Dataset Information

Trends in vegetation productivity related to climate change in China's Pearl River Delta.

ABSTRACT: Climate change will be a powerful stressor on ecosystems and biodiversity in the second half of the 21st century. In this study, we used the satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to examine a 34-year trend along with the response of vegetation to climate indicators surrounding the world's largest megacity: the Pearl River Delta (PRD) of China. An overall increasing trend is observed in vegetation productivity metrics over the study period 1982 to 2015. Increase in winter productivity in both natural ecosystems and croplands is more related to increasing temperatures (r = 0.5-0.78), than to changes in rainfall. For growing season productivity, negative correlations with temperature were observed in cropland regions, and some forests in the northern part of PRD region, suggesting high-temperature stress on crop production and forest vegetation. However, increased winter and spring temperatures provide higher opportunities for cropping in winter. During the decade 1995-2004, vegetation productivity metrics showed a reversal in the upward trend. The geographical and biological complexity of the region under significant climatic and development impacts suggests causative factors would be synergistic. These include our observed decrease in sunshine hours, increasing cloud cover associated with atmospheric aerosols from industrial and urban development, direct pollution effects on plant growth, and exceedance of high temperature growth thresholds.

SUBMITTER: Abbas S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7904177 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Trends in vegetation productivity related to climate change in China's Pearl River Delta.

Abbas Sawaid S Nichol Janet E JE Wong Man Sing MS

PloS one 20210224 2

Climate change will be a powerful stressor on ecosystems and biodiversity in the second half of the 21st century. In this study, we used the satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to examine a 34-year trend along with the response of vegetation to climate indicators surrounding the world's largest megacity: the Pearl River Delta (PRD) of China. An overall increasing trend is observed in vegetation productivity metrics over the study period 1982 to 2015. Increase in winte ...[more]

PMID: 33626042

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Project description:Accumulating evidence shows that the planet is warming as a response to human emissions of greenhouse gases. Strategies of adaptation to climate change will require quantitative projections of how altered regional patterns of temperature, precipitation and sea level could cascade to provoke local impacts such as modified water supplies, increasing risks of coastal flooding, and growing challenges to sustainability of native species.We linked a series of models to investigate responses of California's San Francisco Estuary-Watershed (SFEW) system to two contrasting scenarios of climate change. Model outputs for scenarios of fast and moderate warming are presented as 2010-2099 projections of nine indicators of changing climate, hydrology and habitat quality. Trends of these indicators measure rates of: increasing air and water temperatures, salinity and sea level; decreasing precipitation, runoff, snowmelt contribution to runoff, and suspended sediment concentrations; and increasing frequency of extreme environmental conditions such as water temperatures and sea level beyond the ranges of historical observations.Most of these environmental indicators change substantially over the 21(st) century, and many would present challenges to natural and managed systems. Adaptations to these changes will require flexible planning to cope with growing risks to humans and the challenges of meeting demands for fresh water and sustaining native biota. Programs of ecosystem rehabilitation and biodiversity conservation in coastal landscapes will be most likely to meet their objectives if they are designed from considerations that include: (1) an integrated perspective that river-estuary systems are influenced by effects of climate change operating on both watersheds and oceans; (2) varying sensitivity among environmental indicators to the uncertainty of future climates; (3) inevitability of biological community changes as responses to cumulative effects of climate change and other drivers of habitat transformations; and (4) anticipation and adaptation to the growing probability of ecosystem regime shifts.

Dataset Information

Trends in vegetation productivity related to climate change in China's Pearl River Delta.

Publications

Trends in vegetation productivity related to climate change in China's Pearl River Delta.

Similar Datasets

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