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. 2023 May 23;12(11):2072.
doi: 10.3390/plants12112072.

Variation in Vegetation Phenology and Its Response to Climate Change in Marshes of Inner Mongolian

Yiwen Liu  1   2 , Xiangjin Shen  1 , Jiaqi Zhang  1 , Yanji Wang  1   2 , Liyuan Wu  1   2 , Rong Ma  1 , Xianguo Lu  1 , Ming Jiang  1
Affiliations

Variation in Vegetation Phenology and Its Response to Climate Change in Marshes of Inner Mongolian

Yiwen Liu et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Inner Mongolia has a large area of marsh wetland in China, and the marsh in this region is important for maintaining ecological balance. Understanding variations in vegetation phenology of marsh ecosystems and their responses to climatic change is crucial for vegetation conservation of marsh wetlands in Inner Mongolia. Using the climate and NDVI data during 2001-2020, we explored the spatiotemporal changes in the start (SOS), end (EOS), and length (LOS) of vegetation growing season and analyzed the effects of climate change on vegetation phenology in the Inner Mongolia marshes. Results showed that SOS significantly (p < 0.05) advanced by 0.50 days/year, EOS significantly delayed by 0.38 days/year, and thus LOS considerably increased by 0.88 days/year during 2001-2020 in marshes of Inner Mongolia. Warming temperatures in winter and spring could significantly (p < 0.05) advance the SOS, and increased summer and autumn temperatures could delay EOS in Inner Mongolia marshes. We found for the first time that daytime maximum temperature (Tmax) and night minimum temperature (Tmin) had asymmetric effects on marsh vegetation phenology. Increasing Tmax had a stronger advancing effect on SOS than increasing Tmin from December to April. The increase of Tmin in August could obviously delayed EOS, while increasing Tmax in August had no significant effect on EOS. This study highlights that the asymmetric influences of nighttime and daytime temperatures should be taken into account in simulating marsh vegetation phenology in temperate arid and semi-arid regions worldwide, particularly in the context of global asymmetric diurnal warming.

Keywords: Inner Mongolia; climatic change; marsh; response; vegetation phenology.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distributions of the long-term mean (a,c,e) and change trends (b,d,f) of marsh vegetation SOS, EOS, and LOS in Inner Mongolia during 2001–2020.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Temporal variations in SOS (a), EOS (b), and LOS (c) of marshes in Inner Mongolia during 2001–2020.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlations between vegetation SOS (a), EOS (b), LOS (c) and seasonal climate factors (precipitation, Tmean, Tmax, and Tmin) in marshes of Inner Mongolia during 2001–2020. ** and * mean significant at p < 0.01 and 0.05, respectively.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Relationships between SOS and temperatures (Tmean, Tmax, and Tmin) in winter and spring in the marshes of Inner Mongolia during 2001–2020.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Relationships between EOS and temperatures (Tmean, Tmax, and Tmin) in winter and spring in marshes of Inner Mongolia during 2001–2020.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Relationships between LOS and temperatures (Tmean, Tmax, and Tmin) in winter and spring in marshes of Inner Mongolia during 2001–2020.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Change trends of precipitation (mm/decade) in different seasons in marshes of Inner Mongolia during 2001–2020.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Change trends of average temperatures (°C/decade) in different seasons in marshes of Inner Mongolia during 2001–2020.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Change trends of maximum temperatures (°C/decade) in different seasons in the marshes of Inner Mongolia during 2001–2020.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Change trends of minimum temperatures (°C/decade) in different seasons in marshes of Inner Mongolia during 2001–2020.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Spatial distributions of marshes and climate stations in Inner Mongolia.
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