The relationship between plant stable carbon isotope composition, precipitation and satellite data, Tibet Plateau, China

Stable carbon isotope composition (δ13C) of C3 plant leaves from the Tibet Plateau was analyzed to detect the relationship between stable carbon isotope composition (δ13C) and precipitation. In northern Tibet, δ13C increases by 0.46‰ with an increase of 100 mm in precipitation, while in the southern plateau δ13C decreases by 1.82‰ with an increase of 100 mm in precipitation. Because field sampling is limited by funds and traffic conditions, while remote sensing has no limitations, satellite data was introduced as a new data source to study the relationship between δ13C and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). NDVI has the same trend with δ13C, as does precipitation. So NDVI can be used to indicate δ13C approximately.