Assessing spatio-temporal variations of precipitation-use efficiency over Tibetan grasslands using MODIS and <i>in</i>-<i>situ</i> observations

doi:10.1007/s11707-016-0566-3

Front. Earth Sci.

2016, Vol. 10

Issue (4) : 784-793 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-016-0566-3

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Assessing spatio-temporal variations of precipitation-use efficiency over Tibetan grasslands using MODIS and in-situ observations

Zhengjia LIU^1,²,Mei HUANG¹(

)

¹. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
². State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Download: PDF(1578 KB) HTML
Export: BibTeX | EndNote | Reference Manager | ProCite | RefWorks

Abstract

Clarifying the spatial and temporal variations in precipitation-use efficiency (PUE) is helpful for advancing our knowledge of carbon and water cycles in Tibetan grassland ecosystems. Here we use an integrated remote sensing normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and in-situ above-ground net primary production (ANPP) measurements to establish an empirical exponential model to estimate spatial ANPP across the entire Tibetan Plateau. The spatial and temporal variations in PUE (the ratio of ANPP to mean annual precipitation (MAP)), as well as the relationships between PUE and other controls, were then investigated during the 2001–2012 study period. At a regional scale, PUE increased from west to east. PUE anomalies increased significantly (>0.1 g·m^–2·mm^–1/10 yr) in the southern areas of the Tibetan Plateau yet decreased (>0.02 g·m^–2·mm^–1/10 yr) in the northeastern areas. For alpine meadow, we obtained an obvious breaking point in trend of PUE against elevation gradients at 3600 m above the sea level, which showed a contrasting relationship. At the inter-annual scale, PUE anomalies were smaller in alpine steppe than in alpine meadow. The results show that PUE of Tibetan grasslands is generally high in dry years and low in wet years.

Keywords normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) Tibetan Plateau inter-annual variations alpine grasslands exponential model

Corresponding Author(s): Mei HUANG

Online First Date: 31 March 2016 Issue Date: 04 November 2016

Cite this article:

Zhengjia LIU,Mei HUANG. Assessing spatio-temporal variations of precipitation-use efficiency over Tibetan grasslands using MODIS and in-situ observations[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2016, 10(4): 784-793.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/10.1007/s11707-016-0566-3
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/Y2016/V10/I4/784

Fig.1 Study area, locations of sampling sites and weather stations on the Tibetan Plateau. The base map is the 1:1,000,000 vegetation map of the Tibetan Plateau.

Fig.2 Relationship between above-ground net primary production (ANPP) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The ANPP measured at sampling sites was used for developing the empirical function between measured ANPP and growing season NDVI to estimate ANPP at the regional scale.

Tab.1 Statistical results of spatially averaged above-ground net primary production (ANPP) and precipitation-use efficiency (PUE) in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau during the period of 2001–2012

Fig.3 (a) Spatial distribution of mean precipitation-use efficiency (PUE), (b) slope of inter-annual PUE, (c) and confidence level (t-test) in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau during the period 2001–2012.

Fig.4 Changes in precipitation-use efficiency (PUE) for alpine meadow (AM in pink color) and alpine steppe (AS in blue color) on the Tibetan Plateau with elevation. Error bars represent one standard deviation (SD) of pixels in each elevation interval with a sample size of>30,000 pixels. The black solid lines are trend lines.

Fig.5 Inter-annual variations in precipitation-use efficiency (PUE) anomalies (2001–2012) for alpine meadow (AM) and alpine steppe (AS).

Fig.6 Inter-annual variations in precipitation-use efficiency (PUE) and the mean annual precipitation (MAP) in alpine meadow (AM, pink) and alpine steppe (AS, blue) during the period of 2001–2012.

