On modelling the relationship between vegetation greenness and water balance and land use change

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Author(s)
Berry, Sandra L
Mackey, Brendan
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2018
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Here we sought a biologically meaningful, climate variable that captures water-energy availability and
is suitable for high resolution (250m×250m) modelling of the fraction of photosynthetically active
radiation intercepted by the sunlit canopy (FV) derived from a 10-year (July 2000 – June 2010) time series
of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized diference vegetation index
(NDVI) satellite imagery for Australia. The long-term mean annual evaporation defcit, and mean annual
water availability indices all yielded strong linear relationships with mean FV (FV, %). We hypothesised
whether some of the ...
View more >Here we sought a biologically meaningful, climate variable that captures water-energy availability and is suitable for high resolution (250m×250m) modelling of the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation intercepted by the sunlit canopy (FV) derived from a 10-year (July 2000 – June 2010) time series of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized diference vegetation index (NDVI) satellite imagery for Australia. The long-term mean annual evaporation defcit, and mean annual water availability indices all yielded strong linear relationships with mean FV (FV, %). We hypothesised whether some of the scatter about the relationships was related to land-use changes that have disrupted the vegetation-climate-soil equilibrium. Using continental-scale spatial data layers of protected area status and vegetation condition classes we repeated our analyses with restricted datasets. FV of intact native vegetation within protected areas was greater than all modifed vegetation classes. There was a consistent decline in the slopes of the regression relationships with increasing intensity of woody vegetation clearing and livestock grazing. Where native vegetation has been transformed by land use there was a 25% reduction in predicted FV.
View less >
View more >Here we sought a biologically meaningful, climate variable that captures water-energy availability and is suitable for high resolution (250m×250m) modelling of the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation intercepted by the sunlit canopy (FV) derived from a 10-year (July 2000 – June 2010) time series of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized diference vegetation index (NDVI) satellite imagery for Australia. The long-term mean annual evaporation defcit, and mean annual water availability indices all yielded strong linear relationships with mean FV (FV, %). We hypothesised whether some of the scatter about the relationships was related to land-use changes that have disrupted the vegetation-climate-soil equilibrium. Using continental-scale spatial data layers of protected area status and vegetation condition classes we repeated our analyses with restricted datasets. FV of intact native vegetation within protected areas was greater than all modifed vegetation classes. There was a consistent decline in the slopes of the regression relationships with increasing intensity of woody vegetation clearing and livestock grazing. Where native vegetation has been transformed by land use there was a 25% reduction in predicted FV.
View less >
Journal Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
8
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2018. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Subject
Other environmental sciences not elsewhere classified