The Spatiotemporal Response of Vegetation Changes to Precipitation and Soil Moisture in Drylands in the North Temperate Mid-Latitudes

Vegetation growth in drylands is highly constrained by water availability. How dryland vegetation responds to changes in precipitation and soil moisture in the context of a warming climate is not well understood. In this study, warm drylands in the temperate zone between 30 and 50 degrees N, including North America (NA), the Mediterranean region (MD), Central Asia (CA), and East Asia (EA), were selected as the study area. After verifying the trends and anomalies of three kinds of leaf area index (LAI) datasets (GLASS LAI, GLEAM LAI, and GLOBAMAP LAI) in the study area, we mainly used the climate (GPCC precipitation and ERA5 temperature), GLEAM soil moisture, and GLASS LAI datasets from 1981 to 2018 to analyze the response of vegetation growth to changes in precipitation and soil moisture. The results of the three mutually validated LAI datasets show an overall greening of dryland vegetation with the same increasing trend of 0.002 per year in LAI over the past 38 years. LAI and precipitation exhibited a strong correlation in the eastern part of the NA drylands and the northeastern part of the EA drylands. LAI and soil moisture exhibited a strong correlation in the eastern part of the NA drylands, the eastern part of the MD drylands, the southern part of the CA drylands, and the northeastern part of the EA drylands. The results of this study will contribute to the understanding of vegetation dynamics and their response to changing water conditions in the Northern Hemisphere midlatitude drylands.

Automated summary

This study analyzed the vegetation dynamics and response to changes in precipitation and soil moisture in midlatitude drylands of the Northern Hemisphere. The results showed an overall greening trend in the dryland vegetation over the past 38 years, with strong correlations between precipitation/soil moisture and vegetation growth.