1	Bai Y, Wu J, Xing Q, Pan Q, Huang J, Yang D, Han X (2008). Primary production and rain use efficiency across a precipitation gradient on the Mongolia plateau. Ecology, 89(8): 2140–2153
2	Baumann F, He J, Schmidt K, Kuhn P, Scholten T (2009). Pedogenesis, permafrost, and soil moisture as controlling factors for soil nitrogen and carbon contents across the Tibetan Plateau. Glob Change Biol, 15(12): 3001–3017
3	Beniston M, Diaz H, Bradley R (1997). Climatic change at high elevation sites: an overview. Clim Change, 36(3–4): 233–251
4	Bonan G B (1997). Effects of land use on the climate of the United States. Clim Change, 37(3): 449–486
5	Bunn A G, Goetz S J (2006). Trends in satellite-observed circumpolar photosynthetic activity from 1982 to 2003: the influence of seasonality, cover type, and vegetation density. Earth Interact, 10(12): 1–19
6	Fan J, Shao Q, Liu J, Wang J, Harris W, Chen Z, Zhong H, Xu X, Liu R (2010). Assessment of effects of climate change and grazing activity on grassland yield in the Three Rivers Headwaters Region of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China. Environ Monit Assess, 170(1–4): 571–584
7	Fay P A, Kaufman D M, Nippert J B, Carlisle J D, Harper C W (2008). Changes in grassland ecosystem function due to extreme rainfall events: implications for responses to climate change. Glob Change Biol, 14(7): 1600–1608
8	Fensholt R, Rasmussen K (2011). Analysis of trends in the Sahelian ‘rain-use efficiency’ using GIMMS NDVI, RFE and GPCP rainfall data. Remote Sens Environ, 115(2): 438–451
9	Fensholt R, Rasmussen K, Kaspersen P, Huber S, Horion S, Swinnen E (2013). Assessing land degradation/recovery in the African Sahel from long-term earth observation based primary productivity and precipitation relationships. Remote Sens, 5(2): 664–686
10	Findell K L, Pitman A J, England M H, Pegion P J (2009). Regional and global impacts of land cover change and sea surface temperature anomalies. J Clim, 22(12): 3248–3269
11	Guo Q, Hu Z, Li S, Li X, Sun X, Yu G (2012). Spatial variations in aboveground net primary productivity along a climate gradient in Eurasian temperate grassland: effects of mean annual precipitation and its seasonal distribution. Glob Change Biol, 18(12): 3624–3631
12	He J, Fang J, Wang Z, Guo D, Flynn D F, Geng Z (2006). Stoichiometry and large-scale patterns of leaf carbon and nitrogen in the grassland biomes of China. Oecologia, 149(1): 115–122
13	Holben B N (1986). Characteristics of maximum-value composite images from temporal AVHRR data. Int J Remote Sens, 7(11): 1417–1434
14	Hu Z, Yu G, Fan J, Zhong H, Wang S, Li S (2010). Precipitation-use efficiency along a 4500-km grassland transect. Glob Ecol Biogeogr, 19(6): 842–851
15	Huang L, Shao Q, Liu J (2012). Forest restoration to achieve both ecological and economic progress, Poyang Lake basin, China. Ecol Eng, 44(3): 53–60
16	Hutchinson M F, McKenney D W, Lawrence K, Pedlar J H, Hopkinson R F, Milewska E, Papadopol P (2009). Development and testing of Canada-wide interpolated spatial models of daily minimum-maximum temperature and precipitation for 1961–2003. J Appl Meteorol Climatol, 48(4): 725–741
17	Huxman T E, Smith M D, Fay P A, Knapp A K, Shaw M R, Loik M E, Smith S D, Tissue D T, Zak J C, Weltzin J F (2004). Convergence across biomes to a common rain-use efficiency. Nature, 429(6992): 651–654
18	Knapp A K, Fay P A, Blair J M, Collins S L, Smith M D, Carlisle J D, Harper C W, Danner B T, Lett M S, McCarron J K (2002). Rainfall variability, carbon cycling, and plant species diversity in a mesic grassland. Science, 298(5601): 2202–2205
19	Lauenroth W K, Burke I C, Paruelo J M (2000). Patterns of production and precipitation-use efficiency of winter wheat and native grasslands in the central Great Plains of the United States. Ecosystems (N Y), 3(4): 344–351
20	LeHouerou H N (1984). Rain use efficiency: a unifying concept in arid-land ecology. J Arid Environ, 7(3): 213–247
