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Understanding the mechanisms underlying drying-wetting cycles and their consequence for vegetation dynamic is important for sustainable eco-environmental development in alpine regions. We investigated these in this paper by taking the Yarlung Zangbo River (YZR) basin in southeast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as an example. The standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) in the region was calculated using the global land data assimilation system (GLDAS) from 1982 to 2015 to represent the drying-wetting cycles. The spatiotemporal variation of the dry-wet cycles and the responsive vegetation dynamic was investigated using the remotely sensed NDVI (normal difference vegetation index) from GIMMS (global inventory modeling and mapping studies). The results showed that: 1) Spatiotemporal variation of both precipitation and surface air temperature calculated from GLDAS agreed well with the ground-truth data. 2) The spatiotemporal changes in the dry-wet cycles calculated from the SPEI from 1982 to 2015 showed that the YZR basin became increasingly wet from 1982-1999 but changed course in 2000 and has been become increasingly drier since. In particular, the arid areas showed a tendency of wetting whereas the humid areas tended to become drying. 3) The overall vegetation calculated from the NDVI had been in increase from 1982 to 2000 but changed course in 2000 and has been in decline since. In terms of spatial distribution, areas with higher NDVI value represented vegetation degradation, while areas with lower NDVI represented an improvement in vegetation. 4) Approximately 71.83% of the areas saw a positive correlation between the SPEI and NDVI, mainly in the middle and low reaches of the basin which have a high vegetation coverage. Areas showing negative correlation between SPEI and NDVI were small and not statistically significant. The high consistency between spatiotemporal variation of the NDVI and SPEI indicated that the drying-wetting cycles played an important role in vegetation dynamics. 5) The driving forces of the dry-wet cycles were precipitation, surface air temperature, potential evapotranspiration and soil water content, which were consistent with that estimated from SPEI. In addition, the SPEI showed that soil water content was the dominant factor impacting the drying-wetting in 92.17% of the areas in the region. Results of this study have important implications for evaluating water cycles and the associated vegetation dynamics in alpine regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]