Spatiotemporal variations of satellite-derived phenology in the Tibetan Plateau

The ecosystem of Tibetan Plateau is fragile and sensitive to global climate change. Land surface phenology detects the change of terrestrial ecosystems at the regional and global scale. In this study, we investigated the spatial and temporal variation of vegetation phenology in the Tibetan Plateau using GIMMS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) dataset from 1982 to 2003.The results show that the changing trends of phenological metrics varied strongly across the Tibetan Plateau during the study period. In the southwest of TP, the start of season(SOS) advanced and delayed in the east from 1982 to 2003. For the end of season (EOS), it advanced in the east and delayed in the west. Therefore, the length of growing season is shortened in the eastern region of TP, whereas it is extended in the southwest.