Topographic effects on vegetation greening and area expansion in global alpine zones under climate change
Alpine zones, located above the treeline in high mountain areas, are highly sensitive to global warming. Topography modulates land surface energy, mass and momentum fluxes and thus can largely influence vegetation growth under a warming climate. However, little is known about the topographical effec...
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Elsevier
2025-08-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843225003747 |
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| author | Linqing Zou Feng Tian Tianchen Liang Rasmus Fensholt Tao He Gabriela Schaepman-Strub |
| author_facet | Linqing Zou Feng Tian Tianchen Liang Rasmus Fensholt Tao He Gabriela Schaepman-Strub |
| author_sort | Linqing Zou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Alpine zones, located above the treeline in high mountain areas, are highly sensitive to global warming. Topography modulates land surface energy, mass and momentum fluxes and thus can largely influence vegetation growth under a warming climate. However, little is known about the topographical effects on vegetation changes during recent decades, especially in alpine vegetation at the global scale. Here we utilize 30 m spatial resolution Landsat imagery to quantify trends in vegetation greenness and vegetated areas during 1984–2023 in global alpine ecosystems and quantify the effects of topography on vegetation changes. Our results reveal that more than 99 % of the global alpine zones show concurrent significant (p < 0.05) vegetation greening and increasing vegetated areas. Yet, the effects of topography on the two vegetation metrics diverge in 85.49 % of the regions where the magnitude of the rate of vegetation greening decreases with higher elevation whereas the expansion rate of vegetated areas is faster with higher elevations. Moreover, vegetation dynamics also covary with the slope aspect, with polar-facing slopes experiencing higher trend magnitude in vegetation greenness (72.59 %) and vegetated areas (64.50 %) compared to the equatorial-facing slopes. Our findings provide a unified assessment of global alpine vegetation dynamics and highlight the complex impacts of topographic factors on alpine ecosystems under global climate change. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2bc769f8421442c581f3545b68db65c9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1569-8432 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation |
| spelling | doaj-art-2bc769f8421442c581f3545b68db65c92025-08-20T03:45:11ZengElsevierInternational Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation1569-84322025-08-0114210472710.1016/j.jag.2025.104727Topographic effects on vegetation greening and area expansion in global alpine zones under climate changeLinqing Zou0Feng Tian1Tianchen Liang2Rasmus Fensholt3Tao He4Gabriela Schaepman-Strub5Hubei Key Laboratory of Quantitative Remote Sensing of Land and Atmosphere, School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandHubei Key Laboratory of Quantitative Remote Sensing of Land and Atmosphere, School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; Perception and Effectiveness Assessment for Carbon-neutrality Efforts, Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education, Wuhan, China; Corresponding author at: Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430072, PR China.Hubei Key Laboratory of Quantitative Remote Sensing of Land and Atmosphere, School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, ChinaDepartment of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkHubei Key Laboratory of Quantitative Remote Sensing of Land and Atmosphere, School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, ChinaDepartment of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandAlpine zones, located above the treeline in high mountain areas, are highly sensitive to global warming. Topography modulates land surface energy, mass and momentum fluxes and thus can largely influence vegetation growth under a warming climate. However, little is known about the topographical effects on vegetation changes during recent decades, especially in alpine vegetation at the global scale. Here we utilize 30 m spatial resolution Landsat imagery to quantify trends in vegetation greenness and vegetated areas during 1984–2023 in global alpine ecosystems and quantify the effects of topography on vegetation changes. Our results reveal that more than 99 % of the global alpine zones show concurrent significant (p < 0.05) vegetation greening and increasing vegetated areas. Yet, the effects of topography on the two vegetation metrics diverge in 85.49 % of the regions where the magnitude of the rate of vegetation greening decreases with higher elevation whereas the expansion rate of vegetated areas is faster with higher elevations. Moreover, vegetation dynamics also covary with the slope aspect, with polar-facing slopes experiencing higher trend magnitude in vegetation greenness (72.59 %) and vegetated areas (64.50 %) compared to the equatorial-facing slopes. Our findings provide a unified assessment of global alpine vegetation dynamics and highlight the complex impacts of topographic factors on alpine ecosystems under global climate change.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843225003747Alpine vegetationTopographic effectsVegetation greeningVegetated areal fractionElevation gradients |
| spellingShingle | Linqing Zou Feng Tian Tianchen Liang Rasmus Fensholt Tao He Gabriela Schaepman-Strub Topographic effects on vegetation greening and area expansion in global alpine zones under climate change International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation Alpine vegetation Topographic effects Vegetation greening Vegetated areal fraction Elevation gradients |
| title | Topographic effects on vegetation greening and area expansion in global alpine zones under climate change |
| title_full | Topographic effects on vegetation greening and area expansion in global alpine zones under climate change |
| title_fullStr | Topographic effects on vegetation greening and area expansion in global alpine zones under climate change |
| title_full_unstemmed | Topographic effects on vegetation greening and area expansion in global alpine zones under climate change |
| title_short | Topographic effects on vegetation greening and area expansion in global alpine zones under climate change |
| title_sort | topographic effects on vegetation greening and area expansion in global alpine zones under climate change |
| topic | Alpine vegetation Topographic effects Vegetation greening Vegetated areal fraction Elevation gradients |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843225003747 |
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