Precipitation patterns alter growth of temperate vegetation

Abstract

In this paper, we use growing season Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as an indicator of plant growth to quantify the relationships between vegetation production and intra‐annual precipitation patterns for three major temperate biomes in China: grassland, deciduous broadleaf forest, and deciduous coniferous forest. With increased precipitation, NDVI of grassland and deciduous broadleaf forest increased, but that of deciduous coniferous forest decreased. More frequent precipitation significantly increased growth of grassland and deciduous broadleaf forest, but did not alter that of deciduous coniferous forest at low precipitation levels and constrained its growth at high precipitation levels. The relationships between NDVI and average precipitation per event were opposite to those between NDVI and precipitation frequency. Such nonlinear feedback suggests that the responses of vegetation production to changes in precipitation patterns differ by both biome type and precipitation amount.