Widespread decline in winds promoted the growth of vegetation.

ABSTRACT

Vegetation dynamics are sensitive to climate change. Wind is an important climate factor that can affect carbon fluxes by altering carbon uptake and emission rates; however, the impact of wind has not been fully considered in previous studies; therefore, exploring the characteristics of vegetation responses to wind speed is crucial to sustainable natural resource utilization and ecological restoration. In this study, the global leaf area index (LAI) from 1984 to 2013 was used to investigate the vegetation spatial heterogeneities, change processes, and relative contributions of climate change. The differences in vegetation responses to climate factors, such as precipitation (PRE), temperature (TEM), and wind speed (WD), were compared by considering the effects of wind. The results revealed that (1) the global vegetation (86.24%) exhibited a greening trend, among which evergreen broad-leaved forests (0.0052 a-1) changed the most. (2) The wind speed explained 31.54% of the vegetation variations, which is higher than the contribution of other factors. (3) Reduction of wind speed had a positive impact on vegetation changes. The contribution of climate to vegetation growth increased by 8.14% when considering the effects wind speed, particularly in India and South America. Wind speed effects were essential for enhancing the vegetation dynamics assessment and improving the prediction accuracy of the model.