Driving Factors for Vegetation NDVI Changes in a Cold Temperate Zone: Climate, Topography, and Land Use

Exploring the spatio-temporal evolution and driving mechanism of the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) is important in order to understand the operating forces of the ecosystem and the response process of environmental change. We analyzed spatio-temporal vegetation changes by using the trend analysis method during 2001–2020 based on the MODIS NDVI, the meteorological data, the DEM (Digital Elevation Model) and land use types data. We quantitatively revealed the influence degree and mechanism of each detection factor and their interaction on the spatial differentiation of vegetation by using the geographical detector model. Results showed that the vegetation NDVI showed an increasing trend with an increasing rate of 0.021/10 a during 2001–2020 and mainly distributed in the northwest and southwest of the Greater Khingan Mountains. The explanatory power values of each driving factor are as follows: land use (0.384) > elevation (0.193) > slope (0.159) > annual precipitation (0.104) > aspect (0.069) > average annual temperature (0.056). The explanatory power of interaction between driving factors were relatively high, as follows: Land use ∩ Aspect (0.490) > Land use ∩ Slope (0.471) > Land use ∩ Annual precipitation (0.460) > Land use ∩ elevation (0.443) > Land use ∩ Annual temperature (0.421) > Aspect ∩ elevation (0.408). Our research was of great significance for understanding the growth law of vegetation, protecting the ecological environment, and sustainable development in cold temperate zones.