scholarly journals Contrasting 20-year trends in NDVI at two Siberian larch forests with and without multiyear waterlogging-induced disturbances

Author(s):  
Hirohiko Nagano ◽  
Ayumi Kotani ◽  
Hiroki Mizuochi ◽  
Kazuhito Ichii ◽  
Hironari Kanamori ◽  
...  

Abstract The fate of a boreal forest may depend on the trend in its normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), such as whether the NDVI has been increasing significantly over the past few decades. In this study, we analyzed the responses of two Siberian larch forests at Spasskaya Pad and Elgeeii in eastern Siberia to various waterlogging-induced disturbances, using satellite-based NDVI and meteorological data for the 2000–2019 period. The forest at Spasskaya Pad experienced waterlogging (i.e., flooding events caused by abnormal precipitation) during 2005–2008 that damaged canopy-forming larch trees and increased the abundance of water-resistant understory vegetation. By contrast, the forest at Elgeeii did not experience any remarkable disturbance, such as tree dieback or changes in the vegetation community. Significant increasing NDVI trends were found in May and June–August at Elgeeii (p < 0.05), whereas no significant trends were found at Spasskaya Pad (p > 0.05). NDVI anomalies in May and June–August at Elgeeii were significantly associated with precipitation or temperature depending on the season (p < 0.05), whereas no significant relationships were found at Spasskaya Pad (p > 0.05). Thus, the 20-year NDVI trend and NDVI–temperature–precipitation relationship differed between the two larch forests, although no significant trends in temperature or precipitation were observed. These findings indicate that nonsignificant NDVI trends for Siberian larch forests may reflect waterlogging-induced dieback of larch trees, with a concomitant increase in water-resistant understory vegetation.

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biao Zeng ◽  
Fuguang Zhang ◽  
Taibao Yang ◽  
Jiaguo Qi ◽  
Mihretab G Ghebrezgabher

Alpine sparsely vegetated areas (ASVAs) in mountains are sensitive to climate change and rarely studied. In this study, we focused on the response of ASVA distribution to climate change in the eastern Qilian Mountains (EQLM) from the 1990s to the 2010s. The ASVA distribution ranges in the EQLM during the past three decades were obtained from the Thematic Mapper remote sensing digital images by using the threshold of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and artificial visual interpretation. Results indicated that the ASVA shrank gradually in the EQLM and lost its area by approximately 11.4% from the 1990s to the 2010s. The shrunken ASVA with markedly more area than the expanded one was mainly located at altitudes from 3700 m to 4300 m, which were comparatively lower than the average altitude of the ASVA distribution ranges. This condition led to the low ASVA boundaries in the EQLM moving upwards at a significant velocity of 22 m/decade at the regional scale. This vertical zonal process was modulated by topography-induced differences in local hydrothermal conditions. Thus, the ASVA shrank mainly in its lower parts with mild and sunny slopes. Annual maximum NDVI in the transition zone increased significantly and showed a stronger positive correlation with significantly increasing temperature than insignificant precipitation variations during 1990–2015. The ASVA shrinkage and up-shifting of its boundary were attributed to climate warming, which facilitated the upper part of alpine meadow in the EQLM by releasing the low temperature limitation on vegetation growth.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harsh Kamath ◽  
Chanchal Chauhan ◽  
Sameer Mishra ◽  
Aariz Ahmed ◽  
Raman Srikanth

&lt;p&gt;The upper Hunter Valley region in New South Wales (NSW), Australia has several open-cast coal mines, which supply coal to two large thermal power plants (TPPs) in the area, beside the export market. Long-term Particulate Matter (PM) pollutants and meteorological measurements are recorded by a network of 13 NSW government-owned continuous monitoring stations in the upper Hunter Valley region. The Ramagundam area in the state of Telangana, India has similar pollution source characteristics (coal mines and TPPs), but PM pollutant measurements are largely carried out with manual monitoring stations at 24-hour intervals, not more than twice a week. As the coal and overburden excavation from open-cast coal mines and stack emissions from TPPs lead to local PM pollution, we have used MODIS-MAIAC Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) at 550 nm and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) along with the local meteorological data such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction to model PM10 and PM2.5 at the upper Hunter Valley and Ramagundam regions. Our model can explain about 60% of variation in PM10 (p-value &lt; 0.0001), while a similar model is able to explain about 75% of the variation in the PM2.5 (p-value &lt; 0.0001). We will extend our model results from Hunter Valley to Ramagundam area and comment on the potential of using geospatial products such as AOD as a proxy to ground-based pollution measurements in developing countries such as India, where pollution data is scarce.&lt;/p&gt;


