The grasslands of Northern China are the third largest in the world and support the world's largest population of sheep and goats, and fourth largest population of cattle. While livestock production in Northern China is increasing, the productivity of its grasslands is decreasing. At the same time, China's increasing human population is relying more heavily on meat and other produces derived from Inner Mongolian livestock. Changes in land use in the region are also placing increasing stress on these grassland ecosystems. Given increasing land use pressures on these ecosystems, changes in climatic patterns could have a more accentuated impact on the regional socio economics that are heavily tied to livestock productivity.

This study examines the relationships between climatic variation and vegetation phenological patterns at the ecosystem level. The effects of interannual variation in precipitation and temperature on the onset date of plant green-up was examined across four ecosystems in Inner Mongolia including deciduous forest, meadow steppe, typical steppe, and desert steppe. Monitoring of plant phenological response was accomplished using high temporal resolution satellite remotely sensed data. The study period was from 1983 - 1990 in the Central Region of Inner Mongolia, China.

Our preliminary findings show that within each ecosystem, interannual climatic variation differentially influenced the timing of vegetation green-up. At the regional scale, general timing of green-up started first in the eastern portion of the study area and progressed to the west following a climatic gradient.

Support provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Models and Methods for Integrated Assessment; the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (Human and Ecosystem Program), Colorado State University; and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center.

• Institute of Resource Sciences, Beijing Normal University
• Institute of Natural Resources and Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Inner Mongolia University
• Chinese Ecological Research Network, Commission for Integrated Survey of Natural Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Inner Mongolia Grassland Ecosystem research Station, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science

Kevin P. Price, P.I.
Fangfang Yu, Graduate Research Assistant
Re-Yang Lee, Graduate Research Assistant

PUBLICATIONS

Yu, F., R. Lee and K. P. Price. 1999. Impact of Regional Climatic Variation on Seasonal Grassland Development in Inner Mongolia, China. NAEP 24th Annual Conference, Kansas City, MO, June, 1999.

Yu, F., K.P. Price, R. Lee and J. Ellis. 1999. Use of Time Series Analysis of AVHRR NDVI Composite Images to Monitor Grassland Dynamics in Inner Mongolia, China. ASPRS 1999 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon, May 17-21, 1999.

Yu, F., K.P. Price and R. Lee. 1998. Annual Variability of Inner Mongolia Grassland Phenlogy as Influenced by Climte. Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division of the Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, Lawrence, Kansas, September, 24-26. 1998. (Poster)

Price, K. P., R. Lee, F. Yu and J. Ellis. 1998. Annual Variability of Inner Mongolia Grassland Phenology as Influenced by Climate. 2nd LUTEA workshop, Beijing, China. March 2-5, 1998. (Poster)

Kevin P. Price