Changes in Vegetation and Assessment of Meteorological Conditions in Ecologically Fragile Karst Areas

Yanli CHEN, Weihua MO*, Yonglin HUANG, Jianfei MO, Xiaohan HUANG, and Xiumei WEN

1 Institute of Meteorological Sciences, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR) Meteorological Bureau, Nanning 530022

2 Hechi Meteorological Service, GZAR Meteorological Bureau, Hechi 547000

3 College of Geography and Planning, Nanning Normal University, Nanning 530001

(Received March 4, 2020; in final form September 16, 2020)

ABSTRACT Meteorological conditions have an important impact on changes of vegetation in ecologically fragile karst areas.This study aims to explore a method for quantitative evaluation of these meteorological conditions. We analyzed the changing trend of vegetation during 2000–2018 and the correlations between vegetation changes and various meteorological factors in karst rocky areas of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. Key meteorological factors in vegetation areas with varying degrees of improvement were selected and evaluated at seasonal timescale. A quantitative evaluation model of comprehensive influences of meteorological factors on vegetation was built by using the partial least-square regression (PLS). About 91.45% of the vegetation tended to be improved, while only the rest 8.55%showed a trend of degradation from 2000 to 2018. Areas with evident vegetation improvement were mainly distributed in the middle and northeast, and those with obvious vegetation degradation were scattered. Meteorological factors affecting vegetation were significantly different among the four seasons. Overall, high air humidity, small temperature difference in spring and autumn, and low daily minimum temperature and air pressure were favorable conditions. Low temperature in winter as well as high temperature in summer and autumn were unfavorable conditions. The Climate Vegetation Index (CVI) model was established by PLS using the maximum, minimum, and average temperatures; vapor pressure; rainfall; and air pressure as key meteorological factors. The Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) was well fitted by the CVI model, with the average coefficient of determination (r2) and root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.856 and 0.042, respectively. Finally, an assessment model of comprehensive meteorological conditions was built based on the interannual differences in CVI. The meteorological conditions in the study area in 2014 were successfully evaluated by combining the model and selected seasonal key meteorological factors.

Key words: karst rocky area, vegetation change, ecologically fragile, meteorological conditions

1. Introduction

Karst, loess, desert, and alpine regions are four ecologically fragile areas in China. In the karst areas of fragile ecological environment, the gradual exposure of rocks similar to desert landscape on the earth’s surface due to vegetation destruction, soil erosion, and decline or loss of land production capacity is called rocky desertification(Yuan, 2008). The low disaster-tolerance capacity of these areas is a major hidden danger of ecological security and has attracted great attention from all walks of life(Li et al., 2006).

The karst rocky areas in southwestern China are located between the tropics and subtropics. The hot and rainy climate in the subtropical southwestern China provides a powerful driving force for karst development,water and soil loss, and rocky desertification (Wang et al., 2003; Su et al., 2006). The correlation (Melillo et al.,1993; Keeling et al., 1996; Zhou and Zhang, 1996; Field et al., 1998; Knapp and Smith, 2001; Nemani et al.,2003; Weltzin et al., 2003; Chen et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2013) and hysteresis (Guo et al., 2009; Liu et al.,2009; Chen et al., 2010; Hou et al., 2012; Yu et al., 2013)between the climate and vegetation changes have been proposed and verified at global and regional scales. Researchers have also studied the vegetation and climate changes in karst rocky areas.

By using the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Net Primary Productivity (NPP)datasets, Meng and Wang (2007) studied the response of vegetation change to climate change in southwestern karst rocky areas of China and found the greater effect of temperature change than that of precipitation change. By extracting and analyzing pixel-by-pixel information through regression and correlation analyses, Zheng et al.(2009) investigated the change in vegetation cover and its relationship to major climatic factors in Guizhou,Southwest China based on GIMMS NDVI data and corresponding climatological data during 1982–2003. The interannual variation trends of the NDVI and temperature are synchronous, and a certain lag exists between NDVI and precipitation. Wu et al (2012) analyzed the correlation between the rocky desertification and spatial distributions of climatic factors in karst mountainous areas of northwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR) of China in 2008. The incidence of rocky desertification increased steadily with the increasing annual average temperature and increased rapidly with the increasing annual average precipitation.

