Preseason drought controls on patterns of spring phenology in grasslands of the Mongolian Plateau

Wu Rihan; Jianjun Zhao; Hongyan Zhang; Xiaoyi Guo

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156018

Preseason drought controls on patterns of spring phenology in grasslands of the Mongolian Plateau

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Sep 10;838(Pt 2):156018. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156018. Epub 2022 May 16.

Authors

Wu Rihan¹, Jianjun Zhao², Hongyan Zhang³, Xiaoyi Guo¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Geographical Processes and Ecological Security in Changbai Mountains, Ministry of Education, School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China; Urban Remote Sensing Application Innovation Center, School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China.
² Key Laboratory of Geographical Processes and Ecological Security in Changbai Mountains, Ministry of Education, School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China; Urban Remote Sensing Application Innovation Center, School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China. Electronic address: zhaojj662@nenu.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Geographical Processes and Ecological Security in Changbai Mountains, Ministry of Education, School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China; Urban Remote Sensing Application Innovation Center, School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China. Electronic address: zhy@nenu.edu.cn.

PMID: 35588828
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156018

Abstract

Climate change has led to frequent drought events on the Mongolian Plateau; however, the pattern of preseason drought impacts on the start of the growing season (SOS) in grasslands is unclear. To determine how preseason drought controls the SOS in Mongolian Plateau grasslands, we quantitatively studied the sensitivity characteristics of the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index-3 (SPEI-3) to the SOS and spatiotemporal differences based on meteorological and remote sensing datasets. The results show that: 1) in the past 34 years, the regions with a trend for earlier SOS in Mongolian Plateau grasslands were mainly distributed in the typical steppe region, accounting for 30% of the total area, while 13% of the pixels showed a delayed trend, mainly occurring in desert steppes, and the remaining 57% of the pixels did not show a significant change (P < 0.05); 2) preseason drought had an obvious inhibitory effect on grassland SOS, especially on typical steppes; 3) according to the SPEI-3, in the Mongolian Plateau grasslands, the SOS was advanced by 11 days when the SPEI-3 < 0.63, but the SOS was delayed by 3 days when the SPEI-3 > 0.63; and 4) the sensitivity of the SOS to preseason drought significantly decreased from 1982 to 2015 in Mongolian Plateau grasslands. Our results can be used to improve the interpretation of the SOS response to drought in the land surface model.

Keywords: Climate change; Grassland; Mongolian Plateau; Preseason drought; Start of the growing season.

MeSH terms

Climate Change
Droughts*
Ecosystem
Grassland*
Seasons
Temperature