Eastern-Pacific and Central-Pacific Types of ENSO Elicit Diverse Responses of Vegetation in the West Pacific Region

Abstract

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is one of the main factors causing extreme climate events and, thus, has a significant influence on global climate systems. However, the long-term effects of ENSO on vegetation are not well understood due to the complexity of the ENSO phenomenon under global warming. Here, we examined the variations in the response of Leaf Area Index (LAI) to different types of ENSO from 1982 to 2017 in the west Pacific region and explored their relationship with climatic factors. Results show that about 34.5% of the vegetated area in the west Pacific region displayed LAI anomalies correlated with ENSO index from 1982 to 2017, which distributed differently across climatic types. Moreover, LAI anomalies elicited by the Central-Pacific type and by the Eastern-Pacific type of ENSO events were significantly different, which were contributed to the controls of the different types of ENSO on precipitation and temperature.