In the existing studies on the correlation between vegetation and climate in karst rocky areas, NDVI is often used to characterize vegetation, and climatic factors are only represented by temperature and precipitation.However, the influence of climate on vegetation is strongly integrated. In most studies, NDVI is also used to characterize the vegetation change (Fu et al., 2006; Zhao et al., 2006; Zhang S. J. et al., 2009; Chen et al., 2011).The Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) has the advantages of the widely used NDVI, but with NDVI’s shortcomings being improved. In recent years, studies on the correlation between the vegetation and climate in karst rocky areas of China based on EVI sequences have made progress (Nan et al., 2010; Chen et al., 2015b).

Located in southern China, GZAR is the birthplace of many rivers, such as Xiang and Xi rivers, and has an irreplaceable preponderance in ecological resources (Ban et al., 2018). The karst rocky areas in southwestern GZAR are one of the most important areas for biodiversity conservation. However, the widespread distribution of the karst landform, prominent rocky desertification, and serious natural disasters (Huang et al., 2015) have posed increasing threats to the regional ecological security and have seriously restricted local economic and social development. Therefore, the ecology of karst rocky areas in GZAR is always a focus and hot topic of the local government and researchers in this region.

The authors of this paper previously carried out considerable research on karst rocky areas of GZAR. Based on multi-source remote sensing data, they established an identification model of rocky desertification, drew spatial distribution maps of rocky desertification in different periods, and studied the distribution characteristics of rocky desertification in karst rocky areas of GZAR (Hu et al., 2005; Wang et al., 2014; Han et al., 2016; Chen et al., 2018). The sensitivity of NDVI and EVI to vegetation monitoring in some rocky desertification counties in the karst rocky areas was compared. The EVI considers influences of soil background and is more objective in reflecting the vegetation characteristics in the areas (Chen et al., 2014b). The correlation and hysteresis of EVI and meteorological factors were analyzed. The effects of various meteorological factors on EVI were studied. The response of EVI to meteorological factors is sensitive,and their correlation is very high (Chen et al., 2014a,2015a). According to the response mode of the two indices, the climate fitting model of EVI was established by using the stepwise regression method for fitting and predicting EVI accurately (Chen et al., 2015a).

Many results have been obtained in studies of the karst rocky areas in GZAR. Although the multi-tempospatialscale distributions of rocky desertification has been interpreted, its interannual vegetation evolution remains unclear. Meteorological factors have an important influence on vegetation in karst rocky areas, but no models and factors are established to quantitatively evaluate the meteorological conditions. In this study, a mathematical model was used to quantitatively analyze the structural characteristics of the rocky desertification grade change.According to the characteristics of meteorological conditions in vegetation change areas, a quantitative evaluation model of meteorological conditions affecting vegetation EVI in the karst rocky areas of GZAR was established by using the idea of the climate fitting model of vegetation EVI. The results can provide reference for evaluation of the meteorological conditions and rocky desertification pattern change in karst rocky areas.

2. Data and methods

2.1 Study area

The GZAR (20°54′–26°24′N, 104°26′–112°04′E) is located in southwestern China, with the Tropic of Cancer crossing in the middle. The region is bordered by the tropical ocean in the south, Nanling Mountains in the north, and Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau in the west. The region is higher than the surrounding areas but low in the middle and looks like a basin. The region has more mountains but fewer plains, and the area of karst landform accounts for 37.8%. The poor land, harsh ecological environment, prominent rocky desertification, and serious natural disasters seriously restrict local economic and social development, so it is a poverty-stricken area.The distribution of karst rocky areas in Guangxi is shown in Fig. 1.

