Climate overtakes vegetation greening in regulating spatiotemporal patterns of soil moisture in arid Central Asia in recent 35 years

ABSTRACTSatellite datasets have revealed significant greening and soil drying in arid Central Asia. However, the influence mechanism of vegetation and climate on soil moisture dynamics is still unclear. In this study, we investigated the spatiotemporal consistency of vegetation and soil moisture cha...

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Main Authors: Nigenare Amantai, Yuanyuan Meng, Jingzhe Wang, Xiangyu Ge, Zhiyao Tang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2024-12-01
Series:GIScience & Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15481603.2023.2286744
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author Nigenare Amantai
Yuanyuan Meng
Jingzhe Wang
Xiangyu Ge
Zhiyao Tang
author_facet Nigenare Amantai
Yuanyuan Meng
Jingzhe Wang
Xiangyu Ge
Zhiyao Tang
author_sort Nigenare Amantai
collection DOAJ
description ABSTRACTSatellite datasets have revealed significant greening and soil drying in arid Central Asia. However, the influence mechanism of vegetation and climate on soil moisture dynamics is still unclear. In this study, we investigated the spatiotemporal consistency of vegetation and soil moisture changes, examined the controlling factors of soil moisture under different vegetation indices (normalized differential vegetation index, NDVI; leaf area index, LAI), and explored the time lag and accumulation effects of vegetation greening on the soil moisture in arid Central Asia in the period of 1985 to 2020. The results showed that the co-occurrence of vegetation greening and soil drying in 30.4% (NDVI) and 19.4% (LAI) of the study area spatially. Temporally, the soil moisture increased from 1985 to 1989, but decreased from 1989 or 1990 to 2020. In contrast, vegetation activity increased continuously during 1985–2020. Precipitation accounted for the most variance of the soil moisture. The vegetation greenness demonstrated positive correlations with soil moisture, representing 20.7% (for NDVI) and 39.3% (for LAI) of vegetated areas (areas with long-term mean NDVI ≥ 0.1 and LAI > 0), while negative correlations were observed in only 5.4% (for NDVI) and 3.3% (for LAI) of vegetated areas, respectively. Soil moisture exhibited varying time lag and accumulation effects in response to different vegetation indices, precipitation, and temperature. The main temporal effects of NDVI and temperature were simultaneous changes with no time lag or accumulation effects on soil moisture. In contrast, the main temporal effects of LAI and precipitation included 1-month lag in their influence on soil moisture. Considering the inconsistencies in spatiotemporal patterns between vegetation and soil moisture, as well as the dominance and time lag effects of precipitation on soil moisture variations, we concluded that climate, especially precipitation, rather than vegetation greening, regulates soil moisture in Central Asia. These findings provide a scientific basis for vegetation restoration or regional water resource management in drylands.
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spelling doaj.art-648b21897ae44d4bba97ec84675e49b62023-12-06T08:00:12ZengTaylor & Francis GroupGIScience & Remote Sensing1548-16031943-72262024-12-0161110.1080/15481603.2023.2286744Climate overtakes vegetation greening in regulating spatiotemporal patterns of soil moisture in arid Central Asia in recent 35 yearsNigenare Amantai0Yuanyuan Meng1Jingzhe Wang2Xiangyu Ge3Zhiyao Tang4Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaInstitute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaSchool of Artificial Intelligence, Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Shenzhen, ChinaCollege of Geography and Remote sensing Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, ChinaInstitute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaABSTRACTSatellite datasets have revealed significant greening and soil drying in arid Central Asia. However, the influence mechanism of vegetation and climate on soil moisture dynamics is still unclear. In this study, we investigated the spatiotemporal consistency of vegetation and soil moisture changes, examined the controlling factors of soil moisture under different vegetation indices (normalized differential vegetation index, NDVI; leaf area index, LAI), and explored the time lag and accumulation effects of vegetation greening on the soil moisture in arid Central Asia in the period of 1985 to 2020. The results showed that the co-occurrence of vegetation greening and soil drying in 30.4% (NDVI) and 19.4% (LAI) of the study area spatially. Temporally, the soil moisture increased from 1985 to 1989, but decreased from 1989 or 1990 to 2020. In contrast, vegetation activity increased continuously during 1985–2020. Precipitation accounted for the most variance of the soil moisture. The vegetation greenness demonstrated positive correlations with soil moisture, representing 20.7% (for NDVI) and 39.3% (for LAI) of vegetated areas (areas with long-term mean NDVI ≥ 0.1 and LAI > 0), while negative correlations were observed in only 5.4% (for NDVI) and 3.3% (for LAI) of vegetated areas, respectively. Soil moisture exhibited varying time lag and accumulation effects in response to different vegetation indices, precipitation, and temperature. The main temporal effects of NDVI and temperature were simultaneous changes with no time lag or accumulation effects on soil moisture. In contrast, the main temporal effects of LAI and precipitation included 1-month lag in their influence on soil moisture. Considering the inconsistencies in spatiotemporal patterns between vegetation and soil moisture, as well as the dominance and time lag effects of precipitation on soil moisture variations, we concluded that climate, especially precipitation, rather than vegetation greening, regulates soil moisture in Central Asia. These findings provide a scientific basis for vegetation restoration or regional water resource management in drylands.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15481603.2023.2286744Vegetation greeningsoil moistureCentral Asiadrylandstime lag and accumulation
spellingShingle Nigenare Amantai
Yuanyuan Meng
Jingzhe Wang
Xiangyu Ge
Zhiyao Tang
Climate overtakes vegetation greening in regulating spatiotemporal patterns of soil moisture in arid Central Asia in recent 35 years
GIScience & Remote Sensing
Vegetation greening
soil moisture
Central Asia
drylands
time lag and accumulation
title Climate overtakes vegetation greening in regulating spatiotemporal patterns of soil moisture in arid Central Asia in recent 35 years
title_full Climate overtakes vegetation greening in regulating spatiotemporal patterns of soil moisture in arid Central Asia in recent 35 years
title_fullStr Climate overtakes vegetation greening in regulating spatiotemporal patterns of soil moisture in arid Central Asia in recent 35 years
title_full_unstemmed Climate overtakes vegetation greening in regulating spatiotemporal patterns of soil moisture in arid Central Asia in recent 35 years
title_short Climate overtakes vegetation greening in regulating spatiotemporal patterns of soil moisture in arid Central Asia in recent 35 years
title_sort climate overtakes vegetation greening in regulating spatiotemporal patterns of soil moisture in arid central asia in recent 35 years
topic Vegetation greening
soil moisture
Central Asia
drylands
time lag and accumulation
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15481603.2023.2286744
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