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Responses of Alpine Wetlands to Climate Changes on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Based on Remote Sensing

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Abstract

The alpine wetlands in QTP (Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau) have been profoundly impacted along with global climate changes. We employ satellite datasets and climate data to explore the relationships between alpine wetlands and climate changes based on remote sensing data. Results show that: 1) the wetland NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and GPP (Gross Primary Production) were more sensitive to air temperature than to precipitation rate. The wetland ET (evapotranspiration) across alpine wetlands was greatly correlated with precipitation rate. 2) Alpine wetlands responses to climate changes varied spatially and temporally due to different geographic environments, variety of wetland formation and human disturbances. 3) The vegetation responses of the Zoige wetland was the most noticeable and related to the temperature, while the GPP and NDVI of the Qiangtang Plateau and Gyaring-Ngoring Lake were significantly correlated with both temperature and precipitation. 4) ET in the Zoige wetland showed a significantly positive trend, while ET in Maidika wetland and the Qiangtang plateau showed a negative trend, implying wetland degradation in those two wetland regions. The complexities of the impacts of climate changes on alpine wetlands indicate the necessity of further study to understand and conserve alpine wetland ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

Climate data used in this study were developed by Cold and Arid Regions Science Data Center at Lanzhou (http://westdc.westgis.ac.cn/data). The NDVI data for MOD13 from 2000 to 2015 were obtained from the NASA Surface Process Data Center (https://e4ftl01.cr.usgs.gov) and MOD16 evapotranspiration data and the MOD17 photosynthetic productivity data come from the NTSG (http://www.ntsg.umt.edu/project).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Rui Wang, Min He & Zhenguo Niu

  2. School of Electronic, Electrical and Communication Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Rui Wang & Min He

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  1. Rui Wang
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  2. Min He
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  3. Zhenguo Niu
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Correspondence to Zhenguo Niu.

Additional information

Foundation item: Under the auspices of the National Key R & D Program of China (No. 2017YFA0603004), Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA19030203), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41971390)

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Wang, R., He, M. & Niu, Z. Responses of Alpine Wetlands to Climate Changes on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Based on Remote Sensing. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 30, 189–201 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-020-1107-2

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