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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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:8ac9353a9d37461c8e81887ed39a2498 2023-06-11T04:08:34+02:00 NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska. R Gus Jespersen M Anderson-Smith P F Sullivan R J Dial J M Welker 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 https://doaj.org/article/8ac9353a9d37461c8e81887ed39a2498 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 https://doaj.org/article/8ac9353a9d37461c8e81887ed39a2498 PLoS ONE, Vol 18, Iss 4, p e0285030 (2023) Medicine R Science Q article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 2023-05-07T00:35:22Z 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 CO2 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 CO2 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 Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS ONE 18 4 e0285030 |
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Medicine R Science Q R Gus Jespersen M Anderson-Smith P F Sullivan R J Dial J M Welker NDVI changes in the Arctic: Functional significance in the moist acidic tundra of Northern Alaska. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
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 CO2 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 CO2 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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
R Gus Jespersen M Anderson-Smith P F Sullivan R J Dial J M Welker |
author_facet |
R Gus Jespersen M Anderson-Smith P F Sullivan R J Dial J M Welker |
author_sort |
R Gus Jespersen |
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 |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 https://doaj.org/article/8ac9353a9d37461c8e81887ed39a2498 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Betula nana Eriophorum Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Betula nana Eriophorum Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 18, Iss 4, p e0285030 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 https://doaj.org/article/8ac9353a9d37461c8e81887ed39a2498 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285030 |
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PLOS ONE |
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18 |
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4 |
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e0285030 |
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