scholarly journals Growing Season Vegetation Dynamics Based on NDVI and the Driving Forces in Nepal during 1982-2015

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Binod Baniya ◽  
Qiuhong Tang ◽  
Madan Koirala ◽  
Kedar Rijal ◽  
Giri Kattel

Monitoring and attributing growing season vegetation dynamics have become crucial for maintaining the structure and function of the ecosystem. The objective of this research was to examine the spatial and temporal vegetation changes and explore their driving forces during growing season in Nepal. It also explored the variation of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in different altitudes at each 100m interval. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NDVI, monthly temperature, precipitation and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 90m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) were used. The linear regression model, Sen’s slope, Mann Kendall test and Pearson correlation between NDVI and climate, i.e., temperature and precipitation were computed. The driving forces were identified based on threshold segmentation method. Our results showed positive intensity of vegetation change. The NDVI has significantly increased at the rate of 0.001yr-1, 0.0005yr-1 and 0.002yr-1 in growing season, spring and autumn but it has insignificantly increased at the rate of 0.0003yr-1 in summer. In the meantime, growing season temperature has significantly increased with an average warming trend of 0.03&deg;Cyr-1 but precipitation decreased at the rate of 2.76 mm yr-1 during 1982-2015. The NDVI increased in 84.20% (53.08% significant) of the area. The correlation between NDVI and temperature was found positive whereas correlation with precipitation was negative. Spatially, 84.05% of the study area found positive correlation between NDVI and temperature with 25.72% significance (p<0.05) which was very less with precipitation. Our results demonstrate that NDVI was strongly correlated with temperature compared with precipitation. Beyond the climate, NDVI changes were also attributed to multi-control environments and ecological restoration in Nepal.  

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-24
Author(s):  
Binod Baniya ◽  
Narayan Prasad Gaire ◽  
Qua-anan Techato ◽  
Yubraj Dhakal ◽  
Yam Prasad Dhital

Identification of high altitudinal vegetation dynamics using remote sensing is important because of the complex topography and environment in the Himalayas. Langtang National Park is the first Himalayan park in Nepal representing the best area to study vegetation change in the central Himalaya region because of the high altitudinal gradient and relatively less disturbed region. This study aimed at mapping vegetation in Langtang National Park and its treeline ecotone using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Two treeline sites with an altitude of 3927 and 3802 meters above sea level (masl) were selected, and species density was measured during the field survey. The linear slope for each pixel and the Mann Kendall test to measure significant trends were used. The results showed that NDVI has significantly increased at the rate of 0.002yr-1 in Langtang National Park and 0.003yr-1 in treeline ecotone during 2000-2017. The average 68.73% equivalents to 1463 km2 of Langtang National Park are covered by vegetation. At the same time, 16.45% equivalents to 350.43 km2 are greening, and 0.25%, i.e., 5.43 km2 are found browning. In treeline ecotone, the vegetation is mostly occupied by grasses, shrublands and small trees where the NDVI was found from 0.1 to 0.5. The relative changes of NDVI in barren lands are negative and vegetative lands above 0.5 NDVI are positive between 2000 and 2017. The dominant treeline vegetation were Abies spectabilis, Rhododendron campanulatum, Betula utilis and Sorbus microphyla, with the vegetation density of 839.28 and 775 individuals per hectare in sites A and B, respectively. The higher average NDVI values, significantly increased NDVI, and higher density of vegetation in both A and B sites indicate that the vegetation in treeline ecotone is obtaining a good environment in the Himalayas of Nepal.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siqin Tong ◽  
Yuhai Bao ◽  
Rigele Te ◽  
Qiyun Ma ◽  
Si Ha ◽  
...  

This research is based on the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) which represent the drought and vegetation condition on land. Take the linear regression method and Pearson correlation analysis to study the spatial and temporal evolution of SPEI and NDVI and the drought effect on vegetation. The results show that (1) during 1961–2015, SPEI values at different time scales showed a downward trend; SPEI-12 has a mutation in 1997 and the SPEI value significantly decreased after this year. (2) During 2000–2015, the annual growing season SPEI has an obvious upward trend in time and the apparent wetting spatially. (3) In the recent 16 years, the growing season NDVI showed an upward trend and more than 80% of the total area’s vegetation increased in Xilingol. (4) Vegetation coverage in Xilingol grew better in humid years and opposite in arid years. SPEI and NDVI had a significant positive correlation; 98% of the region showed positive correlation, indicating that meteorological drought affects vegetation growth more in arid and semiarid region. (5) The effect of drought on vegetation has lag effect, and the responses of different grassland types to different scales of drought were different.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Measho ◽  
Baozhang Chen ◽  
Yongyut Trisurat ◽  
Petri Pellikka ◽  
Lifeng Guo ◽  
...  