21	Liu Z, Shao Q, Wang S (2015).Variation of alpine grasslands and its response to climate warming in the Tibetan Plateau since the 21st Century. Arid Land Geography, 38(2): 275–282 (in Chinese)
22	Liu Z, Wang L, Wang S (2014). Comparison of different GPP Models in China using MODIS image and China FLUX Data. Remote Sens, 6(10): 10215–10231
23	Liu Z, Yu X, Wang S, Shang G (2012). Comparative analysis of three covariates methods in thin-plate smoothing splines for interpolating precipiation. Progress in Geography, 31(1): 56–62 (in Chinese)
24	Lotsch A, Friedl M A, Anderson B T, Tucker C J (2005). Response of terrestrial ecosystems to recent Northern Hemispheric drought. Geophys Res Lett, 32(6): L06705
25	Ma W H, Fang J Y, Yang Y H, Mohammat A (2010). Biomass carbon stocks and their changes in northern China’s grasslands during 1982–2006. Sci China Life Sci, 53(7): 841–850
26	O’Connor T, Haines L, Snyman H (2001). Influence of precipitation and species composition on phytomass of a semi-arid African grassland. J Ecol, 89(5): 850–860
27	Peng S, Chen A, Xu L, Cao C, Fang J, Myneni R B, Pinzon J E, Tucker C J, Piao S (2011). Recent change of vegetation growth trend in China. Environ Res Lett, 6(4): 044027
28	Piao S, Cui M, Chen A, Wang X, Ciais P, Liu J, Tang Y (2011). Altitude and temperature dependence of change in the spring vegetation green-up date from 1982 to 2006 in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. Agric For Meteorol, 151(12): 1599–1608
29	Piao S, Fang J, He J (2006). Variations in vegetation net primary production in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, China, from 1982 to 1999. Clim Change, 74(1–3): 253–267
30	Tao J, Zhang Y, Zhu J, Jiang Y, Zhang X, Zhang T, Xi Y (2014). Elevation-dependent temperature change in the Qinghai–Xizang Plateau grassland during the past decade. Theor Appl Climatol, 117(1–2): 61–71
31	Valladares F, Pearcy R (2002). Drought can be more critical in the shade than in the sun: a field study of carbon gain and photo-inhibition in a Californian shrub during a dry El Niño year. Plant Cell Environ, 25(6): 749–759
32	Wang K, Wang P, Li Z, Cribb M, Sparrow M (2007). A simple method to estimate actual evapotranspiration from a combination of net radiation, vegetation index, and temperature. J Geophys Res, 112(D15): D15107
33	Wang S, Yu X, Liu Z (2014). Spatiotemporal patterns of NDVI and its responses to temperature and precipitation over Yimeng Mountainous Area. Remote Sensing Technology and Application, 29(1): 61–68 (in Chinese)
34	Wu C, Chen J M, Pumpanen J, Cescatti A, Marcolla B, Blanken P D, Ardö J, Tang Y, Magliulo V, Georgiadis T, Soegaard H, Cook D R, Harding R J (2012). An underestimated role of precipitation frequency in regulating summer soil moisture. Environ Res Lett, 7(2): 024011
35	Yang Y, Fang J, Fay P A, Bell J E, Ji C (2010). Rain use efficiency across a precipitation gradient on the Tibetan Plateau. Geophys Res Lett, 37: L15702
36	Yang Y, Fang J, Ji C, Han W (2009a). Above- and below ground biomass allocation in Tibetan grasslands. J Veg Sci, 20(1): 177–184
37	Yang Y, Fang J, Ma W, Wang W (2008). Relationship between variability in aboveground net primary production and precipitation in global grasslands. Geophys Res Lett, 35(23): L23710
38	Yang Y, Fang J, Pan Y, Ji C (2009b). Aboveground biomass in Tibetan grasslands. J Arid Environ, 73(1): 91–95
39	Yuan W, Xu B, Chen Z, Xia J, Xu W, Chen Y, Wu X, Fu Y (2014). Validation of China-wide interpolated daily climate variables from 1960 to 2011. Theor Appl Climatol, 119(3-4): 689–700
40	Zhang G, Zhang Y, Dong J, Xiao X (2013). Green-up dates in the Tibetan Plateau have continuously advanced from 1982 to 2011. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 110(11): 4309–4314
41	Zhao M, Pitman A, Chase T (2001). The impact of land cover change on the atmospheric circulation. Clim Dyn, 17(5–6): 467–477

