Assessing the inter-annual variability of vegetation phenological events observed from satellite vegetation index time series in dryland sites

Tracking dryland vegetation phenology under a changing climate is of great concern because dryland ecosystems have broad spatial coverage and are important drivers of global carbon cycles. However, dryland ecosystems often consist of two or more different vegetation types with divergent phenological...

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Autores principales: Anna Kato, Kimberly M. Carlson, Tomoaki Miura
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Publicado: Elsevier 2021
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/41e0770dfc944f6686cd109f0175ba25
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:41e0770dfc944f6686cd109f0175ba252021-12-01T04:58:24ZAssessing the inter-annual variability of vegetation phenological events observed from satellite vegetation index time series in dryland sites1470-160X10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.108042https://doaj.org/article/41e0770dfc944f6686cd109f0175ba252021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X2100707Xhttps://doaj.org/toc/1470-160XTracking dryland vegetation phenology under a changing climate is of great concern because dryland ecosystems have broad spatial coverage and are important drivers of global carbon cycles. However, dryland ecosystems often consist of two or more different vegetation types with divergent phenological patterns and are characterized by relatively low vegetation greenup signal compared to noise present in satellite imagery. Thus, accurately characterizing dryland phenology – including the start, peak, and end of season (SOS, POS, and EOS, respectively) – across large temporal and spatial scales with satellite vegetation indices (VIs) has proven challenging. Working across six dryland flux tower sites in the United States from 2003 to 2014, we asked: 1) How well do satellite VIs explain GPP? 2) How accurately can satellite VIs characterize the number and timing of phenological transition dates? and 3) Why does this accuracy vary across VIs? To address these questions, we used daily GPP data from the FLUXNET2015 dataset. We computed four daily VIs from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) sensor including two greenness indices (i.e., NDVI and EVI), and two water-related indices (i.e., Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) and NDVI-LSWI difference). We derived phenological transition dates from spline smoothed VI and GPP time series. We found that all major phenological patterns apparent in GPP time series were present in VI data across sites and VIs. Among the four VIs, EVI explained the most variance in daily GPP (R2 = 0.65). Between 88 and 90% of phenological events found in GPP time series – especially recurring, large magnitude events but also some sporadic, small ephemeral events – were detected from MODIS VI data. The rate of omission, when an event was detected from GPP but not from VI data, was similar across VIs (10–12% of all GPP events). Commissions, when an event was detected from VI but not from GPP data, varied more widely from 18% for NDVI to 30% for LSWI. Transition date accuracy as measured by mean absolute difference (MAD) between GPP- and VI-derived SOS and POS ranged from 13 to 15 days across VIs but was lower for EOS (17–26 days). EOS from LSWI most accurately characterized GPP-derived EOS. This may be because LSWI is sensitive to leaf water content, which declines in certain dryland vegetation even when leaves remain green. Our results highlight the potential for satellite VI-derived metrics to accurately track spatio-temporal variation in the phenological event occurrence and timing in dryland ecosystems.Anna KatoKimberly M. CarlsonTomoaki MiuraElsevierarticleRemote sensingVegetation indexPhenologyDrylandEcologyQH540-549.5ENEcological Indicators, Vol 130, Iss , Pp 108042- (2021)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Remote sensing
Vegetation index
Phenology
Dryland
Ecology
QH540-549.5
spellingShingle Remote sensing
Vegetation index
Phenology
Dryland
Ecology
QH540-549.5
Anna Kato
Kimberly M. Carlson
Tomoaki Miura
Assessing the inter-annual variability of vegetation phenological events observed from satellite vegetation index time series in dryland sites
description Tracking dryland vegetation phenology under a changing climate is of great concern because dryland ecosystems have broad spatial coverage and are important drivers of global carbon cycles. However, dryland ecosystems often consist of two or more different vegetation types with divergent phenological patterns and are characterized by relatively low vegetation greenup signal compared to noise present in satellite imagery. Thus, accurately characterizing dryland phenology – including the start, peak, and end of season (SOS, POS, and EOS, respectively) – across large temporal and spatial scales with satellite vegetation indices (VIs) has proven challenging. Working across six dryland flux tower sites in the United States from 2003 to 2014, we asked: 1) How well do satellite VIs explain GPP? 2) How accurately can satellite VIs characterize the number and timing of phenological transition dates? and 3) Why does this accuracy vary across VIs? To address these questions, we used daily GPP data from the FLUXNET2015 dataset. We computed four daily VIs from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) sensor including two greenness indices (i.e., NDVI and EVI), and two water-related indices (i.e., Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) and NDVI-LSWI difference). We derived phenological transition dates from spline smoothed VI and GPP time series. We found that all major phenological patterns apparent in GPP time series were present in VI data across sites and VIs. Among the four VIs, EVI explained the most variance in daily GPP (R2 = 0.65). Between 88 and 90% of phenological events found in GPP time series – especially recurring, large magnitude events but also some sporadic, small ephemeral events – were detected from MODIS VI data. The rate of omission, when an event was detected from GPP but not from VI data, was similar across VIs (10–12% of all GPP events). Commissions, when an event was detected from VI but not from GPP data, varied more widely from 18% for NDVI to 30% for LSWI. Transition date accuracy as measured by mean absolute difference (MAD) between GPP- and VI-derived SOS and POS ranged from 13 to 15 days across VIs but was lower for EOS (17–26 days). EOS from LSWI most accurately characterized GPP-derived EOS. This may be because LSWI is sensitive to leaf water content, which declines in certain dryland vegetation even when leaves remain green. Our results highlight the potential for satellite VI-derived metrics to accurately track spatio-temporal variation in the phenological event occurrence and timing in dryland ecosystems.
format article
author Anna Kato
Kimberly M. Carlson
Tomoaki Miura
author_facet Anna Kato
Kimberly M. Carlson
Tomoaki Miura
author_sort Anna Kato
title Assessing the inter-annual variability of vegetation phenological events observed from satellite vegetation index time series in dryland sites
title_short Assessing the inter-annual variability of vegetation phenological events observed from satellite vegetation index time series in dryland sites
title_full Assessing the inter-annual variability of vegetation phenological events observed from satellite vegetation index time series in dryland sites
title_fullStr Assessing the inter-annual variability of vegetation phenological events observed from satellite vegetation index time series in dryland sites
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the inter-annual variability of vegetation phenological events observed from satellite vegetation index time series in dryland sites
title_sort assessing the inter-annual variability of vegetation phenological events observed from satellite vegetation index time series in dryland sites
publisher Elsevier
publishDate 2021
url https://doaj.org/article/41e0770dfc944f6686cd109f0175ba25
work_keys_str_mv AT annakato assessingtheinterannualvariabilityofvegetationphenologicaleventsobservedfromsatellitevegetationindextimeseriesindrylandsites
AT kimberlymcarlson assessingtheinterannualvariabilityofvegetationphenologicaleventsobservedfromsatellitevegetationindextimeseriesindrylandsites
AT tomoakimiura assessingtheinterannualvariabilityofvegetationphenologicaleventsobservedfromsatellitevegetationindextimeseriesindrylandsites
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