There is a growing concern over change in vegetation dynamics and drought patterns with the increasing climate variability and warming trends in Africa, particularly in the semiarid regions of East Africa. Here, several geospatial techniques and datasets were used to analyze the spatio-temporal vegetation dynamics in response to climate (precipitation and temperature) and drought in Eritrea from 2000 to 2017. A pixel-based trend analysis was performed, and a Pearson correlation coefficient was computed between vegetation indices and climate variables. In addition, vegetation condition index (VCI) and standard precipitation index (SPI) classifications were used to assess drought patterns in the country. The results demonstrated that there was a decreasing NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) slope at both annual and seasonal time scales. In the study area, 57.1% of the pixels showed a decreasing annual NDVI trend, while the significance was higher in South-Western Eritrea. In most of the agro-ecological zones, the shrublands and croplands showed decreasing NDVI trends. About 87.16% of the study area had a positive correlation between growing season NDVI and precipitation (39.34%, p < 0.05). The Gash Barka region of the country showed the strongest and most significant correlations between NDVI and precipitation values. The specific drought assessments based on VCI and SPI summarized that Eritrea had been exposed to recurrent droughts of moderate to extreme conditions during the last 18 years. Based on the correlation analysis and drought patterns, this study confirms that low precipitation was mainly attributed to the slowly declining vegetation trends and increased drought conditions in the semi-arid region. Therefore, immediate action is needed to minimize the negative impact of climate variability and increasing aridity in vegetation and ecosystem services.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanji Wang ◽  
Xiangjin Shen ◽  
Ming Jiang ◽  
Xianguo Lu

Songnen Plain is a representative semi-arid marshland in China. The Songnen Plain marshes have undergone obvious loss during the past decades. In order to protect and restore wetland vegetation, it is urgent to investigate the vegetation change and its response to climate change in the Songnen Plain marshes. Based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and climate data, we investigated the spatiotemporal change of vegetation and its relationship with temperature and precipitation in the Songnen Plain marshes. During 2000–2016, the growing season mean NDVI of the Songnen Plain marshes significantly (p < 0.01) increased at a rate of 0.06/decade. For the climate change effects on vegetation, the growing season precipitation had a significant positive effect on the growing season NDVI of marshes. In addition, this study first found asymmetric effects of daytime maximum temperature (Tmax) and nighttime minimum temperature (Tmin) on NDVI of the Songnen Plain marshes: The growing season NDVI correlated negatively with Tmax but positively with Tmin. Considering the global asymmetric warming of Tmax and Tmin, more attention should be paid to these asymmetric effects of Tmax and Tmin on the vegetation of marshes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 4952
Author(s):  
Xigang Liu ◽  
Yaning Chen ◽  
Zhi Li ◽  
Yupeng Li ◽  
Qifei Zhang ◽  
...  

Phenological change is an emerging hot topic in ecology and climate change research. Existing phenological studies in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) have focused on overall changes, while ignoring the different characteristics of changes in different regions. Here, we use the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS3g) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) dataset as a basis to discuss the temporal and spatial changes in vegetation phenology in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau from 1982 to 2015. We also analyze the response mechanisms of pre-season climate factor and vegetation phenology and reveal the driving forces of the changes in vegetation phenology. The results show that: (1) the start of the growing season (SOS) and the length of the growing season (LOS) in the QTP fluctuate greatly year by year; (2) in the study area, the change in pre-season precipitation significantly affects the SOS in the northeast (p < 0.05), while, the delay in the end of the growing season (EOS) in the northeast is determined by pre-season air temperature and precipitation; (3) pre-season precipitation in April or May is the main driving force of the SOS of different vegetation, while air temperature and precipitation in the pre-season jointly affect the EOS of different vegetation. The differences in and the diversity of vegetation types together lead to complex changes in vegetation phenology across different regions within the QTP. Therefore, addressing the characteristics and impacts of changes in vegetation phenology across different regions plays an important role in ecological protection in this region.


Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujie Yang ◽  
Shijie Wang ◽  
Xiaoyong Bai ◽  
Qiu Tan ◽  
Qin Li ◽  
...  

Diagnosing the evolution trends of vegetation and its drivers is necessary for ecological conservation and restoration. However, it remains unclear what the underlying distribution pattern of these trends and its correlation with some drivers at large spatial-temporal scales. Here we use the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to quantify the activity of vegetation by Theil–Sen median trend analysis and the Mann–Kendall test, Pearson correlation analysis and Boosted regression trees (BRT) model. Results show that about 34% of the global continent area has experienced greening in the grid annual NDVI from 1982 to 2015. The major greening areas were observed in the Sahel, European, India and south China. Only 10% of the global continent land areas were browning, and these were observed in Canada, South America, central Africa and Central Asia. BRT model shows that rainfall is the most important factor affecting vegetation evolution (63.1%), followed by temperature (15%), land cover change (8.6%), population (6.5%), elevation (6.4%) and nightlight (0.4%). It’s about 21% of the world’s continent were affected by rainfall, mainly in arid regions such as central Asia and Australia. The main temperature-affected areas accounted for 36%, located near the equator or in high latitudes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Huaizhang Sun ◽  
Jiyan Wang ◽  
Junnan Xiong ◽  
Jinhu Bian ◽  
Huaan Jin ◽  
...  

