To explore the spatio-temporal dynamics and mechanisms underlying vegetation cover in Haryana State, India, and implications thereof, we obtained MODIS EVI imagery together with CHIRPS rainfall and MODIS LST at annual, seasonal and monthly scales for the period spanning 2000 to 2022. Additionally, MODIS Potential Evapotranspiration (PET), Ground Water Storage (GWS), Soil Moisture (SM) and nighttime light datasets were compiled to explore their spatial relationships with vegetation and other selected environmental parameters. Non-parametric statistics were applied to estimate the magnitude of trends, along with correlation and residual trend analysis to quantify the relative influence of Climate Change (CC) and Human Activities (HA) on vegetation dynamics using Google Earth Engine algorithms. The study reveals regional contrasts in trends that are evidently related to elevation. An annual increasing trend in rainfall (21.3 mm/decade, p < 0.05), together with augmented vegetation cover and slightly cooler (-0.07 degrees C/decade) LST is revealed in the high-elevation areas. Meanwhile, LST in the plain regions exhibit a warming trend (0.02 degrees C/decade) and decreased in vegetation and rainfall, accompanied by substantial reductions in GWS and SM related to increased PET. Linear regression demonstrates a strongly significant relationship between rainfall and EVI (R-2 = 0.92), although a negative relationship is apparent between LST and vegetation (R-2 = -0.83). Additionally, increased LST in the lowelevation parts of the study area impacted PET (R-2 = 0.87), which triggered EVI loss (R2 = 0.93). Moreover, increased HA resulted in losses of 25.5 mm GSW and 1.5 mm SM annually. The relative contributions of CC and HA are shown to vary with elevation. At higher elevations, CC and HA contribute respectively 85% and 15% to the increase in EVI. However, at lower elevations, reduced EVI is largely (79%) due to human activities. This needs to be considered in managing the future of vulnerable socio-ecological systems in the state of Haryana.

Climate warming in northern high latitudes has progressed twice as fast as the global average, leading to prominent but puzzling changes in vegetation structure and functioning of tundra and boreal ecosystems. While some regions are becoming greener, others have lost or shifted vegetation condition as indicated by a browning signal. The mechanisms underlying this 'greening or browning enigma' remain poorly understood. Here we use multi-sourced time-series of satellite-derived vegetation indices to reveal that spectral greening is associated with reductions in surface water cover (i.e. fraction of surface water bodies), whereas spectral browning is linked to increases in surface water cover. These patterns are consistently observed from both 30 m resolution Landsat data and 250 m resolution MODIS data on the basis of grid cells sized of 1, 2 and 4 km. Our study provides, to our knowledge, the first biome-scale demonstration that interactions between vegetation condition and water cover change can explain the contrasting trajectories of ecosystem dynamics across the northern high latitudes in response to climate warming. These divergent trajectories we identified have major implications for ecosystem functioning, carbon sequestration and feedbacks to the climate system. Further unraveling the interaction between vegetation and surface water will be essential if we are to understand the fate of tundra and boreal biomes in a warming climate.

Thermokarst depressions are widespread phenomena due to permafrost degradation in the Arctic, whereas only few are known from mountain permafrost of the mid-latitudes. In the Italian Central Alps, close to the Stelvio Pass (2,763 m above sea level), a ski run was built in 1987. Since 1981, statistically significant air warming has been recorded, especially during summer (+0.65 degrees C per decade). Permafrost temperature recorded at the nearby Share Stelvio Borehole between 1990 and 2011 exhibited a rapid increase (> 0.8 degrees C per decade) and an active-layer thickening (7 cm/year). Between the years 1999 and 2003, some thermokarst depressions started to develop, initially in the lower part of the ski run and then extending to higher elevations. The depressions increased in number, size, and depth with time. Since ski-run construction, the area remained free of vegetation until early 2000, when vegetation colonization started, showing a coupling with the onset of thermokarst development and summer warming. Vegetation changes accelerated with the ingress of pioneer and early-successional as well as of late-successional species. Moreover, the ingress of shrub species (Salix spp.) typical of lower elevation belts (subalpine and even montane) was dated to 2004. All the observed features show a rapid and coupled response of the abiotic and biotic components of this ecosystem to climate warming. Our data also confirm the similarity of the observed responses and dynamics of the alpine tundra with the Arctic tundra with regard to both permafrost and vegetation.

