Changing patterns of global‐scale vegetation photosynthesis, 1982–1999

Abstract

Abstract. The primary objective of this research was to assess changes in global vegetation photosynthesis between 1982 and 1999. Global-scale AVHRR NDVI data from the PAL and GIMMS data sets were analysed for 96% of the nonAntarctic land area of the Earth. The results showed that over 30% of the Earth's surface increased and less than 5% decreased in annual average photosynthesis greater than 4%. Although both the PAL and GIMMS data sets produced broadly similar patterns of change, there were distinct differences between the two data sets. Changes in vegetation photosynthesis were occurring in spatial clusters across the globe and were being driven by climate change, ENSO events and human activity.

Vegetation greenness trend (2000 to 2009) and the climate controls in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

“…The negative relationship between temperature and NDVI over the plateau seems to contradict the general expectation that climate warming results in vegetation greening in the northern hemisphere. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]44,45 The drier and warmer climate in the central and southwestern plateau (Tibet) led to dry condition that aggravated the land degradation. Based on our analyses, the climate condition was unfavorable for vegetation growth in the central and southwestern plateau.…”

“…The warming climate in recent decades has promoted vegetation growth in the northern hemisphere, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] such as Alaska, 9,10 Canada, [11][12][13] and Russia. 14,15 Global warming has also caused an increase in precipitation that resulted in vegetation greening in the southern hemisphere, such as African Sahel [16][17][18][19][20][21] and South America, 22 although some areas with a decrease in precipitation markedly reduced vegetation production.…”

Assessment of vegetation vulnerability to ENSO warm events over Africa

“…The NDVI is known to correlate very well with the relative abundance of green biomass, including leaf area index, intercepted fraction of photosynthetically active radiation and density of chlorophyll in plants (Asrar et al, 1984;Sellers et al, 1997). Recent studies have proved that both spatial and temporal patterns of NDVI are in large measure controlled by climate parameters (Yang et al, 1998;Tateishi and Ebata, 2004;Li et al, 2002;Young and Harris, 2005). A number of studies have analyzed and described the response of vegetation to ENSO-related anomalous climatic conditions using NDVI data.…”

Towards the planning and design of disturbance patterns across scales to counter biological invasions

“…Since landscape mosaic is mostly defined by vegetation cover, as response variable we use changes over time in NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), defined as the difference between the visible (red) and near-infrared (nir) bands, over their sum. NDVI is broadly recognized as a robust indicator of vegetation photosynthesis, with built-in relationships to sociale ecological processes such as habitat conversion or crop rotation (Young and Harris, 2005).…”