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Loranty ◽  
Sergey Davydov ◽  
Heather Kropp ◽  
Heather Alexander ◽  
Michelle Mack ◽  
...  

Boreal forests are changing in response to climate, with potentially important feedbacks to regional and global climate through altered carbon cycle and albedo dynamics. These feedback processes will be affected by vegetation changes, and feedback strengths will largely rely on the spatial extent and timing of vegetation change. Satellite remote sensing is widely used to monitor vegetation dynamics, and vegetation indices (VIs) are frequently used to characterize spatial and temporal trends in vegetation productivity. In this study we combine field observations of larch forest cover across a 25 km2 upland landscape in northeastern Siberia with high-resolution satellite observations to determine how the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) are related to forest cover. Across 46 forest stands ranging from 0% to 90% larch canopy cover, we find either no change, or declines in NDVI and EVI derived from PlanetScope CubeSat and Landsat data with increasing forest cover. In conjunction with field observations of NDVI, these results indicate that understory vegetation likely exerts a strong influence on vegetation indices in these ecosystems. This suggests that positive decadal trends in NDVI in Siberian larch forests may correspond primarily to increases in understory productivity, or even to declines in forest cover. Consequently, positive NDVI trends may be associated with declines in terrestrial carbon storage and increases in albedo, rather than increases in carbon storage and decreases in albedo that are commonly assumed. Moreover, it is also likely that important ecological changes such as large changes in forest density or variable forest regrowth after fire are not captured by long-term NDVI trends.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 2102
Author(s):  
Elmar Ritz ◽  
Jarle W. Bjerke ◽  
Hans Tømmervik

In this study, we focused on three species that have proven to be vulnerable to winter stress: Empetrum nigrum, Vaccinium vitis-idaea and Hylocomium splendens. Our objective was to determine plant traits suitable for monitoring plant stress as well as trait shifts during spring. To this end, we used a combination of active and passive handheld normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) sensors, RGB indices derived from ordinary cameras, an optical chlorophyll and flavonol sensor (Dualex), and common plant traits that are sensitive to winter stress, i.e. height, specific leaf area (SLA). Our results indicate that NDVI is a good predictor for plant stress, as it correlates well with height (r = 0.70, p < 0.001) and chlorophyll content (r = 0.63, p < 0.001). NDVI is also related to soil depth (r = 0.45, p < 0.001) as well as to plant stress levels based on observations in the field (r = −0.60, p < 0.001). Flavonol content and SLA remained relatively stable during spring. Our results confirm a multi-method approach using NDVI data from the Sentinel-2 satellite and active near-remote sensing devices to determine the contribution of understory vegetation to the total ecosystem greenness. We identified low soil depth to be the major stressor for understory vegetation in the studied plots. The RGB indices were good proxies to detect plant stress (e.g. Channel G%: r = −0.77, p < 0.001) and showed high correlation with NDVI (r = 0.75, p < 0.001). Ordinary cameras and modified cameras with the infrared filter removed were found to perform equally well.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Potter ◽  
Olivia Alexander

