Vegetation growth is influenced not only by current climatic conditions but also by growth legacy signals and preceding climate variability. To investigate the impacts of vegetation growth carryover (VGC) and lagged climate effects (LCE) on vegetation at two distinct scales, tree-ring width (TRW) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI), we focused on Juniperus seravschanica, a dominant species in Tajikistan. Using both TRW and EVI datasets, we employed a vector autoregression (VAR) model to analyze the intensity and duration of vegetation responses to climate through VGC and LCE at different spatial and temporal scales. Our results revealed that both the VGC and LCE effects were stronger in TRW than in EVI. For both indicators, the peak intensity of LCE responses occurred within a lag of 0-3 years, suggesting that this time window is optimal for studying lagged climate effects on vegetation. Except in ZTW (EVI), the contribution of VGC to vegetation growth is much stronger than that of LCE. Moreover, VGC and LCE were found to be decoupled, indicating that their influences on vegetation growth are independent of each other. Ultimately, Juniperus seravschanica appears to adapt to harsh environmental conditions by modulating its growth through both VGC and LCE mechanisms. Investigating VGC and LCE using multi-scale vegetation indicators provides deeper insights into forest ecosystem functioning and offers a more comprehensive perspective for studying vegetation dynamics over time. These findings enhance our understanding of vegetation-climate interactions and offer valuable guidance for vegetation management in arid regions under the context of global climate change.