Decadal change and inter-annual variability of net primary productivity on the Tibetan Plateau

Both the long-term shifts in climate mean (climate change) and short-term variations around the climate mean (climate variability) have impacts on NPP but studies examining both aspects of climate variations are rare especially in the data-scarce regions such as the Tibetan Plateau (TP).

Here, we used a dynamic vegetation model to investigate the impacts of the changes and variabilities in temperature, precipitation, cloud cover and CO2 on NPP on the TP. The simulated NPP was evaluated using field and Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer NPP and was found to be reasonable. At monthly time scale, NPP significantly correlated concurrently and at 1-month lag with temperature, precipitation and cloud cover (coefficient of determination, R-2, in 0.52-0.77).