scholarly journals The Impact of Drought on Native Southern California Vegetation: Remote Sensing Analysis Using MODIS-Derived Time Series

2018 ◽  
Vol 123 (6) ◽  
pp. 1927-1939 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory S. Okin ◽  
Chunyu Dong ◽  
Katherine S. Willis ◽  
Thomas W. Gillespie ◽  
Glen M. MacDonald
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Castellaneta ◽  
Angelo Rita ◽  
J. Julio Camarero ◽  
Michele Colangelo ◽  
Angelo Nolè ◽  
...  

<p>Several die-off episodes related to heat weaves and drought spells have evidenced the high vulnerability of Mediterranean oak forests. These events consisted in the loss in tree vitality and manifested as growths decline, elevated crown transparency (defoliation) and rising tree mortality rate. In this context, the changes in vegetation productivity and canopy greenness may represent valuable proxies to analyze how extreme climatic events trigger forest die-off. Such changes in vegetation status may be analyzed using remote-sensing data, specifically multi-temporal spectral information. For instance, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) measures changes in vegetation greenness and is a proxy of changes in leaf area index (LAI), forest aboveground biomass and productivity. In this study, we analyzed the temporal patterns of vegetation in three Mediterranean oak forests showing recent die-off in response to the 2017 severe summer drought. For this purpose, we used an open-source platform (Google Earth Engine) to extract collections of MODIS NDVI time-series from 2000 to 2019. The analysis of both NDVI trends and anomalies were used to infer differential patterns of vegetation phenology among sites comparing plots where most trees were declining and showed high defoliation (test) versus plots were most trees were considered healthy (ctrl) and showed low or no defoliation. Here we discuss: i) the likely offset in NDVI time-series between test- versus ctrl- sites; and ii) the impact of summer droughts  on NDVI.</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: climate change, forest vulnerability, time series, remote sensing.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3628
Author(s):  
Gabriel Sidman ◽  
Sydney Fuhrig ◽  
Geeta Batra

Remote sensing has long been valued as a data source for monitoring environmental indicators and detecting trends in ecosystem stress from anthropogenic causes such as deforestation, river dams and air and water pollution. More recently, remote sensing analyses have been applied to evaluate the impacts of environmental projects and programs on reducing environmental stresses. Such evaluation has focused primarily on the change in above-surface vegetation such as forests. This study uses remote sensing ocean color products to evaluate the impact on reducing marine pollution of the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) portfolio of projects in the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem. Chlorophyll concentration was derived from satellite images over a time series from the 1990s, when GEF projects began, until the present. Results show a 50% increase in chlorophyll until 2011 followed by a 34% decrease until 2019, showing a potential delayed effect of pollution control efforts. The rich time series data is a major advantage to using geospatial analysis for evaluating the impacts of environmental interventions on marine pollution. However, one drawback to the method is that it provides insights into correlations but cannot attribute the results to any particular cause, such as GEF interventions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 905-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Echappé ◽  
Pierre Gernez ◽  
Vona Méléder ◽  
Bruno Jesus ◽  
Bruno Cognie ◽  
...  

Abstract. Satellite remote sensing (RS) is routinely used for the large-scale monitoring of microphytobenthos (MPB) biomass in intertidal mudflats and has greatly improved our knowledge of MPB spatio-temporal variability and its potential drivers. Processes operating on smaller scales however, such as the impact of benthic macrofauna on MPB development, to date remain underinvestigated. In this study, we analysed the influence of wild Crassostrea gigas oyster reefs on MPB biofilm development using multispectral RS. A 30-year time series (1985–2015) combining high-resolution (30 m) Landsat and SPOT data was built in order to explore the relationship between C. gigas reefs and MPB spatial distribution and seasonal dynamics, using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Emphasis was placed on the analysis of a before–after control-impact (BACI) experiment designed to assess the effect of oyster killing on the surrounding MPB biofilms. Our RS data reveal that the presence of oyster reefs positively affects MPB biofilm development. Analysis of the historical time series first showed the presence of persistent, highly concentrated MPB patches around oyster reefs. This observation was supported by the BACI experiment which showed that killing the oysters (while leaving the physical reef structure, i.e. oyster shells, intact) negatively affected both MPB biofilm biomass and spatial stability around the reef. As such, our results are consistent with the hypothesis of nutrient input as an explanation for the MPB growth-promoting effect of oysters, whereby organic and inorganic matter released through oyster excretion and biodeposition stimulates MPB biomass accumulation. MPB also showed marked seasonal variations in biomass and patch shape, size and degree of aggregation around the oyster reefs. Seasonal variations in biomass, with higher NDVI during spring and autumn, were consistent with those observed on broader scales in other European mudflats. Our study provides the first multi-sensor RS satellite evidence of the promoting and structuring effect of oyster reefs on MPB biofilms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1819
Author(s):  
Maninder Singh Dhillon ◽  
Thorsten Dahms ◽  
Carina Kuebert-Flock ◽  
Erik Borg ◽  
Christopher Conrad ◽  
...  

