Greening Trends of Southern China Confirmed by GRACE

As reported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the world has been greening over the last two decades, with the highest greening occurring in China and India. The increasing vegetation will increase plant tissue accumulation and water storage capacity, and all of these varia...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Le Chang, Wenke Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-01-01
Series:Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/2/328
Description
Summary:As reported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the world has been greening over the last two decades, with the highest greening occurring in China and India. The increasing vegetation will increase plant tissue accumulation and water storage capacity, and all of these variations will cause mass change. In this study, we found that the mass change related to greening in Southern China could be confirmed by Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) observations. The mean mass change rate detected by GRACE is 6.7 ± 0.8 mm/yr in equivalent water height during 2003−2016 in our study region. This is consistent with the sum of vegetation tissue, soil water and groundwater change calculated using multi-source data. The vegetation accumulation is approximately 3.8 ± 1.3 mm/yr, which is the major contribution to region mass change. We also found that the change of water storage capacity related to vegetation can be detected by GRACE.
ISSN:2072-4292