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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2022, Vol. 14 Issue (12): 1377-1394    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-022-0075-z
Research article     
Spatiotemporal variation in vegetation net primary productivity and its relationship with meteorological factors in the Tarim River Basin of China from 2001 to 2020 based on the Google Earth Engine
CHEN Limei1,2,3, Abudureheman HALIKE1,2,3,*(), YAO Kaixuan1,2, WEI Qianqian1,3
1College of Geography and Remote Sensing Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830017, China
2Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830017, China
3Key Laboratory of Smart City and Environment Modelling of Higher Education Institute, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830017, China
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Abstract  

Vegetation growth status is an important indicator of ecological security. The Tarim River Basin is located in the inland arid region of Northwest China and has a highly fragile ecological environment. Assessing the vegetation net primary productivity (NPP) of the Tarim River Basin can provide insights into the vegetation growth variations in the region. Therefore, based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform, we studied the spatiotemporal variation of vegetation NPP in the Tarim River Basin (except for the eastern Gobi and Kumutag deserts) from 2001 to 2020 and analyzed the correlations between vegetation NPP and meteorological factors (air temperature and precipitation) using the Sen slope estimation method, coefficient of variation, and rescaled range analysis method. In terms of temporal characteristics, vegetation NPP in the Tarim River Basin showed an overall fluctuating upward trend from 2001 to 2020, with the smallest value of 118.99 g C/(m2?a) in 2001 and the largest value of 155.07 g C/(m2?a) in 2017. Regarding the spatial characteristics, vegetation NPP in the Tarim River Basin showed a downward trend from northwest to southeast along the outer edge of the study area. The annual average value of vegetation NPP was 133.35 g C/(m2?a), and the area with annual average vegetation NPP values greater than 100.00 g C/(m2?a) was 82,638.75 km2, accounting for 57.76% of the basin. The future trend of vegetation NPP was dominated by anti-continuity characteristic; the percentage of the area with anti-continuity characteristic was 63.57%. The area with a significant positive correlation between vegetation NPP and air temperature accounted for 53.74% of the regions that passed the significance test, while the area with a significant positive correlation between vegetation NPP and precipitation occupied 98.68% of the regions that passed the significance test. Hence, the effect of precipitation on vegetation NPP was greater than that of air temperature. The results of this study improve the understanding on the spatiotemporal variation of vegetation NPP in the Tarim River Basin and the impact of meteorological factors on vegetation NPP.

Key words： vegetation net primary productivity (NPP)      air temperature      precipitation      Hurst index      Google Earth Engine      Tarim River Basin     
Received: 28 February 2022      Published: 31 December 2022
Corresponding Authors: *Abudureheman HALIKE (E-mail: ah@xju.edu.cn)
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CHEN Limei
Abudureheman HALIKE
YAO Kaixuan
WEI Qianqian
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CHEN Limei, Abudureheman HALIKE, YAO Kaixuan, WEI Qianqian. Spatiotemporal variation in vegetation net primary productivity and its relationship with meteorological factors in the Tarim River Basin of China from 2001 to 2020 based on the Google Earth Engine. Journal of Arid Land, 2022, 14(12): 1377-1394.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-022-0075-z     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2022/V14/I12/1377

Fig. 1 Overview of the Tarim River Basin and spatial distribution of vegetation net primary productivity (NPP) in the study area. Note that as the eastern Gobi and Kumutag deserts are largely devoid of vegetation growth in all seasons, these two regions were removed from the study during the computational analysis.
Fig. 2 Flow chart of the spatiotemporal variation in vegetation NPP and its relationship with meteorological factors in the Tarim River Basin. GEE, Google Earth Engine.
Fig. 3 Percentage of the area occupied by different classes of annual average vegetation NPP (a) and change trend of annual average vegetation NPP (b) in the Tarim River Basin from 2001 to 2020
Fig. 4 Spatial distribution of annual average vegetation NPP in the Tarim River Basin (a) and percentage of the area occupied by different classes of annual average vegetation NPP in each river basin (b) during 2001-2020
Fig. 5 Spatial distribution of the trend of vegetation NPP change (a), significance test for the trend of vegetation NPP change (b), and vegetation NPP change rate (c) in the Tarim River Basin during 2001-2020
Fig. 6 Spatial distribution of the CV of vegetation NPP change (a) and the classification of the CV of vegetation NPP change (b) in the Tarim River Basin during 2001-2020. CV, coefficient of variation.
Fig. 7 Spatial distribution of (a) the persistent characteristic of vegetation NPP (indicated by the Hurst index) during 2001-2020 and (b) future trend of vegetation NPP (indicated by the significance test of the Hurst index) in the Tarim River Basin
Sen slope Hurst index Future trend Persistent characteristic
>0 0.0000-0.5000 Increasing-decreasing Anti-continuity
<0 0.0000-0.5000 Decreasing-increasing Sustainability
>0 0.5000-1.0000 Increasing-increasing Sustainability
<0 0.5000-1.0000 Decreasing-decreasing Anti-continuity
Others Random
Table 1 Future trend of vegetation NPP (indicated by the significance test of the Hurst index) in the Tarim River Basin
Fig. 8 Spatial distribution of the correlation (a), significance test of correlation (b), partial correlation (c), and significance test of partial correlation (d) between vegetation NPP and air temperature in the Tarim River Basin during 2001-2020
Correlation/Partial correlation Percentage of the area (%)
SPC SNC NSPC NSNC PST
Correlation between vegetation NPP and air temperature 9.01 7.75 44.41 38.83 16.77
Correlation between vegetation NPP and precipitation 21.32 0.28 64.72 13.68 21.61
Partial correlation between vegetation NPP and air temperature 16.86 5.03 46.00 32.11 21.88
Partial correlation between vegetation NPP and precipitation 25.33 0.28 63.24 11.15 25.61
Table 2 Significance of the correlation analysis and the significance test between vegetation NPP and meteorological factors
Fig. 9 Spatial distribution of the correlation (a), significance test of correlation (b), partial correlation (c), and significance test of partial correlation (d) between vegetation NPP and precipitation in the Tarim River Basin during 2001-2020
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