In the context of global warming, the frequent occurrence of drought has become one of the main reasons affecting the loss of gross primary productivity (GPP) of terrestrial ecosystems. Under the influence of human activities, the vegetation greening trend of the Loess Plateau increased significantly. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the response of GPP to drought in the Loess Plateau under the greening trend. Here, we comprehensively assessed the ability of vegetation indices (VIs) and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) to capture GPP changes at different seasonal scales and during drought. Specifically, we utilized three vegetation indices: normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), near-infrared reflectance of vegetation (NIR_V), and kernel NDVI index (kNDVI), and determined the drought period of the Loess Plateau in 2001 based on the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and the standardized soil moisture index (SSMI). Moreover, the anomalies of VIs and SIF during the drought period and the relationship with GPP anomalies were compared. The results showed that both SIF and VIs were able to capture changes during the drought period as well as in normal years. Overall, SIF captured drought changes better due to water and heat stress as well as GPP changes compared to VIs. Across different time scales, SIF showed the strongest relationship with GPP (meanR² = 0.85), followed by NIR_V (meanR² = 0.84), NDVI (meanR² = 0.76), and kNDVI (meanR² = 0.74), suggesting that SIF is more sensitive to physiological changes in vegetation. Notably, kNDVI performed best in sparse vegetation (meanR² = 0.85). In capture during drought, NIR_V and kNDVI performed better in less productive land classes; SIF showed superior capture as land use class productivity increased. In addition, GPP anomalies correlated better with kNDVI anomalies (meanR² = 0.50) than with other index anomalies. In the future, efforts to integrate the respective strengths of SIF, NIR_V, and kNDVI will improve our understanding of GPP changes.

An accurate assessment of the spatial–temporal variations in regional net ecosystem productivity (NEP), water use efficiency (WUE), and carbon use efficiency (CUE) are vital for understanding the water–carbon cycle. We analyzed the spatial–temporal patterns of the NEP, WUE, and CUE in the middle reaches of the Yellow River (MRYR) from 2001 to 2022, and the factors that influenced them using remote sensing data, NEP estimation models, and various statistical methods. The results indicate that the recovery of the ecosystem in the MRYR is a result of the combined effects of climate change and human activities. Climate change in the MRYR led to warming and humidification from 2001 to 2022. The NEP, WUE, and CUE were characterized by increasing trends, with average growth rates of 7.75 gC m⁻²a⁻¹, 0.012 gC m⁻² mm⁻¹a⁻¹, and 0.009a⁻¹, respectively. For four vegetation types, the interannual rates of change were, in descending order, grassland, cropland, shrubs, and forest. Spatially, the NEP, WUE, and CUE showed significant regional heterogeneity, increasing from the northwest to the southeast. Based on an analysis of the interannual anomalies, precipitation accumulation contributed to carbon sink accumulation. The correlation of the NEP, WUE, and CUE with the drought severity index (DSI) was high, and their correlation with precipitation showed latitudinal zonality, which suggests that precipitation (PRE) is the main climatic factor influencing the water–carbon cycle in the MRYR rather than temperature (TEM). There were 67,671.27 km² of land that changed use during 2001–2022, and 15.07 Tg of NEP was added to these areas.