NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska
The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), derived from reflected visible and infrared radiation, has been critical to understanding change across the Arctic, but relatively few ground truthing efforts have directly linked NDVI to structural and functional properties of Arctic tundra ecosyst...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 |
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 2024-10-06T13:45:55+00:00 NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska Jespersen, R. Gus Anderson-Smith, M. Sullivan, P. F. Dial, R. J. Welker, J. M. Viña, Andrés National Science Foundation National Science Foundation National Science Foundation Center for Global Change Fellowship 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PLOS ONE volume 18, issue 4, page e0285030 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2023 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 2024-09-10T04:18:13Z The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), derived from reflected visible and infrared radiation, has been critical to understanding change across the Arctic, but relatively few ground truthing efforts have directly linked NDVI to structural and functional properties of Arctic tundra ecosystems. To improve the interpretation of changing NDVI within moist acidic tundra (MAT), a common Arctic ecosystem, we coupled measurements of NDVI, vegetation structure, and CO 2 flux in seventy MAT plots, chosen to represent the full range of typical MAT vegetation conditions, over two growing seasons. Light-saturated photosynthesis, ecosystem respiration, and net ecosystem CO 2 exchange were well predicted by NDVI, but not by vertically-projected leaf area, our nondestructive proxy for leaf area index (LAI). Further, our data indicate that NDVI in this ecosystem is driven primarily by the biochemical properties of the canopy leaves of the dominant plant functional types, rather than purely the amount of leaf area; NDVI was more strongly correlated with top cover and repeated cover of deciduous shrubs than other plant functional types, a finding supported by our data from separate “monotypic” plots. In these pure stands of a plant functional type, deciduous shrubs exhibited higher NDVI than any other plant functional type. Likewise, leaves from the two most common deciduous shrubs, Betula nana and Salix pulchra , exhibited higher leaf-level NDVI than those from the codominant graminoid, Eriophorum vaginatum . Our findings suggest that recent increases in NDVI in MAT in the North American Arctic are largely driven by expanding deciduous shrub canopies, with substantial implications for MAT ecosystem function, especially net carbon uptake. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Betula nana Eriophorum Tundra Alaska PLOS Arctic PLOS ONE 18 4 e0285030 |
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English |
description |
The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), derived from reflected visible and infrared radiation, has been critical to understanding change across the Arctic, but relatively few ground truthing efforts have directly linked NDVI to structural and functional properties of Arctic tundra ecosystems. To improve the interpretation of changing NDVI within moist acidic tundra (MAT), a common Arctic ecosystem, we coupled measurements of NDVI, vegetation structure, and CO 2 flux in seventy MAT plots, chosen to represent the full range of typical MAT vegetation conditions, over two growing seasons. Light-saturated photosynthesis, ecosystem respiration, and net ecosystem CO 2 exchange were well predicted by NDVI, but not by vertically-projected leaf area, our nondestructive proxy for leaf area index (LAI). Further, our data indicate that NDVI in this ecosystem is driven primarily by the biochemical properties of the canopy leaves of the dominant plant functional types, rather than purely the amount of leaf area; NDVI was more strongly correlated with top cover and repeated cover of deciduous shrubs than other plant functional types, a finding supported by our data from separate “monotypic” plots. In these pure stands of a plant functional type, deciduous shrubs exhibited higher NDVI than any other plant functional type. Likewise, leaves from the two most common deciduous shrubs, Betula nana and Salix pulchra , exhibited higher leaf-level NDVI than those from the codominant graminoid, Eriophorum vaginatum . Our findings suggest that recent increases in NDVI in MAT in the North American Arctic are largely driven by expanding deciduous shrub canopies, with substantial implications for MAT ecosystem function, especially net carbon uptake. |
author2 |
Viña, Andrés National Science Foundation National Science Foundation National Science Foundation Center for Global Change Fellowship |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jespersen, R. Gus Anderson-Smith, M. Sullivan, P. F. Dial, R. J. Welker, J. M. |
spellingShingle |
Jespersen, R. Gus Anderson-Smith, M. Sullivan, P. F. Dial, R. J. Welker, J. M. NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
author_facet |
Jespersen, R. Gus Anderson-Smith, M. Sullivan, P. F. Dial, R. J. Welker, J. M. |
author_sort |
Jespersen, R. Gus |
title |
NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
title_short |
NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
title_full |
NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
title_fullStr |
NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska |
title_sort |
ndvi changes in the arctic: functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of northern alaska |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Betula nana Eriophorum Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Betula nana Eriophorum Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 18, issue 4, page e0285030 ISSN 1932-6203 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
e0285030 |
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1812174288265936896 |