Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Vegetation Net Primary Productivity and Its Response to Climate Change in Inner Mongolia from 2002 to 2019

Abstract

Understanding vegetation dynamics and their responses to climate change are essential to enhance the carbon sequestration of the terrestrial ecosystem under global warming. Although some studies have identified that there is a close relationship between vegetation net primary productivity and climate change, it is unclear whether this response exists in ecologically fragile areas, especially in Inner Mongolia, in which multiple ecological ecotones are related to vegetation types. This study uses the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach (CASA) model to estimate vegetation NPP in Inner Mongolia from 2002 to 2019 and focuses on the spatial and temporal changes of NPP of different vegetation types and their responses to three typical climate factors: precipitation, temperature, and solar radiation. The results show that the NPP estimated by the CASA model agrees well with the observed NPP (R2 = 0.66, p < 0.001). The vegetation NPP in Inner Mongolia decreases gradually from northeast to southwest, and the average NPP is 223.50 gC ∙ m−2. From 2002 to 2019, the NPP of all vegetation types trended upward, but exhibiting different rates. The vegetation types, ranked in order of decreasing NPP, are forest, cropland, grassland, and desert. The NPP response of different vegetation types to climate factors possesses significant differences. The cropland NPP and grassland NPP are mainly affected by precipitation, the desert NPP is controlled by both precipitation and solar radiation, and the forest NPP is determined by all three climate factors.