The rapid urbanization process has threatened the ecological environment. Net primary productivity (NPP) can effectively indicate vegetation growth status in an urban area. In this paper, we evaluated the change in NPP in China and China’s urban lands and assessed the impact of temperature, precipitation, the sunshine duration, and vegetation loss due to urban expansion on NPP in China’s three fast-growing urban agglomerations and their buffer zones (~5–20 km). The results indicated that the NPP in China exhibited an increasing trend. In contrast, the NPP in China’s urban lands showed a decreasing trend. However, after 1997, China’s increasing trend in NPP slowed (from 9.59 Tg C/yr to 8.71 Tg C/yr), while the decreasing trend in NPP in China’s urban lands weakened. Moreover, we found that the NPP in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration (BTHUA), the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA), and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration (PRDUA) showed a decreasing trend. The NPP in the BTHUA showed an increasing trend in the buffer zones, which was positively affected by temperature and sunshine duration. Additionally, nonsignificant vegetation loss could promote the increase of NPP. In the YRDUA, the increasing temperature was the main factor that promoted the increase of NPP. The effect of temperature on NPP could almost offset the inhibition of vegetation reduction on the increase of NPP as the buffer zone expanded. In PRDUA, sunshine duration and vegetation loss were the main factors decreasing NPP. Our results will support future urban NPP prediction and government policymaking.

The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) is ecologically fragile and is especially sensitive to climate change. Previous studies have shown that the vegetation on the QTP is undergoing overall greening with variations along altitudinal gradients. However, the mechanisms that cause the differences in the spatiotemporal patterns of vegetation greening among different types of terrain and vegetation have not received sufficient attention. Therefore, in this study, we used a Landsat NDVI time-series for the period 1992–2020 and climate data to observe the effects of terrain and vegetation types on the spatiotemporal patterns in vegetation greening on the QTP and to analyze the factors driving this greening using the geographical detector and the velocity of the vertical movement of vegetation greenness isolines. The results showed the following: (1) The vertical movement of the vegetation greenness isolines was affected by the temperature and precipitation at all elevations. The precipitation had a more substantial effect than the temperature below 3000 m. In contrast, above 3000 m, the temperature had a greater effect than the precipitation. (2) The velocity of the vertical movement of the vegetation greenness isolines of woody plants was higher than that of herbaceous plants. (3) The influence of slope on the vertical movement of vegetation greenness isolines was more significant than that of the aspect. The results of this study provided details of the spatiotemporal differences in vegetation greening between different types of terrain and vegetation at a 30-m scale as well as of the underlying factors driving this greening. These results will help to support ecological protection policies on the QTP.