x","article-title":"Watershed Delineation in Flat Terrain of Thar Desert Region in North West India\u2013A Semi Automated Approach Using DEM","volume":"42","author":"Bera","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Indian Soc. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"126","DOI":"10.2307\/2346729","article-title":"A non-parametric approach to the change-point problem","volume":"38","author":"Pettitt","year":"1979","journal-title":"Appl. Stat."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2124","DOI":"10.1002\/hyp.6391","article-title":"Analysis of the impact of conservation measures on stream flow regime in catchments of the Loess Plateau, China","volume":"21","author":"Mu","year":"2007","journal-title":"Hydrol. Process."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1261","DOI":"10.1002\/(SICI)1097-0088(199809)18:11<1261::AID-JOC302>3.0.CO;2-Z","article-title":"Changes in rainfall characteristics in northern Nigeria","volume":"18","author":"Tarhule","year":"1998","journal-title":"Int. J. Climatol."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"84","DOI":"10.3844\/ajessp.2006.84.91","article-title":"A sudden change in rainfall characteristics in Amman, Jordan during the mid 1950s","volume":"2","author":"Samdi","year":"2006","journal-title":"Am. J. Environ. Sci."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"95","DOI":"10.1007\/s11442-008-0095-4","article-title":"The trend on runoff variations in the Lhasa River Basin","volume":"18","author":"Lin","year":"2008","journal-title":"J. Geogr. Sci."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1228","DOI":"10.1098\/rsta.2011.0383","article-title":"Change-point analysis as a tool to detect abrupt climate variations","volume":"370","author":"Beaulieu","year":"2012","journal-title":"Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A: Math. Phys. Eng. Sci."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"679","DOI":"10.1002\/joc.906","article-title":"Homogeneity of 20th century European daily temperature and precipitation series","volume":"23","author":"Wijngaard","year":"2003","journal-title":"Int. J. Climatol."},{"key":"ref_51","unstructured":"De Wit, A., and Su, B. (2004, January 24\u201326). Deriving phenological indicators from SPOT-VGT data using the HANTS algorithm. Proceedings of the 2nd International SPOT-VEGETATION User Conference, Antwerp, Belgium."},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1911","DOI":"10.1080\/014311600209814","article-title":"Reconstructing cloudfree NDVI composites using Fourier analysis of time series","volume":"21","author":"Roerink","year":"2000","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_53","first-page":"3","article-title":"A new scheme for climate regionalization in China","volume":"65","author":"Zheng","year":"2010","journal-title":"Acta Geogr. Sin."},{"key":"ref_54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"12","DOI":"10.1080\/00031305.1978.10479236","article-title":"Variations of box plots","volume":"32","author":"McGill","year":"1978","journal-title":"Am. Stat."},{"key":"ref_55","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3947","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161003801336","article-title":"A statistical analysis of the relationship between climatic factors and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index in China","volume":"32","author":"Song","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_56","first-page":"528","article-title":"Integrating AVHRR and MODIS data to monitor NDVI changes and their relationships with climatic parameters in Northeast China","volume":"18","author":"Mao","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf."},{"key":"ref_57","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Piao, S., Yin, G., Tan, J., Cheng, L., Huang, M., Li, Y., Liu, R., Mao, J., Myneni, R.B., and Peng, S. (2014). Detection and attribution of vegetation greening trend in China over the last 30 years. Global Chang. Biol.","DOI":"10.1111\/gcb.12795"},{"key":"ref_58","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"340","DOI":"10.1016\/j.gloenvcha.2006.02.002","article-title":"NDVI-based increase in growth of temperate grasslands and its responses to climate changes in China","volume":"16","author":"Piao","year":"2006","journal-title":"Glob. Environ. Chang."},{"key":"ref_59","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"43","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-16-43-2012","article-title":"Assessing the impact of climate variability on catchment water balance and vegetation cover","volume":"16","author":"Xu","year":"2012","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_60","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yuan, W., Liu, D., Dong, W., Liu, S., Zhou, G., Yu, G., Zhao, T., Feng, J., Ma, Z., and Chen, J. (2014). Multiyear precipitation reduction strongly decreases carbon uptake over northern China. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci.","DOI":"10.1002\/2014JG002608"},{"key":"ref_61","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"32","DOI":"10.1016\/j.agrformet.2014.04.010","article-title":"Water use efficiency threshold for terrestrial ecosystem carbon sequestration in China under afforestation","volume":"195","author":"Gao","year":"2014","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_62","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"21","DOI":"10.1016\/j.agrformet.2012.09.014","article-title":"Drought and spring cooling induced recent decrease in vegetation growth in Inner Asia","volume":"178","author":"Mohammat","year":"2013","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_63","first-page":"179","article-title":"The relationship of drought frequency and duration to time scales","volume":"Volume 17","author":"McKee","year":"1993","journal-title":"Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Applied Climatology"},{"key":"ref_64","unstructured":"WMO (2012). Standard Precipitation Index User Guide, World Meteorological Organization Publication."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/7\/8\/10243\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T20:50:31Z","timestamp":1760215831000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/7\/8\/10243"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,11]]},"references-count":64,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,8]]}},"alternative-id":["rs70810243"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs70810243","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,11]]}}}