The impact of global climate change on vegetation has become increasingly prominent over the past several decades. Understanding vegetation change and its response to climate can provide fundamental information for environmental resource management. In recent years, the arid climate and fragile ecosystem have led to great changes in vegetation in Yunnan Province, so it is very important to further study the relationship between vegetation and climate. In this study, we explored the temporal changes of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in different seasons based on MOD13Q1 NDVI by the maximum value composite and then analyzed spatial distribution characteristics of vegetation using Sen’s tendency estimation, Mann–Kendall significance test, and coefficient of variation model (CV) combined with terrain factors. Finally, the concurrent and lagged effects of NDVI on climate factors in different seasons and months were discussed using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results indicate that (1) the temporal variation of the NDVI showed that the NDVI values of different vegetation types increased at different rates, especially in growing season, spring, and autumn; (2) for spatial patterns, the NDVI, CV, and NDVI trends had strong spatial heterogeneity owning to the influence of altitudes, slopes, and aspects; and (3) the concurrent effect of vegetation on climate change indicates that the positive effect of temperature on NDVI was mainly in growing season and autumn, whereas spring NDVI was mainly influenced by precipitation. In addition, the lag effect analysis results revealed that spring precipitation has a definite inhibition effect on summer and autumn vegetation, but spring and summer temperature can promote the growth of vegetation. Meanwhile, the precipitation in the late growing season has a lag effect of 1-2 months on vegetation growth, and air temperature has a lag effect of 1 month in the middle of the growing season. Based on the above results, this study provided valuable information for ecosystem degradation and ecological environment protection in the Yunnan Province.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhifang Pei ◽  
Shibo Fang ◽  
Wunian Yang ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Mingyan Wu ◽  
...  

There are currently only two methods (the within-growing season method and the inter-growing season method) used to analyse the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)–climate relationship at the monthly time scale. What are the differences between the two methods, and why do they exist? Which method is more suitable for the analysis of the relationship between them? In this study, after obtaining NDVI values (GIMMS NDVI3g) near meteorological stations and meteorological data of Inner Mongolian grasslands from 1982 to 2015, we analysed temporal changes in NDVI and climate factors, and explored the difference in Pearson correlation coefficients (R) between them via the above two analysis methods and analysed the change in R between them at multiple time scales. The research results indicated that: (1) NDVI was affected by temperature and precipitation in the area, showing periodic changes, (2) NDVI had a high value of R with climate factors in the within-growing season, while the significant correlation between them was different in different months in the inter-growing season, (3) with the increase in time series, the value of R between NDVI and climate factors showed a trend of increase in the within-growing season, while the value of R between NDVI and precipitation decreased, but then tended toward stability in the inter-growing season, and (4) when exploring the NDVI–climate relationship, we should first analyse the types of climate in the region to avoid the impacts of rain and heat occurring during the same period, and the inter-growing season method is more suitable for the analysis of the relationship between them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Potter

Abstract Trends and transitions in the growing-season normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite sensor at 250-m resolution were analyzed for the period from 2000 to 2018 to understand recent patterns of vegetation change in ecosystems of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. Statistical analysis of changes in the NDVI time series was conducted using the breaks for additive seasonal and trend method (BFAST). This structural change analysis indicated that NDVI breakpoints and negative 18-yr trends in vegetation greenness over the years since 2000 could be explained in large part by the impacts of severe wildfires. At least one NDVI breakpoint was detected in around 20% of the MODIS pixels within both the Porcupine River and Coleen River basins of the study area. The vast majority of vegetation cover in the ANWR Brooks Range and coastal plain ecoregions was detected with no (positive or negative) growing-season NDVI trends since the year 2000. Results suggested that most negative NDVI anomalies in the 18-yr MODIS record have been associated with early spring thawing and elevated levels of surface moisture in low-elevation drainages of the northern ANWR ecoregions.


Author(s):  
L. Dong ◽  
H. Jiang ◽  
L. Yang

Based on the Landsat images in 2006, 2011 and 2015, and the method of dimidiate pixel model, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the vegetation coverage, this paper analyzes the spatio-temporal variation of vegetation coverage in Changchun, China from 2006 to 2015, and investigates the response of vegetation coverage change to natural and artificial factors. The research results show that in nearly 10 years, the vegetation coverage in Changchun dropped remarkably, and reached the minimum in 2011. Moreover, the decrease of maximum NDVI was significant, with a decrease of about 27.43&amp;thinsp;%, from 2006 to 2015. The vegetation coverage change in different regions of the research area was significantly different. Among them, the vegetation change in Changchun showed a little drop, and it decreased firstly and then increased slowly in Yushu, Nong’an and Dehui. In addition, the temperature and precipitation change, land reclamation all affect the vegetation coverage. In short, the study of vegetation coverage change contributes scientific and technical support to government and environmental protection department, so as to promote the coordinated development of ecology and economy.


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