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Monitoring and mapping the sensitivity of grassland ecosystems to climate change is crucial for developing sustainable local grassland management strategies. The sensitivity of alpine grasslands to climate change is considered to be high on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), yet little is known about its spatial pattern, and particularly the variations between different elevations. Here, based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and three climate variables (air temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation), we modified a vegetation sensitivity index-approach to capture the relative sensitivity of alpine grassland productivity to climate variability on the QTP during 2000–2016. The results show that alpine grasslands on the southern QTP are more sensitive to climate variability overall, and that the climate factors driving alpine grassland dynamics are spatially heterogeneous. Alpine grasslands on the …