NDVI is an important characteristic index of vegetation change.This study is based on the MODIS NDVI from 2000-2016 and the surface meteorological data at the same period.The spatial and temporal changes of vegetation cover in the growing season of the Yellow River and its correlation with climatic factors,the temporal and spatial coupling relationship between vegetation and climate change in the source region of the Yellow River and the impact of climatic factors and the human activities on vegetation cover were analyzed and explored by using non-parametric test methods such as Mann-Kendall analysis,trend analysis,and multi-linear regression analysis.The results showed that the NDVI of the source region of the Yellow River had no significant abrupt year from 2000 to 2016;the NDVI of the 70.4%of the source region increased,and the growth rate was mostly between 0~0.004a.The meteorological factors played the major role in promoting the vegetation growth in the source region,and climatic factors contributed the positive values in 99%of the area.The proportion of areas where human activities played the positive role in NDVI increase was 55%,indicating that human activities and other factors had a certain positive impact on the ecological environment in the source region of the Yellow River,human activities had reduced NDVI in nearly 50%of regional,indicating that the trend of degraded alpine grassland had not been effectively curbed.