This study compares the performance of the five widely used crop growth models (CGMs): World Food Studies (WOFOST), Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES)-Wheat, AquaCrop, cropping systems simulation model (CropSyst), and the semi-empiric light use efficiency approach (LUE) for the prediction of winter wheat biomass on the Durable Environmental Multidisciplinary Monitoring Information Network (DEMMIN) test site, Germany. The study focuses on the use of remote sensing (RS) data, acquired in 2015, in CGMs, as they offer spatial information on the actual conditions of the vegetation. Along with this, the study investigates the data fusion of Landsat (30 m) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (500 m) data using the spatial and temporal reflectance adaptive reflectance fusion model (STARFM) fusion algorithm. These synthetic RS data offer a 30-m spatial and one-day temporal resolution. The dataset therefore provides the necessary information to run CGMs and it is possible to examine the fine-scale spatial and temporal changes in crop phenology for specific fields, or sub sections of them, and to monitor crop growth daily, considering the impact of daily climate variability. The analysis includes a detailed comparison of the simulated and measured crop biomass. The modelled crop biomass using synthetic RS data is compared to the model outputs using the original MODIS time series as well. On comparison with the MODIS product, the study finds the performance of CGMs more reliable, precise, and significant with synthetic time series. Using synthetic RS data, the models AquaCrop and LUE, in contrast to other models, simulate the winter wheat biomass best, with an output of high R2 (>0.82), low RMSE (<600 g/m2) and significant p-value (<0.05) during the study period. However, inputting MODIS data makes the models underperform, with low R2 (<0.68) and high RMSE (>600 g/m2). The study shows that the models requiring fewer input parameters (AquaCrop and LUE) to simulate crop biomass are highly applicable and precise. At the same time, they are easier to implement than models, which need more input parameters (WOFOST and CERES-Wheat).


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 2815
Author(s):  
Gwanggil Jeon ◽  
Valerio Bellandi ◽  
Abdellah Chehri

This Special Issue intended to probe the impact of the adoption of advanced machine learning methods in remote sensing applications including those considering recent big data analysis, compression, multichannel, sensor and prediction techniques. In principal, this edition of the Special Issue is focused on time series data processing for remote sensing applications with special emphasis on advanced machine learning platforms. This issue is intended to provide a highly recognized international forum to present recent advances in time series remote sensing. After review, a total of eight papers have been accepted for publication in this issue.


Agriculture ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanfei Wei ◽  
Xinhua Tong ◽  
Gang Chen ◽  
Deqiang Liu ◽  
Zhenfeng Han

Sustainable agricultural practices necessitate accurate baseline data of crop types and their detailed spatial distribution. Compared with field surveys, remote sensing has demonstrated superior performance, offering spatially explicit crop distribution in a timely manner. Recent studies have taken advantage of remote sensing time series to capture the variation in plant phenology, inferring major crop types. However, such an approach was rarely used to extract detailed, multiple crop types spanning a large area, and the impact of topography has yet to be well analyzed in mountainous regions. This study aims to answer two questions in crop type extraction: (i) Is it feasible to accurately map multiple crop types over a large mountainous area with phenology-based modeling? (ii) What are the effects of topography in such modeling? To answer the questions, phenological metrics were extracted from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite time series, and the random forests classifier was used to map 12 crop types in South China (236,700 km2), featuring a subtropical monsoon climate and high topographic variation. Our study revealed promising results using MODIS EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) time series, although EVI outperformed NDVI (overall accuracy: 85% versus 81%). The spectral and temporal metrics of plant phenology significantly contributed to crop identification, where the spectral information exhibited greater importance. The increase of slope led to a decrease in model accuracy in general. However, uniformly distributed tree plantations (e.g., tea-oil camellia, gum, and tea trees) being cultivated on large slopes (>15 degrees) achieved accuracies greater than 80%.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 3383
Author(s):  
Nan Li ◽  
Pei Zhan ◽  
Yaozhong Pan ◽  
Xiufang Zhu ◽  
Muyi Li ◽  
...  