2.2 Data sources and preprocessing

2.2.1EVI data

EVI data, in format of V005, are the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation index product MOD13Q1 developed by the NASA MODIS terrestrial product group according to statistical algorithm; namely the global synthetic vegetation index product that was synthesized in 16 days and has a resolution of 250 m. The MODIS vegetation index product is improved and designed based on the existing vegetation indices, including two vegetation index products (NDVI and EVI). MODIS NDVI is a continuation of NOAA NDVI series accumulated for 20 yr and can provide longterm data for business monitoring and research. EVI takes advantage of MODIS radiometer to correct surface reflectance so as to increase sensitivity to high biomass areas and to improve vegetation monitoring accuracy by coupling the canopy background signal and reducing the atmospheric effects.

The EVI data used were obtained by using the internationally accepted maximum value composite (MVC)method, which can further eliminate the interference of clouds, atmosphere, and solar elevation angle.

where EVImiis the maximized composite value of EVI in theith 16-day, and EVIijis thejth-day value during the period.

The obtained MOD13Q1 remote sensing dataset was preprocessed by the subset extraction, image mounting,data format conversion, projection conversion, and quality inspection to obtain a reliable EVI dataset. Many cloud pollution pixels still existed in the GZAR EVI dataset because of the influence of cloud and rainy weather. In this study, the spline interpolation method was used to deal with cloud pollution pixels and to reconstruct the high-quality EVI data series (Zhang J. et al., 2009).

2.2.2Meteorological data

The daily water vapor pressure, precipitation, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, average temperature, dew point temperature, sunshine duration, and air pressure at 25 meteorological stations from 2000 to 2018 were provided by the Meteorological Information Center of GZAR Meteorological Bureau. The 16-day statistical values of various climatic factors and EVI in the corresponding periods (including the same and previous periods) were calculated. Precipitation and sunshine duration are cumulative values, and the remaining climatic factors are averages in the periods. The meteorological data and remote sensing EVI were matched by the near-distance matching method; that is, the vegetation EVI of karst areas in the county is matched with the data of meteorological observation stations in that county.

Fig. 1. Distribution of rocky desertification areas and meteorological stations in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR).

2.2.3Geographic information data

Geographic information data include the administrative boundary of counties, vector boundary of karst rocky areas, and latitude and longitude information of meteorological stations in GZAR.

2.3 Research methods

2.3.1Univariate regression trend line method

In the trend line method, the regression analysis is performed on a set of variables that change over time to predict their changing trends. This method can be used to simulate the interannual changing trend of EVI. The calculation formula is as below:

wherekis the number of years from 1 ton; EVIkis the average of EVI in thekth year; and SLOPE is the changing trend. If SLOPE ＞ 0, EVI increases innyears, that is, the vegetation in the area is improved; otherwise it degrades.

2.3.2Averaging method

The EVI value of a certain area was calculated by using the averaging method, namely, the EVI average of all pixels in the statistical area. The formula is as follows:

where EVIapis the EVI average of a certain area (pis the code of the area),xis the line number of pixels,yis the column number of pixels, andnis the total number of pixels in the statistical area.

2.3.3Partial least-square regression (PLS)

PLS is a multivariate statistical analysis method that combines the multiple linear regression analysis, principal component analysis of variables, and canonical correlation analysis between variables to make full use of sample information. Regression modeling can be performed under conditions of the small sample size, multiple independent variables, and severe multiple correlations.

Taking the PLS of a single dependent variable as an example, the principle is as follows. Let the known dependent variable beY, andkindependent variables bex1,x2, ···,xk, and the number of samples ben, which constitute a data tableX= [x1,x2,···,xk]n×kandY= [y]n×1. Extracted fromX, componentt1is a linear combination ofx1,x2, ···,xk, which should carry the information of variation inXas much as possible and the degree of correlation withYis the largest. After the first principal componentt1is extracted, the regression ofYandXis performed. If the regression equation has reached the satisfactory accuracy at this time, the algorithm is stopped;otherwise, the second principal componentt2is extracted by using the participation information afterXis explained byt1andYis explained byt2, and the regression ofYandXtot1andt2is continued until the satisfactory accuracy is achieved. If a total ofmcomponentst1,t2, ···,tm(m≤n) are finally extracted fromX, the PLS will be used for the regression ofYtot1,t2, ···,tm. Sincet1,t2,···,tmare linear combinations ofx1,x2, ···,xk, they can be expressed as a regression equation of dependent variableYand independent variableX.

