The climate-vegetation interactions and subsequent hydrological effect of a subtropical forested watershed, central Taiwan

Vegetation growth is sensitive to climatic variations which has a critical implication for hydrological regimes. However, the intertwined associations of climate-phenology-hydrology have rarely been explored in tropical/subtropical regions particularly. In this study, we synthesize hydroclimate records in forested watershed, central Taiwan for last five decades (1975-2020), and the results indicate that the incidences of meteorological and hydrological droughts are becoming prominent after 2001. We further examine the influences of temperature and precipitation on vegetation growth of watershed scale using EVI (enhanced vegetation index) derived from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) at monthly scale, and explore the effects of seasonal precipitation on the variations of landscape phenology and following watershed streamflow between 2001 and 2020. The EVI and temperature shows a linear relationship (R² = 0.50, p < 0.001) without time-lag effect, whereas EVI and precipitation exhibits a log-linear relationship with two months lag (R² = 0.40, p < 0.001), showing the accumulative rainfall during relatively dry period (winter-spring) is crucial for vegetation growth. Structural equation modeling reveals that earlier start of growing season (SOS) caused by relatively high spring rainfall (February-March) leads to longer growing season (LOS) and higher P-Q deficit (precipitation minus runoff) during the growing season. Nevertheless, the large amount of precipitation during growing season has no effect on the end of growing season (EOS), LOS and P-Q deficit. Realizing the vegetation growth responding to climatic variations is necessary for current and future hydrologic regime, especially under changing climate.