Accurate evaluation of start of season (SOS) changes is essential to assess the ecosystem’s response to climate change. Smoothing method is an understudied factor that can lead to great uncertainties in SOS extraction, and the applicable situation for different smoothing methods and the impact of smoothing parameters on SOS extraction accuracy are of critical importance to be clarified. In this paper, we use MOD13Q1 normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data and SOS observations from eight agrometeorological stations on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP) during 2001–2011 to compare the SOS extraction accuracies of six popular smoothing methods (Changing Weight (CW), Savitzky-Golay (SG), Asymmetric Gaussian (AG), Double-logistic (DL), Whittaker Smoother (WS) and Harmonic Analysis of NDVI Time-Series (HANTS)) for two types of different SOS extraction methods (dynamic threshold (DT) with 9 different thresholds and double logistic (Zhang)). Furthermore, a parameter sensitivity analysis for each smoothing method is performed to quantify the impacts of smoothing parameters on SOS extraction. Finally, the suggested smoothing methods and reference ranges for the parameters of different smoothing methods were given for grassland phenology extraction on the QTP. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) the smoothing methods and SOS extraction methods jointly determine the SOS extraction accuracy, and a bad denoising performance of smoothing method does not necessarily lead to a low SOS extraction accuracy; (2) the default parameters for most smoothing methods can result in acceptable SOS extraction accuracies, but for some smoothing methods (e.g., WS) a parameter optimization is necessary, and the optimal parameters of the smoothing method can increase the R2 and reduce the RMSE of SOS extraction by up to 25% and 331%; (3) The main influencing factor of the SOS extraction using the DT method is the stability of the minimum value in the NDVI curve, and for the Zhang method the curve shape before the peak of the NDVI curve impacts the most; (4) HANTS is the most stable method no matter with (fitness = 35.05) or without parameter optimization (fitness = 33.52), which is recommended for QTP grassland SOS extraction. The findings of this study imply that remote sensing-based vegetation phenology extraction can be highly uncertain, and a careful selection and parameterization of the time-series smoothing method should be taken to achieve an accurate result.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Echappé ◽  
Pierre Gernez ◽  
Vona Méléder ◽  
Bruno Jesus ◽  
Bruno Cognie ◽  
...  

Abstract. Satellite remote sensing (RS) is routinely used for the large-scale monitoring of microphytobenthos (MPB) biomass in intertidal mudflats, and has greatly improved our knowledge of MPB spatio-temporal variability and its potential drivers. Processes operating at smaller scales however, such as the impact of benthic macrofauna on MPB development, to date remain underinvestigated. In this study, we analysed the influence of wild Crassostrea gigas oyster reefs on MPB biofilm development using multispectral RS. A 30-year time series (1985–2015) combining high resolution (30 m) Landsat and SPOT data was built in order to explore the relationship between C. gigas reefs and MPB spatial distribution and seasonal dynamics, using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Emphasis was placed on the analysis of a before after control impact (BACI) experiment designed to assess the effect of oyster killing on the surrounding MPB biofilms. Our RS data reveal that the presence of oyster reefs positively affects MPB biofilm development. Analysis of the historical time series first showed the presence of persistent, highly concentrated MPB patches around oyster reefs. This observation was then confirmed by the BACI experiment which showed that killing the oysters (while leaving the physical reef structure, i.e. oyster shells, intact) negatively affected both MPB biofilm biomass and spatial stability around the reef. As such, our results are consistent with the hypothesis of nutrient input as an explanation for the MPB growth promoting effect of oysters, whereby organic and inorganic matter released through oyster excretion and biodeposition stimulates MPB biomass accumulation. MPB also showed marked seasonal variations in biomass and patch shape, size and degree of aggregation around the oyster reefs. Seasonal variations in biomass, with higher NDVI during spring and fall, were consistent with those observed at broader scales in other European mudflats. Our study provides the first multi-sensor RS satellite evidence of the promoting and structuring effect of oyster reefs on MPB biofilms.


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