In the PLS analysis, the variable projection importance index (VIP) is used to measure the explanatory power of the independent variable to the dependent variable. This index is defined as follows:

whereWhjis thejth component of the axisWh, which is used to measure the contribution ofxjto the structure componentth;r(y,th) is the correlation coefficient between the dependent variableyand componentth;kis the number of independent variables; andmis the number of components. Forxjwith a large VIPj,xjplays a more important role in explainingy.

2.3.4Model accuracy test

The coefficient of determination (r2) and root mean square error (RMSE) were used to test the model’s accuracy. The larger ther2is, the better the model is. The smaller the RMSE is, the better the fitting effect is.

3. Results

3.1 Changing trend of vegetation in karst rocky areas

The univariate regression trend line method was used to study the changing trend of vegetation in karst rocky areas of GZAR from 2000 to 2018. Given that the SLOPE values were mostly concentrated within ?0.2 to 0.2, the classification standards of SLOPE were formulated according to Table 1, and corresponding vegetation change categories and percentages were derived.

According to Table 1 and Fig. 2, 91.45% of vegetation in karst rocky areas of GZAR tended to improve from 2000 to 2018, in which 58.37% of the vegetation was improved slightly, 30.35% improved, and 2.73% improved significantly. Only 8.55% of the vegetation trended to deteriorate, in which 7.37% deteriorated slightly, 0.84% deteriorated, and 0.34% deteriorated significantly. Areas with obvious vegetation improvement were mainly distributed in Laibin and Liuzhou cities in the middle of karst rocky areas. Areas with obvious vegetation degradation were scattered, of which the degradation in Chongzuo, Guilin, and Nanning cities was more obvious than that in the other areas.

Table 1. The SLOPE grading standard in rocky desertification areas of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR)

3.2 Evaluation of meteorological conditions

3.2.1Factors of meteorological conditions

Meteorological conditions are very important for vegetation growth in karst rocky areas, and influences of meteorological factors on vegetation vary in different periods. When a business service product report is established, the impact of meteorological factors needs to be specified, such as the specific impact of various meteorological factors in different seasons. Therefore, the correlation between EVI and meteorological factors in the four seasons including spring (March–May), summer (June–August), autumn (September–November), and winter(December–next February) was discussed. The correlation between the same meteorological factors and vegetation in different areas are different because of the difference in topography and vegetation—Not only the size difference but also the positive and negative correlations may exist at the same time. In our study, the correlation between meteorological elements and EVI was valid only if 80% of the stations passed through the significance test. If 80% of the sites are positively (or negatively) correlated with a weather factor, we assume that the correlation is positive (or negative).

Fig. 2. The vegetation change trend in karst rocky areas of GZAR from 2000 to 2018.

The influence of meteorological factors on vegetation is quite different in different seasons (Table 2). In spring,the three meteorological factors (water vapor pressure,relative humidity, and dew point) related to humidity were positively correlated with EVI, that is, the more humid the air was, the better the vegetation grew. In summer, the minimum temperature that generally occurred in the early morning was negatively correlated with EVI, so the low temperature at night was not conducive to vegetation growth. In autumn, precipitation was positively correlated with EVI, while the average temperature and minimum temperature were negatively correlated with EVI.The high temperature and less rainfall in autumn in GZAR could easily lead to droughts. Sufficient precipitation and mild temperature in autumn were conducive to vegetation growth. In winter, vapor pressure and dew point were positively correlated with EVI, that is, humid air was conducive to vegetation growth. The average temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and sunshine duration were positively correlated with EVI. That is, warm winter was conducive to vegetation growth. If temperature was too low, soil in karst rocky areas was not conducive to heat storage, and vegetation roots were likely to be frozen, which was not advantageous to vegetation growth.

