Correlation between Climate Factors and Vegetation Cover in Qinghai Province, China

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DOI: 10.4236/jgis.2017.94025    1,125 Downloads   2,197 Views  Citations

ABSTRACT

The Qinghai Province, situated in the northwest of China, is experiencing a continuous warming which is approximately three times more than the rate of global warming. This ongoing warming has a direct connection to vegetation cover, with significant societal and economic impacts in this region. In the present study, we investigate the correlation between climate change and vegetation cover in Qinghai Province. Analysis shows that in the Qinghai Province, order of NDVI is highest in summer followed by autumn, spring and winter. By calculating the average annual and seasonal-NDVI values, it is deduced that the main type of vegetation cover in the Qinghai Province has an upward trend at the rate of 0.013/10a, 0.016/10a, 0.035/10a and 0.058/10a for annual, winter, spring and summer, respectively. While a downward trend at a rate of 0.056/10a is present in autumn-NDVI. At the 0.01% significance level, a significant positive relationship of winter-NDVI with mean winter precipitation and temperature is revealed. Mean NDVI of spring and autumn show a significant positive relationship with respective seasonal mean precipitation. However, a significant difference is present between mean summer-NDVI and mean summer precipitation. Furthermore, mean NDVI of summer and autumn has a significant negative relationship with respective seasonal mean temperature.

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Yagoub, Y. , Li, Z. , Musa, O. , Anjum, M. , Wang, F. , Bi, Y. and Zhang, B. (2017) Correlation between Climate Factors and Vegetation Cover in Qinghai Province, China. Journal of Geographic Information System, 9, 403-419. doi: 10.4236/jgis.2017.94025.

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