{"title":"Microclimate Driven Grassland Greenness Asymmetry Between West- and East- Facing Slopes on the Tibetan Plateau","authors":"Jiangliu Xie, Xinyu Yan, Rui Chen, Yajie Yang, Yungang Cao, Yi Jian, Gaofei Yin","doi":"10.1029/2024gl113327","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Slope orientation creates microclimate by modulating water and heat flux between the land surface and the atmosphere, thereby regulating vegetation growth and its response to background climate change. However, the potential asymmetry in vegetation greenness between west- and east-facing slopes remains underexplored. Analyzing the normalized difference vegetation index derived from Landsat reflectances in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) grassland, we identified that west-facing slopes were greener than east-facing slopes in the western TP, while the opposite appeared in the eastern TP. We also detected a stronger greening trend on west- than east- facing slopes over the entire TP grassland from 1991 to 2020. These disparities result from distinct microclimates on the two contrasting slopes: west-facing slopes tend to be wetter and colder than east-facing slopes under similar background climate. Our findings underscore the crucial role of slope orientation in shaping vegetation greenness and its response to climate change.","PeriodicalId":12523,"journal":{"name":"Geophysical Research Letters","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Geophysical Research Letters","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1029/2024gl113327","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Slope orientation creates microclimate by modulating water and heat flux between the land surface and the atmosphere, thereby regulating vegetation growth and its response to background climate change. However, the potential asymmetry in vegetation greenness between west- and east-facing slopes remains underexplored. Analyzing the normalized difference vegetation index derived from Landsat reflectances in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) grassland, we identified that west-facing slopes were greener than east-facing slopes in the western TP, while the opposite appeared in the eastern TP. We also detected a stronger greening trend on west- than east- facing slopes over the entire TP grassland from 1991 to 2020. These disparities result from distinct microclimates on the two contrasting slopes: west-facing slopes tend to be wetter and colder than east-facing slopes under similar background climate. Our findings underscore the crucial role of slope orientation in shaping vegetation greenness and its response to climate change.
期刊介绍：
Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) publishes high-impact, innovative, and timely research on major scientific advances in all the major geoscience disciplines. Papers are communications-length articles and should have broad and immediate implications in their discipline or across the geosciences. GRLmaintains the fastest turn-around of all high-impact publications in the geosciences and works closely with authors to ensure broad visibility of top papers.
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