NDVI-Based Vegetation Dynamics and Their Responses to Climate Change and Human Activities from 2000 to 2020 in Miaoling Karst Mountain Area, SW China

Abstract

Understanding spatiotemporal shifts in vegetation and their climatic and anthropogenic regulatory factors can offer a crucial theoretical basis for environmental conservation and restoration. In this article, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of the Miaoling area from 2000 to 2020 is studied using a trend analysis and the Mann–Kendall mutation test (MK test) to review the vegetation’s dynamic changes. Our study uses the Hurst index, a partial correlation analysis, and a geographic detector to investigate the contributions of climate change and human activities to regional vegetation changes and their drivers. We found that Miaoling’s annual average NDVI was between 0.66 and 0.83 in 2000–2020, with a mean of 0.766. The overall trend was slow upward (0.0009/year), and 53.82% of the region continued to grow and gradually increased from west to east in the spatial domain, among which the karst regional NDVI distribution area and its growth rate were higher than those of non-karst sites. Based on correlations between climatic factors and NDVI, precipitation seasonality (coefficient of variation, CV) had the strongest correlation (positive correlation) with NDVI, while vapor pressure deficit (VPD) had a negative correlation with NDVI. In the interaction, human activities played a dominant role in the influence of NDVI on the vegetation of Miaoling. The night light index had the most explanatory power on the NDVI (q = 0.422), and the interaction between anthropogenic factors and other factors dominated its explanatory power. This study has academic and practical importance for the management, protection, and sustainable development of karst basins.