We further analyze the characteristics of meteorological factors in different vegetation improvement/degradation areas. The vegetation improvement was obvious when SLOPE ≥ 0.05 according to analysis of the vegetation change trend. The vegetation change in these areas had less man-made disturbance, but was mainly due to influences of meteorological factors. The sites included in the study area were divided into five categories, and the characteristics of meteorological factors of each category were examined. The five categories were defined according to the proportion of pixels with SLOPE ≥ 0.05 in each county, and the proportion intervals were > 80%,70%–80%, 60%–70%, 50%–60%, and < 50%. Results were listed in four seasons (Table 3).

In karst rocky areas, as the proportion of pixels with SLOPE ≥ 0.05 increased, water vapor pressure, rainfall,average temperature, minimum temperature, air pressure,and dew point mostly showed increasing change trends.That is, the higher average temperature, minimum temperature, air pressure, dew point, and sufficient water vapor and rainfall are better for vegetation improvement(Table 4).

According to the correlation between EVI and climatic factors (Table 2) as well as climate characteristics of different rocky desertification improvement areas in different seasons (Table 4), the number of rainy days, water vapor pressure, rainfall, average temperature, maximumtemperature, minimum temperature, and air pressure were selected as key factors for evaluating the meteorological conditions in karst rocky desertification areas of GZAR (Table 5). The correlation between water vapor pressure and vegetation EVI was the highest, and this was more obvious in various vegetation improvement areas. The relative humidity, dew point, and sunshine hours were not included, considering that water vapor pressure was enough to reflect air humidity and sunshine duration varied irregularly in different grades of vegetation improvement . In specific cases, the multi-year average values of meteorological factors are used.

Table 2. The correlation between vegetation EVI and meteorological factors in karst rocky areas of GZAR

Table 3. Values of climatic factors in the five categories of SLOPE

3.2.2Assessment model of comprehensive impact of meteorological conditions

According to the above analysis, meteorological factors had significant effects on EVI in karst rocky areas of GZAR. In a previous study, it was found that interactions exist among the meteorological factors (Chen et al.,2014a). The EVI characterizing vegetation growth is in fact the combined result of the comprehensive meteorological conditions. The stepwise regression method was used to establish the fitting model of EVI and meteorological factors in the previous study (Chen et al., 2015a).Establishment of the model requires to understand the effects and interactions of meteorological factors, which involves complex data operations. In this work, the PLS method was used to establish such a model according to the multi-collinearity of statistical samples. The independent variables include water vapor pressure, precipitation, average temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and air pressure; and the dependent variable is EVI.

In the principal component analysis of PLS modeling,the variation percentages explained by the componentsTk(k= 1, 2,···, 6) extracted from the independent variable group are 83.0%, 8.4%, 5.7%, 2.3%, 0.3%, and 0.1%, respectively. The variation percentages of the dependent variable group explained byTk(k= 1, 2,···, 6) are 80.7%,2.5%, 1.8%, 0.9%, 1.2%, and 0.7%, respectively. The cumulative contribution rate ofxvariance of the first three eigenvectors has reached 97.2%; that is, the basic characteristics of the independent variableXcan be captured. In the meantime, the cumulative variance contribution ofYis 87.8%. That is, the regression equation constructed by the first three principal components can achieve a satisfactory accuracy (Table 6). The final regression equation is as below:

where the Climate Vegetation Index (CVI) is the meteorological fitting value of vegetation EVI;Vis vapor pressure;Ris rainfall;Tis average temperature;Tmaxis maximum temperature;Tminis minimum temperature; andPis air pressure.

Each variable of the regression equation had an important effect on vegetation in karst rocky areas in the analysis of VIP (Table 7). The factors that dominated vegetation in karst rocky areas were ranked as follows: vapor pressure (V) > average temperature (T) > maximum temperature (Tmax) > minimum temperature (Tmin) > air pressure (P) > rainfall (R).

The regression equation was tested, withr2of 0.856 and adjustedr2of 0.852, which passed the significance test. EVI observation values and their fitting values(CVI) are basically distributed near the 1:1 line in the scatter plots of the two (Fig. 3). The CVI model has high fitting precision and good fitting effect (Table 8).