Assessing the relative importance of climate change and human activities is important in developing sustainable management policies for regional land use. In this study, multiple remote sensing datasets, i.e. CHIRPS (Climate Hazard Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station Data) precipitation, MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Potential Evapotranspiration (PET), Soil Moisture (SM), WorldPop, and nighttime light have been analyzed to investigate the effect that climate change (CC) and regional human activities (HA) have on vegetation dynamics in eastern India for the period 2000 to 2022. The relative influence of climate and anthropogenic factors is evaluated on the basis of non-parametric statistics i.e., Mann-Kendall and Sen's slope estimator. Significant spatial and elevation-dependent variations in precipitation and LST are evident. Areas at higher elevations exhibit increased mean annual temperatures (0.22 degrees C/year, p < 0.05) and reduced winter precipitation over the last two decades, while the northern and southwest parts of West Bengal witnessed increased mean annual precipitation (17.3 mm/year, p < 0.05) and a slight cooling trend. Temperature and precipitation trends are shown to collectively impact EVI distribution. While there is a negative spatial correlation between LST and EVI, the relationship between precipitation and EVI is positive and stronger (R-2 = 0.83, p < 0.05). Associated hydroclimatic parameters are potent drivers of EVI, whereby PET in the southwestern regions leads to markedly lower SM. The relative importance of CC and HA on EVI also varies spatially. Near the major conurbation of Kolkata, and confirmed by nighttime light and population density data, changes in vegetation cover are very clearly dominated by HA (87%). In contrast, CC emerges as the dominant driver of EVI (70-85%) in the higher elevation northern regions of the state but also in the southeast. Our findings inform policy regarding the future sustainability of vulnerable socio-hydroclimatic systems across the entire state.

Frozen ground degradation under a warming climate profoundly influences the growth of alpine vegetation in the source region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This study investigated spatiotemporal variations in the frozen ground distribution, the active layer thickness (ALT) of permafrost (PF) soil and the soil freeze depth (SFD) in seasonally frozen soil from 1980 to 2018 using the temperature at the top of permafrost (TTOP) model and Stefan equation. We compared the effects of these variations on vegetation growth among different frozen ground types and vegetation types in the source region of the Yellow River (SRYR). The results showed that approximately half of the PF area (20.37% of the SRYR) was projected to degrade into seasonally frozen ground (SFG) during the past four decades; furthermore, the areal average ALT increased by 3.47 cm/yr, and the areal average SFD decreased by 0.93 cm/yr from 1980 to 2018. Accordingly, the growing season Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) presented an increasing trend of 0.002/10yr, and the increase rate and proportion of areas with NDVI increase were largest in the transition zone where PF degraded to SFG (the PF to SFG zone). A correlation analysis indicated that variations in ALT and SFD in the SRYR were significantly correlated with increases of NDVI in the growing season. However, a rapid decrease in SFD (< -1.4 cm/10yr) could have reduced the soil moisture and, thus, decreased the NDVI. The NDVI for most vegetation types exhibited a significant positive correlation with ALT and a negative correlation with SFD. However, the steppe NDVI exhibited a significant negative correlation with the SFD in the PF to SFG zone but a positive correlation in the SFG zone, which was mainly limited by water condition because of different change rates of the SFD.

Alpine vegetation is considered to be particularly sensitive to climate changes. Here we document changes in species richness, distribution and composition over the past 50 years by resurveying vegetation in Rondane, a well-studied alpine area in central Norway. We estimated changes in species occurrences, species richness and species' realized optima to study relationships between vegetational and environmental change. We used a weighted average approach with elevation and indicator values for light, temperature, pH, moisture, nutrients and tolerance to snow-cover duration. Permutation tests, allowing for unequal sampling in the original survey and the resurvey, indicated whether vegetation changes were statistically significant. We found no significant change in the average number of species per plot since 1950. Of 21 species analysed for changes in frequency and realized optimum, ten showed statistically significant changes in frequency (six decreased, four increased), and six exhibited statistically significant changes in their optimum along the soil-pH gradient. Statistically significant optimum changes were found along the nutrient and light gradients (three species) and the elevation and snow-cover gradients (two species). No statistically significant changes were found along the temperature or moisture gradients. In comparison with other studies, our results suggest that recent climate changes have had a relatively low impact on alpine vegetation in the Rondane mountains. This is indicated by our species optimum analysis, which revealed few changes along gradients that can be directly linked to the climate (temperature and soil moisture) whereas most detected changes appear to be responses to factors related to soil pH. The relative constancy of species' optima and hence species composition may be explained most parsimoniously by the species pool in the Rondane area, which consists largely of common and widespread species with wide ecological amplitudes and hence broad tolerances to environmental change.