Oasis-desert ecotone, as the most typical natural landscape in arid areas, is a narrow belt located between desert ecosystem and oasis ecosystem, which plays a buffering role in the process of shifting sand encroachment. 

Within oasis-desert ecotone regions, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is an important parameter for evaluating the growth of vegetation. 

Therefore, an accurate quantitative study between NDVI and environmental and anthropogenic factors is critical for understand the driving factors of vegetation growth in oasis-desert ecotone. 

Recently, a research group from Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences used the geographical detector model to explain the potential influences of factors versus the spatial distribution of NDVI and calculated each explanatory variable’s relative importance. 

The results reflect that the land cover type, air temperature, air relative humidity and wind velocity are the significative factors to explain the spatial distribution of NDVI. 

The factor detector results disclose that the spatial distribution of NDVI is primarily dominated by land cover type. 

Besides, the study results also show that the anthropogenic activity is the strongest effect on NDVI in oasis-desert ecotone followed by meteorological elements and terrain. 

The results in this study would clarify the main influence factors of NDVI and provide scientific foundation for maintaining stability and sustainable development of oasis in arid region. 

Contact: 

ZHANG Kecun 

kecunzh@lzb.ac.cn 

Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.