Spatiotemporal variation of marsh vegetation productivity and climatic effects in Inner Mongolia, China

Net primary productivity (NPP) is a vital ecological index that reflects the ecological function and carbon sequestration of marsh ecosystem. Inner Mongolia has a large area of marshes, which play a crucial role in the East Asian carbon cycle. Under the influence of climate change, the NPP of Inner Mongolian marsh has changed significantly in the past few decades, but the spatiotemporal variation in marsh vegetation NPP and how climate change affects marsh NPP remain unclear. This study explores, for the first time, the spatiotemporal variation of marsh NPP and its response to climatic change in Inner Mongolia based on the MODIS-NPP and climate datasets. We find that the long-term average annual NPP of marsh is 339.85 g⋅C/m2 and the marsh NPP shows a significantly increasing trend (4.44 g⋅C/m2/a; p < 0.01) over Inner Mongolia during 2000–2020. Spatially, the most prominent increase trend of NPP is mainly distributed in the northeast of the region (Greater Khingan Mountains). The partial correlation results show that increasing autumn and summer precipitation can increase the NPP of marsh vegetation over Inner Mongolia. Regarding the temperature effects, we observe a strong asymmetric effect of maximum (Tmax) and minimum (Tmin) temperature on annual NPP. A high spring Tmax can markedly increase marsh NPP in Inner Mongolia, whereas a high Tmin can significantly reduce it. In contrast to spring temperature effects on NPP, a high summer Tmax can decrease NPP, whereas a high Tmin can increase it. Our results suggest different effects of seasonal climate conditions on marsh vegetation productivity and highlight the influences of day-time and night-time temperatures. This should be considered in simulating and predicting marsh carbon sequestration in global arid and semi-arid regions.