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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2017, Vol. 9 Issue (3): 394-407    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-017-0016-4
Orginal Article     
Spatial and temporal variations of vegetation cover and the relationships with climate factors in Inner Mongolia based on GIMMS NDVI3g data
Siqin TONG1,2, Jiquan ZHANG1,*(), Yuhai BAO2, Wurina1, Terigele2, Weilisi3, Lianxiao4
1 School of Environment/Natural Disaster Research Institute, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China
2 College of Geographic Science, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot 010010, China
3 Graduate School of Engineering, Gifu University, Gifu 501-1193, Japan
4 Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Tsukuba University, Ibaraki 305, Japan
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Abstract  

Variation in vegetation cover in Inner Mongolia has been previously studied by the remote sensing data spanning only one decade. However, spatial and temporal variations in vegetation cover based on the newly released GIMMS NDVI3g data spanning nearly thirty years have yet to be analyzed. In this study, we applied the methods of the maximum value composite (MVC) and Pearson’s correlation coefficient to analyze the variations of vegetation cover in Inner Mongolia based on GIMMS NDVI3g data spanning from 1982 to 2013. Our results indicate that the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) increased at a rate of 0.0003/a during the growing seasons despite of the drier and hotter climate in Inner Mongolia during the past three decades. We also found that vegetation cover in the southern agro-pastoral zone significantly increased, while it significantly decreased in the central Alxa. The variations in vegetation cover were not significant in the eastern and central regions. NDVI is positively correlated with precipitation (r=0.617, P=0.000) and also with air temperature (r=0.425, P=0.015), but the precipitation had a greater effect than the air temperature on the vegetation variations in Inner Mongolia.

Key words： GIMMS NDVI3g      vegetation cover      spatiotemporal variation      climate change     
Received: 18 April 2016      Published: 10 May 2017
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Siqin TONG
Jiquan ZHANG
Yuhai BAO
Wurina
Terigele
Weilisi
Lianxiao
Cite this article:

Siqin TONG, Jiquan ZHANG, Yuhai BAO, Wurina, Terigele, Weilisi, Lianxiao. Spatial and temporal variations of vegetation cover and the relationships with climate factors in Inner Mongolia based on GIMMS NDVI3g data. Journal of Arid Land, 2017, 9(3): 394-407.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-017-0016-4     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2017/V9/I3/394

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