Understanding trends in vegetation phenology and growing season productivity at a regional scale is important for global change studies, particularly as linkages can be made between climate shifts and the vegetation’s potential to sequester or release carbon into the atmosphere. Trends and geographic patterns of change in vegetation growth and phenology from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data sets were analyzed for the state of Alaska over the period 2000 to 2018. Phenology metrics derived from the MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time-series at 250 m resolution tracked changes in the total integrated greenness cover (TIN), maximum annual NDVI (MAXN), and start of the season timing (SOST) date over the past two decades. SOST trends showed significantly earlier seasonal vegetation greening (at more than one day per year) across the northeastern Brooks Range Mountains, on the Yukon-Kuskokwim coastal plain, and in the southern coastal areas of Alaska. TIN and MAXN have increased significantly across the western Arctic Coastal Plain and within the perimeters of most large wildfires of the Interior boreal region that burned since the year 2000, whereas TIN and MAXN have decreased notably in watersheds of Bristol Bay and in the Cook Inlet lowlands of southwestern Alaska, in the same regions where earlier-trending SOST was also detected. Mapping results from this MODIS time-series analysis have identified a new database of localized study locations across Alaska where vegetation phenology has recently shifted notably, and where land cover types and ecosystem processes could be changing rapidly.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spiliotopoulos ◽  
Loukas

The objective of the current study was the investigation of specific relationships between crop coefficients and vegetation indices (VI) computed at the water-limited environment of Lake Karla Watershed, Thessaly, in central Greece. A Mapping ET (evapotranspiration) at high Resolution and with Internalized Calibration (METRIC) model was used to derive crop coefficient values during the growing season of 2012. The proposed methodology was developed using medium resolution Landsat 7 ETM+ images and meteorological data from a local weather station. Cotton, sugar beets, and corn fields were utilized. During the same period, spectral signatures were obtained for each crop using the field spectroradiometer GER1500 (Spectra Vista Corporation, NY, U.S.A.). Relative spectral responses (RSR) were used for the filtering of the specific reflectance values giving the opportunity to match the spectral measurements with Landsat ETM+ bands. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index 2 (EVI2) were then computed, and empirical relationships were derived using linear regression analysis. NDVI, SAVI, and EVI2 were tested separately for each crop. The resulting equations explained those relationships with a very high R2 value (>0.86). These relationships have been validated against independent data. Validation using a new image file after the experimental period gives promising results, since the modeled image file is similar in appearance to the initial one, especially when a crop mask is applied. The CROPWAT model supports those results when using the new crop coefficients to estimate the related crop water requirements. The main benefit of the new approach is that the derived relationships are better adjusted to the crops. The described approach is also less time-consuming because there is no need for atmospheric correction when working with ground spectral measurements.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Chaobin Zhang ◽  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Zhaoqi Wang ◽  
Jianlong Li ◽  
Inakwu Odeh

Both vegetation phenology and net primary productivity (NPP) are crucial topics under the background of global change, but the relationships between them are far from clear. In this study, we quantified the spatial-temporal vegetation start (SOS), end (EOS), and length (LOS) of the growing season and NPP for the temperate grasslands of China based on a 34-year time-series (1982–2015) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from global inventory modeling and mapping studies (GIMMS) and meteorological data. Then, we demonstrated the relationships between NPP and phenology dynamics. The results showed that more than half of the grasslands experienced significant changes in their phenology and NPP. The rates of their changes exhibited spatial heterogeneity, but their phenological changes could be roughly divided into three different clustered trend regions, while NPP presented a polarized pattern that increased in the south and decreased in the north. Different trend zones’ analyses revealed that phenology trends accelerated after 1997, which was a turning point. Prolonged LOS did not necessarily increase the current year’s NPP. SOS correlated with the NPP most closely during the same year compared to EOS and LOS. Delayed SOS contributed to increasing the summer NPP, and vice versa. Thus, SOS could be a predictor for current year grass growth. In view of this result, we suggest that future studies should further explore the mechanisms of SOS and plant growth.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 2534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willibroad Gabila Buma ◽  
Sang-Il Lee

