Growth and response to climate change of different dryland vegetation types in the Silk Road Economic Belt

Rapid climate change significantly affects dryland vegetation growth in the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), thus affecting global carbon cycle process．However, research on dryland vegetation growth and response to climate change are scarce．Therefore, combining remote sensing normalized vegetation index derived from GIMMS, simulated net primary productivity derived from TRENDYv2, terrestrial water storage change (ΔS_TW) derived from GRACE and climate grid datasets, we used linear regression and partial correlation analysis to investigate seasonal growth dynamics of different dryland vegetation and underlying response mechanisms to climate change over SREB from 1982 to 2015．Global warming led to a significant decrease in soil water content from 1993 to 2015, and a decrease in ΔS_TW from 2003 to 2015 in SREB．The decrease trend of ΔS_TW increased, indicating drought intensification．Growth divergence existed in different types of dryland vegetation．Growth in desert, semi-desert and desert shrub increased from 1982 to 1992 but decreased after 1992．Growth of desert and tundra only increased in the growing season before 1992, but growth change of desert and semi-desert and desert steppe were not significant．Drought stress caused by temperature rise and precipitation reduction was the main factor for vegetation reduction．Precipitation in pre-growing season significantly promoted growth from spring to summer, but weakened growth in autumn．