COMPARISON OF VEGETATION ANOMALIES TO EL NIÑO-SOUTHERN OSCILLATION IN CHINA AND AUSTRALIA

Abstract. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), as one of the main factors driving extreme climate events, exerts a major influence on interannual climate variability around the world. However, ENSO effects on vegetation, especially regarding the extent, intensity, direction, are not well understood. Here, we characterize and compare the variability in vegetation response to ENSO across China and Australia and explore their underlying mechanisms. Results show that the spatial extent of ENSO-sensitive vegetation differed between China and Australia and across land cover types. For both China and Australia, the intensity and direction of vegetation anomalies were closely related to the type of ENSO events. In particular, vegetation anomalies to the Central-Pacific (CP) type ENSO events were stronger than that to the Eastern-Pacific (EP) type events of the same intensity and generally responded in an opposite way, resulting from different controls of CP-type and EP-type ENSO on precipitation and temperature. Our findings highlight the diverse response of vegetation triggered by different types of ENSO in China and Australia, which can improve our understanding of ENSO impacts on ecosystems in the northern and southern hemispheres.