Impacts of preseason drought on vegetation spring phenology across the Northeast China Transect

Moxi Yuan; Lin Zhao; Aiwen Lin; Lunche Wang; Qingjun Li; Dunxian She; Sai Qu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140297

Impacts of preseason drought on vegetation spring phenology across the Northeast China Transect

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Oct 10:738:140297. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140297. Epub 2020 Jun 17.

Authors

Moxi Yuan¹, Lin Zhao¹, Aiwen Lin², Lunche Wang³, Qingjun Li¹, Dunxian She⁴, Sai Qu¹

Affiliations

¹ School of resources and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, PR China.
² School of resources and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, PR China. Electronic address: awlin@whu.edu.cn.
³ Hubei Key Laboratory of Critical Zone Evolution, School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China; Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Water System Science for Sponge City Construction, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China.

PMID: 32806362
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140297

Abstract

Vegetation phenology is undergoing profound changes in response to the recent increases in the intensity and frequency of drought events. However, the mechanisms by which drought affects the start of the growing season (SGS) are poorly understood particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Here, we identified varying degrees of preseason drought events and analyzed the sensitivity of the SGS to preseason drought across the Northeast China Transect (NECT). Our results showed that drought caused a delayed SGS in grassland ecosystems, but an advanced SGS within forest ecosystems. These contrasting responses to preseason drought reflected different adaptive strategies between vegetation types. The SGS was shown to be highly sensitive to short timescales drought (1-3 months) in semi-arid grasslands where annual precipitation is 200-300 mm (i.e. SAGE₂₀₀_-₃₀₀). Biomes within this region were found to be most vulnerable out of all the ecosystems to drought. Given the frequent nature of droughts in the mid-latitudes, a drought early warning system was recommended accompanied by improved modeling of how the SGS will be affected by intensified drought under future climate change.

Keywords: Drought; Forest; Grassland; Northeast China Transect; Spring phenology.

MeSH terms

China
Climate Change
Droughts*
Ecosystem*
Seasons