Response of revegetation to climate change with meso-and micro-scale remote sensing in an arid desert of China

The revegetation protection system (VPS) on the edge of the Tengger Desert can be referred to as a successful model of sand control technology in China and even the world, and there has been a substantial amount of research on revegetation stability. However, it is unclear how meso- and micro-scale revegetation activity has responded to climatic change over the past decades. To evaluate the relative influence of climatic variables on revegetation activities in a restored desert ecosystem, we analysed the trend of revegetation change from 2002 to 2015 using a satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) dataset. The time series of the NDVI data were decomposed into trend, seasonal, and random components using a segmented regression method. The results of the segmented regression model indicate a changing trend in the NDVI in the VPS, changing from a decrease (-7×10^-3/month) before 2005 to an increase (0.3×10^-3/month) after 2005. We found that precipitation was the most important climatic factor influencing the growing season NDVI (P <0.05), while vegetation growth sensitivity to water and heat varied significantly in different seasons. In the case of precipitation reduction and warming in the study area, the NDVI of the VPS could still maintain an overall slow upward trend (0.04×10^-3/month), indicating that the ecosystem is sustainable. Our findings suggest that the VPS has been successful in maintaining stability and sustainability under current climate change conditions and that it is possible to introduce the VPS in similar areas as a template for resistance to sand and drought hazards.