[1]

FES-15566-of-LZJ_suppl_1

Download

[1]	Peng LI,Luguang JIANG,Zhiming FENG,Sage SHELDON,Xiangming XIAO. Mapping rice cropping systems using Landsat-derived Renormalized Index of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (RNDVI) in the Poyang Lake Region, China[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2016, 10(2): 303-314.
[2]	Tongtiegang ZHAO,Jianshi ZHAO,Hongchang Hll,Guangheng NI. Source of atmospheric moisture and precipitation over China’s major river basins[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2016, 10(1): 159-170.
[3]	Hongxia LIU,Ying HU,Shihua QI,Xinli XING,Yuan ZHANG,Dan YANG,Chengkai QU. Organochlorine pesticide residues in surface water from Sichuan Basin to Aba Prefecture profile, east of the Tibetan Plateau[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2015, 9(2): 248-258.
[4]	Hongxia LIU, Shihua QI, Dan YANG, Ying HU, Feng LI, Jia LIU, Xinli XING. Soil concentrations and soil-air exchange of organochlorine pesticides along the Aba profile, east of the Tibetan Plateau, western China[J]. Front Earth Sci, 2013, 7(4): 395-405.
[5]	Jian YANG, Hongchen JIANG, Geng WU, Weiguo HOU, Yongjuan SUN, Zhongping LAI, Hailiang DONG. Co-occurrence of nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidizing and anaerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria in two Qinghai-Tibetan saline lakes[J]. Front Earth Sci, 2012, 6(4): 383-391.
[6]	Fang HAN, Kexin ZHANG, Junliang JI, Yadong XU, Fenning CHEN, Xiaohu KOU. Late Pleistocene sedimentary sequences and paleoclimate changes in Xunhua basin in the upper reach of Yellow River in China[J]. Front Earth Sci, 2012, 6(3): 297-305.
[7]	Furong LI, Yan ZHAO, Jinghui SUN, Wenwei ZHAO, Xiaoli GUO, Ke ZHANG. Surface pollen and its relationship to vegetation in the Zoige Basin, eastern Tibetan Plateau[J]. Front Earth Sci, 2011, 5(3): 252-261.
[8]	Rongke XU, Xiongfei CAI, Yulian ZHANG, Liang SHAN, Yaoyu CHEN, Jianhong QI, Gang WANG, . Impact of phased uplift of Tibetan Plateau on environmental changes since late Middle Pleistocene: Palynological records in the three terraces of Middle Shiquan River[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2009, 3(4): 402-410.
[9]	GUO Zhengfu, CHEN Xiaoyu, LIU Jiaqi. Effect of volatiles erupted from Mesozoic and Cenozoic volcanic activities on paleo-environmental changes in China[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2008, 2(4): 393-396.
[10]	FAN Daidu, LI Congxian. Timing of the Yangtze initiation draining the Tibetan Plateau throughout to the East China Sea: a review[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2008, 2(3): 302-313.
[11]	ZHAO Zhizhong, QIAO Yansong, WANG Shubing, YAO Haitao, WANG Yan, FU Jianli, LI Chaozhu, LIU Zongxiu, JIANG Fuchu. Geological characteristics and evolution of the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan plateau since the late Cenozoic[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2008, 2(2): 209-216.
[12]	WEI Hualing, FANG Nianqiao, DING Xuan, LIU Xiuming, NIE Lanshi. Pelagic records from the Equatorial Ninetyeast Ridge and significant environmental events during the past 3.5 Ma[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2008, 2(2): 162-169.

Viewed

Full text

Abstract

Cited

Shared

Discussed