Assessment of terrestrial ecosystem sensitivity to climate change in arid, semi-arid, sub-humid, and humid regions using EVI, LAI, and SIF products

•Spatiotemporal variations of VSI were evaluated globally.•Multiple vegetation proxies were considered to support our conclusions robustly.•VSI parabolically related to aridity index in arid areas.•VSI shows a declining trend globally but an increasing trend in arid areas.•Temperature (precipitation) controls spatial (temporal) variations of VSI. Arid and humid ecosystems are undergoing significant changes over the past decades due to the warming temperature and frequent occurrence of climate extremes. Quantifying climatic vegetation sensitivity in regions with different climate classifications is crucial for understanding the interaction mechanisms between vegetation and ongoing climate change. However, such knowledge about the spatiotemporal variations of vegetation sensitivity and its climate driving factors in arid and humid regions is still unclear. Based on this consideration, a moving-window-based Vegetation Sensitivity Index (VSI) scheme was applied to Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), and Solar-induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (GOSIF) data to evaluate the spatiotemporal variations of terrestrial ecosystem in response to climate changes and explore its driving climatic factors from 2003 to 2020. Results indicated that high VSI (>60) was observed for tropical rainforests in humid regions and central Eurasia in semi-arid regions. By contrast, low VSI (