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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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/10/11/1686/ 2023-08-20T03:59:20+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 agris 2018-10-25 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111686 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Forest Remote Sensing https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs10111686 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Remote Sensing; Volume 10; Issue 11; Pages: 1686 boreal forest NDVI phenology greening Arctic Siberia larch CubeSat Text 2018 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111686 2023-07-31T21:48:10Z 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 km2 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. Text albedo Arctic Siberia MDPI Open Access Publishing Arctic Remote Sensing 10 11 1686 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
boreal forest NDVI phenology greening Arctic Siberia larch CubeSat |
spellingShingle |
boreal forest NDVI phenology greening Arctic Siberia larch CubeSat 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 |
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 km2 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 |
Text |
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 |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111686 |
op_coverage |
agris |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
albedo Arctic Siberia |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Siberia |
op_source |
Remote Sensing; Volume 10; Issue 11; Pages: 1686 |
op_relation |
Forest Remote Sensing https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs10111686 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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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1774712277245624320 |