LOCAL RESPONSE OF LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE TO LAND COVER CHANGES ON THE MONGOLIAN PLATEAU

Abstract

Transitions of terrestrial ecosystems associated with land use and cover changes (LUCC) affect the climate at local to regional scales [3]. However, little research has directly quantified the local response of climatic factors to LUCC. In this study, we used satellite measurements of land surface temperature (LST) over changed land covers and adjacent unchanged types on the Mongolian Plateau to understand how LST response to LUCC. The land covers are classified into forest, grassland and non-vegetated land according to leaf area index at 0.05°×0.05° spatial resolution. The percentage of different land covers within 0.05°×0.05° grids is also quantified. Positive recovery of land covers is observed in the transition zones from 2001 to 2018, i.e., transformation from grassland to forest or from non-vegetated land to grassland. The grids whose major land cover types have changed (denoted as G2F or N2G) are selected to observe the LST response. e.