As the world population keeps increasing and cultivating more land, the extraction of vegetation conditions using remote sensing is important for monitoring land changes in areas with limited ground observations. Water supply in wetlands directly affects plant growth and biodiversity, which makes monitoring drought an important aspect in such areas. Vegetation Temperature Condition Index (VTCI) which depends on thermal stress and vegetation state, is widely used as an indicator for drought monitoring using satellite data. In this study, using clear-sky Landsat multispectral images, VTCI was derived from Land Surface Temperature (LST) and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Derived VTCI was used to observe the drought patterns of the wetlands in Lake Chad between 1999 and 2018. The proportion of vegetation from WorldView-3 images was later introduced to evaluate the methods used. With an overall accuracy exceeding 90% and a kappa coefficient greater than 0.8, these methods accurately acquired vegetation training samples and adaptive thresholds, allowing for accurate estimations of the spatially distributed VTCI. The results obtained present a coherent spatial distribution of VTCI values estimated using LST and NDVI. Most areas during the study period experienced mild drought conditions, though severe cases were often seen around the northern part of the lake. With limited in-situ data in this area, this study presents how VTCI estimations can be developed for drought monitoring using satellite observations. This further shows the usefulness of remote sensing to improve the information about areas that are difficult to access or with poor availability of conventional meteorological data.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 4063
Author(s):  
Jie Xue ◽  
Yanyu Wang ◽  
Hongfen Teng ◽  
Nan Wang ◽  
Danlu Li ◽  
...  

Climate change has proven to have a profound impact on the growth of vegetation from various points of view. Understanding how vegetation changes and its response to climatic shift is of vital importance for describing their mutual relationships and projecting future land–climate interactions. Arid areas are considered to be regions that respond most strongly to climate change. Xinjiang, as a typical dryland in China, has received great attention lately for its unique ecological environment. However, comprehensive studies examining vegetation change and its driving factors across Xinjiang are rare. Here, we used the remote sensing datasets (MOD13A2 and TerraClimate) and data of meteorological stations to investigate the trends in the dynamic change in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and its response to climate change from 2000 to 2019 across Xinjiang based on the Google Earth platform. We found that the increment rates of growth-season mean and maximum NDVI were 0.0011 per year and 0.0013 per year, respectively, by averaging all of the pixels from the region. The results also showed that, compared with other land use types, cropland had the fastest greening rate, which was mainly distributed among the northern Tianshan Mountains and Southern Junggar Basin and the northern margin of the Tarim Basin. The vegetation browning areas primarily spread over the Ili River Valley where most grasslands were distributed. Moreover, there was a trend of warming and wetting across Xinjiang over the past 20 years; this was determined by analyzing the climate data. Through correlation analysis, we found that the contribution of precipitation to NDVI (R2 = 0.48) was greater than that of temperature to NDVI (R2 = 0.42) throughout Xinjiang. The Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) was also computed to better investigate the correlation between climate change and vegetation growth in arid areas. Our results could improve the local management of dryland ecosystems and provide insights into the complex interaction between vegetation and climate change.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaled Missaoui ◽  
Rachid Gharzouli ◽  
Yamna Djellouli ◽  
Frençois Messner

Abstract. Missaoui K, Gharzouli R, Djellouli Y, Messner F. 2020. Phenological behavior of Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica)  forest to snow and precipitation variability in Boutaleb and Babors Mountains, Algeria. Biodiversitas 21: 239-245. Understanding the changes in snow and precipitation variability and how forest vegetation response to such changes is very important to maintain the long-term sustainability of the forest. However, relatively few studies have investigated this phenomenon in Algeria. This study was aimed to find out the response of Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica (Endl.) G.Manetti ex Carrière) forest in two areas (i.e Boutaleb and Babors Mountains) and their response to the precipitation and snow variability. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) generated from satellite images of MODIS time series was used to survey the changes of the Atlas cedar throughout the study area well as dataset of monthly precipitation and snow of the province of Setif (northeast of Algeria) from 2000 to 2018. Descriptive analysis using Standarized Precipitation Index (SPI) showed the wetter years were more frequent in the past than in the last two decades. The NDVI values changes in both areas with high values were detected in Babors Mountains with statistically significant differences. Our findings showed important difference in Atlas cedar phenology from Boutaleb mountains to Babors Mountains which likely related to snow factor.


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