Vegetation Indices Do Not Capture Forest Cover Variation in Upland Siberian Larch Forests
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 an...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:675a048ad44443d2ab21683f0263f98c 2023-05-15T13:11:27+02:00 Vegetation Indices Do Not Capture Forest Cover Variation in Upland Siberian Larch Forests Michael M. Loranty Sergey P. Davydov Heather Kropp Heather D. Alexander Michelle C. Mack Susan M. Natali Nikita S. Zimov 2018-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111686 https://doaj.org/article/675a048ad44443d2ab21683f0263f98c EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/10/11/1686 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs10111686 https://doaj.org/article/675a048ad44443d2ab21683f0263f98c Remote Sensing, Vol 10, Iss 11, p 1686 (2018) boreal forest NDVI phenology greening Arctic Siberia larch CubeSat Science Q article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111686 2022-12-31T15:17:40Z 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 km 2 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper albedo Arctic Siberia Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Remote Sensing 10 11 1686 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
boreal forest NDVI phenology greening Arctic Siberia larch CubeSat Science Q |
spellingShingle |
boreal forest NDVI phenology greening Arctic Siberia larch CubeSat Science Q Michael M. Loranty Sergey P. Davydov Heather Kropp Heather D. Alexander Michelle C. Mack Susan M. Natali Nikita S. Zimov Vegetation Indices Do Not Capture Forest Cover Variation in Upland Siberian Larch Forests |
topic_facet |
boreal forest NDVI phenology greening Arctic Siberia larch CubeSat Science Q |
description |
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 km 2 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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Michael M. Loranty Sergey P. Davydov Heather Kropp Heather D. Alexander Michelle C. Mack Susan M. Natali Nikita S. Zimov |
author_facet |
Michael M. Loranty Sergey P. Davydov Heather Kropp Heather D. Alexander Michelle C. Mack Susan M. Natali Nikita S. Zimov |
author_sort |
Michael M. Loranty |
title |
Vegetation Indices Do Not Capture Forest Cover Variation in Upland Siberian Larch Forests |
title_short |
Vegetation Indices Do Not Capture Forest Cover Variation in Upland Siberian Larch Forests |
title_full |
Vegetation Indices Do Not Capture Forest Cover Variation in Upland Siberian Larch Forests |
title_fullStr |
Vegetation Indices Do Not Capture Forest Cover Variation in Upland Siberian Larch Forests |
title_full_unstemmed |
Vegetation Indices Do Not Capture Forest Cover Variation in Upland Siberian Larch Forests |
title_sort |
vegetation indices do not capture forest cover variation in upland siberian larch forests |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111686 https://doaj.org/article/675a048ad44443d2ab21683f0263f98c |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
albedo Arctic Siberia |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Siberia |
op_source |
Remote Sensing, Vol 10, Iss 11, p 1686 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/10/11/1686 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs10111686 https://doaj.org/article/675a048ad44443d2ab21683f0263f98c |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111686 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
1686 |
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1766247460171153408 |