China’s deserts greening and response to climate variability and human activities

Spatial differences in greening and browning trends Greening and browning trends indicated by the annual NDVI. On the annual scale, the deserts showed greening trends spatially (Fig 4), with 62.8% of the area showing greening trends, mainly on the desert margins, especially on the southern edge of the Gurbantunggut Desert, in the northwestern part of the Taklimakan Desert, and in the Kubuqi Desert. Only 0.78% of the area showed browning trends, distributed in the northeastern Taklimakan Desert and the eastern Qaidam Basin Desert. Fig 3. Mean values (black lines) and trends (red lines) of the monthly NDVI (a), temperature (b), and precipitation (c) in desert areas from 2000 to 2017. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256462.g003 Fig 2. Variations and trends in annual precipitation (a), temperature (b), and NDVI (c), and seasonal NDVI (d), temperature (e), and precipitation (f) in desert areas from 2000 to 2017. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256462.g002 PLOS ONE China’s deserts greening and response to climate variability and human activities PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256462 August 30, 2021 7 / 20