Responses of Vegetation Productivity to Temperature Trends Over Continental United States From MODIS Imagery

Vegetation growth and productivity may record signals of global climate change since vegetation is sensitive to modifications in climatic variables, such as temperature and precipitation. Significant changes in vegetation growth and productivity can affect the exchange of energy, water vapor, and momentum between the land surface and atmosphere. Despite consensus on the vegetation growth enhancement by the warming of temperature, little attention has been given to the understanding of the impacts of cooling temperature trends on vegetation growth and productivity. Based on satellite-derived land surface temperatures and vegetation indices, this study shows that alternating temperature trends are more reasonable than a monotonic temperature trend for the study period from 2003 to 2016. More importantly, results reveal that both warming and cooling temperature trends can have a positive impact on vegetation growth over the continental United States. These findings are of importance to understand global carbon cycle sinks and sources accurately in different regions.