Abstract:There are diverse vegetation covers and climate characteristics in various regions of China. And there are obvious regional differences in vegetation cover change, climate change and response of vegetation to climate factors. The study of vegetation changes and its relationship with climate change in different climate regions can provide a scientific basis for responding to climate change and formulating plant protection and ecological environment restoration policies in various regions. Firstly, based on the land cover data of MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the indexes for dividing dry and wet areas in China were determined according to the distribution of vegetation zones. Secondly, the temporal and spatial variation characteristics of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in different dry and wet areas were analyzed by using vegetation index NDVI. Finally, the relationship between NDVI and temperature/precipitation was discussed. The results showed that: (1) 200 mm, 500 mm, and 800 mm annual precipitation contours are consistent with the boundaries of the vegetation zones of barren land and grassland, grassland and cropland, and grassland/cropland and forest, respectively. The climate transition zones correspond to the vegetation transition zones. These lines are reasonable indexes of dry/wet climate zoning. (2) Annual averaged Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) decreases from Southeast to Northwest, from small to large followed by the arid area (0.11), semi-arid area (0.35), semi humid area (0.57) and humid area (0.68). The NDVI increases significantly in most regions of China during 1982-2015. Regional averaged NDVI increases significantly in arid area and semi-arid area with a trend of 0.002/10a and 0.008/10a, respectively, and it also increases in semi-humid area and humid area, but not significantly. (3) There are significant positive correlations between annnual averaged temperature and NDVI in the four dry and wet areas.The annual precipitation are significantly correlate to NDVI only in arid and semi-arid areas, and there are weak negative correlations between annual precipitation and NDVI in semi-humid and humid areas. The temperature explains about 30% of the temporal changes of NDVI in the four dry and wet areas. The explanation ratios of precipitation to the temporal changes of NDVI are lower than thoses of temperature. Precipitation explains greatly to the temporal changes of NDVI in arid areas (18%) and semi-arid areas (20%), and precipitation mainly affects the growth of vegetation in the northern China. (4) The monthly average NDVI has a significant increasing trend with the increase of temperature and precipitation. The increasing rate (0.026/℃) of NDVI in semi-humid area is the fastest with the increase of temperature. The NDVI in semi-arid area is the most sensitive to precipitation, and the increasing rate with the increase of precipitation is 0.027/mm.