Increasing evapotranspiration decouples the positive correlation between vegetation cover and warming in the Tibetan plateau.

ABSTRACT: Plant growth generally responds positively to an increase in ambient temperature. Hence, most Earth system models project a continuous increase in vegetation cover in the future due to elevated temperatures. Over the last 40 years, a considerable warming trend has affected the alpine ecosystem across the Tibetan Plateau. However, we found vegetation growth in the moderately vegetated areas of the plateau were negatively related to the warming temperatures, thus resulting in a significant degradation of the vegetative cover (LAI: slope = -0.0026 per year, p < 0.05). The underlying mechanisms that caused the decoupling of the relationship between vegetation growth and warming in the region were elaborated with the analysis of water and energy variables in the ecosystem. Results

SUBMITTER: Dai X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9537816 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature