– My First Doctoral Forum
On the afternoon of the October 16th, the Department of Earth System Science held a doctoral forum with the theme of ” A community of shared destiny for human-beings under global climate change “. And thanks to my tutor, Wang Han’s guidance, after several days’ preparation and revision, I have a good fortune to be selected to attend this form.
In the conference, I shared our recent research, “Response of Vegetation Greenness to Environment in Tibetan Plateau”, with the teachers. And the following is the main content of my report:
Fig1: My report at the Doctoral Forum
Many studies indicate that the Tibetan Plateau is undergoing significant climate changes in the past decades, which has a profound impact on the growth of the vegetation. Fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) reflects the vegetation’s ability to absorb radiation and is closely related to the vegetation’s primary production and carbon assimilation capacity. Quantifying the response of long-time series vegetation FAPAR to climate changes is of great significance for reliable prediction of future Tibetan Plateau ecosystem productivity.
However, in the Tibetan Plateau, existing studies have not fully considered the synergistic effects of meteorological factors on vegetation, and especially, the research on the effects of changes in carbon dioxide concentration and radiation on vegetation greenness and their interactions with the effect of temperature and precipitation on vegetation greenness are lacking. The understanding of what kind of climatic factors control vegetation greenness is still very limited, which is also reflected in the huge uncertainty of existing vegetation simulation model.
In our study, based on 1982-2016 AVHRR FPAR 3g products and grid meteorological products, the annual maximum FPAR value of vegetation (maximum greenness of vegetation) in Tibetan Plateau was calculated as the qualitative index.
After sampling in the meteorological space, the coefficients that can characterize the climate sensitivity of vegetation were obtained. By analyzing the inter-year change of coefficients, obtained by LOGSUMEXP function, we investigated the trend of Tibetan Plateau vegetation greenness changing over time and the response of sensitivity to climate change. We found that the Tibetan Plateau is getting warmer and wetter and both rainfall and temperature sensitivity have a declined trend, which reflects the adaptation of vegetation to climate change.
After my report, through the judges’ comments, I realized that I need to read more paper, learn how to do research and have a deeper learning of basic concepts. From this meeting, I realized that the study for a PHD student is an accelerated process and that early accumulation is pretty important. Just like what Steven Redhead said,“Life is an accumulation of what your Heart and mind has pondered most, a conclusion of all you wishes, dreams and desires.” And in my future research, I still need master more knowledge and try to enjoy my scientific research and add the rigor and innovation to my research.
Though I have not gotten any prize in this forum, I do have a more comprehensive understanding of my research. And I believe that attending such a forum is of great significance to improve my scientific research level.