CVI actually characterizes the meteorological potential value of EVI, namely, the vegetation EVI under the combined influence of meteorological conditions and without the influence of other factors. If the weather conditions are good, EVI is high; if weather conditions arepoor, EVI is low. Based on this assumption, the difference in meteorological conditions can be determined by the difference in CVI, and the evaluation model of vegetation meteorological conditions in karst rocky areas can be obtained as below:

Table 4. Characteristics of meteorological elements in areas where vegetation was obviously improved

Table 5. Selected key meteorological factors that have a strong correlation with vegetation change in the study area

Table 6. The variation percentage explained by the partial leastsquare (PLS) factors

where CVIiand CVIjare the CVI values of vegetation in karst rocky areas in yearsiandj. If DCVI is greater than zero, the overall meteorological conditions in karst rocky areas in the evaluated year is superior to that of the comparison year.

In ecological service materials released to public, a simple and intuitive evaluation of meteorological conditions is required. For example, images with visually good, medium, and poor ratings are more easily understood by readers. From 2000 to 2018, 91.45% of vegetation in karst rocky areas of GZAR tended to be improved, of which 58.37% of the vegetation was slightly improved, and 33.08% was improved or noticeably im-proved (Table 1). The meteorological condition was judged to be moderate in areas with slight vegetation improvement, and that in areas with improvement or noticeable improvement was judged to be good. The DCVI values from 2000 to 2018 was calculated in these areas, and the classification standard of meteorological conditions was formulated (Table 9).

Table 7. The analysis of variable projection importance indices

Fig. 3. Scatter plots of EVI and CVI during 2000–2018.

3.2.3Evaluation example

The model of vegetation meteorological conditions was used to evaluate the meteorological conditions in karst rocky areas of GZAR in 2014. The results of the 2014 assessment of the meteorological conditions were compared with those of 2013. In 2014, the meteorological conditions were good mainly in the west and middle of the study area, including Tianlin, Lingyun, Bama,Donglan, Napo, and Jingxi counties, northern Longlin county, western and eastern Xilin county, and the area outside the central part of Fengshan county. The meteorological conditions were medium mainly in the middle and south, including Leye, Tianyang, Debao, Tiandeng,Daxin, Long’an, Longzhou, Dahua, and Xincheng counties, western and southern Du’an county, and central Xilin county, central and southern Longlin county,eastern Luocheng county, and southern Rong’an county.The overall meteorological conditions in the above areas were conducive to vegetation growth. However, the meteorological conditions in Huanjiang, Rongshui, Shanglin,and Ningming counties, western and northern Luocheng county, central and northern Rong’an county, northern Du’an county, and southeastern Long’an county were slightly worse, which was not conducive to vegetation growth (Fig. 4).

According to the meteorological evaluation factors in the rocky desertification areas, the advantages and disadvantages of the meteorological conditions were analyzed,and the ecological meteorological evaluation model was used to analyze the overall impact of meteorological conditions on vegetation improvement in rocky desertification areas. Favorable conditions were the high air humidity; small temperature difference in spring, autumn, and dry season; and low daily minimum temperature and air pressure. Unfavorable conditions included the quite frequent rainy days, low temperature in winter, and high temperature in summer and autumn.

The meteorological conditions in spring and summer were quite similar between 2013 and 2014. In 2014, the meteorological conditions were slightly worse in the early stage but slightly better in the later period. Specifically, from December 2013 to February 2014, the weather was cold and persistently cloudy, which was not conducive to the safe wintering of vegetation in the study area;however, the precipitation in the autumn of 2014 increased by 107.6 mm, compared to 2013, which was beneficial to vegetation growth (Table 10).

