Affiliation:
1. Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Key Laboratory for Land Satellite Remote Sensing Applications of Ministry of Natural Resources, School of Geography and Ocean Science Nanjing University Nanjing Jiangsu China
2. Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application Nanjing Jiangsu China
Abstract
AbstractSnow cover is an important control element in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) ecosystem; however, the impact of snow cover changes on gross primary productivity (GPP) is largely unknown, particularly under complex geographical conditions. In this study, we investigated the impacts of snow cover changes on different seasonal GPP and their mechanisms in different geographical zones using multisource remote sensing data from 1982 to 2018. Snow cover significantly affected GPP by nearly 15% of the TP region, and snow cover days (SCDs) were the dominant snow cover indicators affecting GPP variations compared with snow water equivalent (SWE) and snow cover end date (SCED). In general, an increase in snow cover leads to a significant increase in GPP in regions with low precipitation and temperature, but limits the accumulation of GPP in humid and warm regions. Furthermore, from the humid to the arid zone, the “moisture effect” of snow cover (by altering soil moisture) plays an increasingly important role in regulating GPP variations with increasing drought levels. This study elucidates the importance of snow cover in regulating different seasonal GPP variations and significantly improves our insight into the response of vegetation carbon uptake to snow cover changes in the TP.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Subject
Ecology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics