Impact of extreme climate change on ecosystem vulnerability in the Chinese coastal areas

Frequency and intensity of global extreme climate events have been increasing over the past century． As the transitional area between sea and land, the coastal ecosystems in China are significantly affected by extreme climates due to the large and extended north-south span of China． Meteorological data and net primary productivity (NPP) dataset from 1986 to 2015 were used to calculate typical extreme climate index and ecosystem vulnerability, to analyze spatial and temporal variations of NPP and extreme climate, to reveal spatial distribution characteristics of terrestrial ecosystem vulnerability in the Chinese coastal areas, and to further examine the response characteristics of different ecosystem vulnerability to extreme climate index． The inland coastal areas of China showed a warming trend from 1986 to 2015, with an average temperature increase of 1.2 degrees Celsius． Tx90p (warm day days) and Tn90p (warm night days) showed an increasing trend; Tx10p (cold day days) and Tn10p (cold night days) showed a decreasing trend. TXx, TNx, TXn, TNn (daily temperature extremes) showed an increasing trend, DTR (daily temperature range) showed a decreasing trend． The increase in temperature at night is greater than during the day． Extreme precipitation exhibits a spatial distribution characteristic of increasing in the south and decreasing in the north． Vulnerability of the terrestrial ecosystem shows significant geographical and spatial differences． Region with the highest vulnerability is located in the north; high vulnerability regions are present in the middle of Northeast China and North China, as reflected in the low resilience of the region． There is a significant correlation between the extreme climate index and the vulnerability of the terrestrial ecosystem, which shows a significant negative correlation． The DTR (day night temperature difference) is significantly positively correlated with the vulnerability of the terrestrial ecosystem．