Table 8. Error and variance analyses of the partial-least square regression model

Table 9. The classification standard of meteorological conditions in karst rocky areas of GZAR

4. Discussion

From 2000 to 2018, most of the karst rocky areas of GZAR had improved vegetation, while areas where vegetation degraded obviously were scattered. In the future research, the reasons for vegetation degradation should be elucidated to provide additional scientific reference for government decision making. The obvious improvement trend of vegetation fully demonstrates that a series of measures, such as closing hillsides to facilitate afforestation and returning farmland to forests implemented by the GZAR government, have achieved remarkable results in recent years. But significant vegetation degradation still occurred in some areas. Xu et al. (2018) studied the changes in the rocky desertification pattern in Qiannan Prefecture, Guizhou Province and found that potential rocky desertification could also be transformed into severe rocky desertification due to vegetation degradation. This finding indicated that the vegetation ecology in karst rocky areas was highly vulnerable.

The response of vegetation to the climate in karst rocky areas has special characteristics. Rock desertification in these areas occurs at different degrees, and the rate of exposed bedrock is relatively large. Hence, the soil layer is shallow and contains mostly stone gravel soil, and its vegetation community has poor ability to improve the microclimate. In the absence of buffering of the upper-layer vegetation, the temperature increase in the daytime is large, and the heat dissipation is fast at nighttime due to the small specific heat capacity of rock,resulting in a rapid change in temperature, humidity, and surface temperature, as well as a great change in temperature difference in the areas. Therefore, meteorological conditions had complicated impact on vegetation, and the main meteorological factors affecting vegetation in the areas in the four seasons were quite different (for details on seasonal differences, see Section 3.2.1).

Fig. 4. The evaluation results of meteorological conditions in karst rocky areas of GZAR in 2014.

Table 10. Meteorological elements in rocky desertification areas of GZAR in 2013 and 2014

Precipitation has a significant effect on vegetation only in autumn probably because of the large spatial and temporal variability of rainfall in GZAR and the big difference in the vegetation canopy density due to different proportions of shrubs as well as shrubs and trees growing in different regions. For areas with sparse vegetation,the water retention capacity is poor, and the excessive concentration of precipitation is not conducive to vegetation growth and may even aggravate water and soil losses. However, for karst rocky areas with high canopy density, the soil layer is thicker and has strong water retention capacity, so precipitation will promote vegetation growth.

In this paper, the fitting model of EVI and meteorological factors was established by using the PLS method.In a previous study, the climate fitting model of vegetation EVI was established by using the stepwise regression method (Chen et al., 2015a). In comparison, the fitting model of EVI established by using the PLS method has higher simulation accuracy possibly due to the different factors of the models. The response of vegetation growth to meteorological factors has a lag effect (Zheng et al., 2009; Chen et al., 2014a). The method of using early meteorological factors for modeling may be an effective way to improve the accuracy of model simulation.When the meteorological fitting model of the vegetation EVI was established by the stepwise regression method,the mixed model based on early meteorological factors has higher simulation accuracy (Chen et al., 2015a). In addition, vegetation growth is affected by many factors,such as the soil type and lithology, which needs to be further studied in model optimization.

5. Conclusions

During 2000–2018, 91.45% of the vegetation in karst rocky areas of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region(GZAR) was improved, while only 8.55% tended to degrade. Areas where vegetation was obviously improved were mainly distributed in the middle and northeast of karst rocky areas. Areas with obvious vegetation degradation were scattered, and the vegetation degradation in the southwest was more obvious than that in the other areas.

The meteorological factors affecting vegetation in karst rocky areas were significantly different in the four seasons. Favorable conditions included the high air humidity, small temperature difference in spring and autumn, and low daily minimum temperature and air pressure. Unfavorable conditions included low temperature in winter as well as high temperature in summer and autumn.

The Climate Vegetation Index (CVI) model in karst rocky areas was established by the PLS method using the maximum, minimum, and average temperatures; water vapor pressure; rainfall; and air pressure as key meteorological factors. EVI was well fitted by the CVI model,with averager2and RMSE of 0.856 and 0.042, respectively. Finally, the assessment model of the comprehensive meteorological conditions in karst rocky areas was built based on interannual differences in CVI. The meteorological conditions in the study area in 2014 were successfully evaluated by combining the model and the selected seasonal key meteorological factors.

Acknowledgments. The authors thank the China Center for Resource Satellite Data and Application for providing Huan Jian (HJ)-1 Charge Coupled Device(CCD) remote sensing data and technical support.