Interannual variability of NDVI and its relationship to climate for North American shrublands and grasslands

Our objective was to analyse the interannual variability of different characteristics of the seasonal dynamics of NDVI and their relationships with climatic variables for grassland and shrubland sites of North America. We selected twenty-five sites located in relatively undisturbed areas. We analysed the variability of seven traits derived from the annual dynamics of the NDVI at each site: the annual integral, the difference between maximum and minimum NDVI, the dates of the inflection points of a double logistic model fitted to the NDVI curve, the difference between these dates, the date of maximum NDVI, and the coefficient of determination of the double logistic model. The temporal variability of traits that integrated aspects of primary productivity over the year was lower than those related to seasonality. This suggests that from year to year, grassland and shrubland ecosystems would differ more in the timing of production and senescence than in the total amount of carbon fixed. The integral of NDVI showed less temporal variability than annual precipitation. The coefficient of variation of both precipitation and the NDVI integral were positively related. The slope of the relationship was significantly lower than 1, indicating that the variability of ecosystem function is a lower proportion of the variability of annual precipitation in areas with a high relative variability of this climatic variable than in areas of low variability. The variability of most of the NDVI traits analysed showed a negative and, in general, non-linear relationship with annual precipitation. The same kind of relationship has been reported elsewhere for annual precipitation and its coefficient of variation. Mean annual precipitation has been reported as the main control of above-ground net primary production in grassland and shrubland ecosystems. Our results suggest that this climatic variable is also associated with the interannual variability of carbon gains, such as the primary production and its seasonality.

[1]  William K. Lauenroth,et al.  Soil Organic Matter Recovery in Semiarid Grasslands: Implications for the Conservation Reserve Program , 1995 .

[2]  O. Sala,et al.  Long-Term Forage Production of North American Shortgrass Steppe. , 1992, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[3]  Paul W. Barnes,et al.  Distribution, production, and diversity of C3- and C4-dominated communities in a mixed prairie , 1983 .

[4]  William A. Nierenberg,et al.  Encyclopedia of environmental biology , 1995 .

[5]  S. Prince.  Satellite remote sensing of primary production: comparison of results for Sahelian grasslands 1981-1988 , 1991 .

[6]  J. Eidenshink.  The 1990 conterminous U. S. AVHRR data set , 1992 .

[7]  H. L. Houérou,et al.  Relationship between the variability of primary production and the variability of annual precipitation in world arid lands , 1988 .

[8]  Jesslyn F. Brown,et al.  Measuring phenological variability from satellite imagery , 1994 .

[9]  J. William Munger,et al.  Exchange of Carbon Dioxide by a Deciduous Forest: Response to Interannual Climate Variability , 1996, Science.

[10]  José M. Paruelo,et al.  Environmental controls of NDVI dynamics in Patagonia based on NOAA‐AVHRR satellite data , 1993 .

[11]  D. Uresk.  Using multivariate techniques to quantitatively estimate ecological stages in a mixed grass prairie. , 1990 .

[12]  J. Paruelo,et al.  Biozones: vegetation units defined by functional characters identifiable with the aid of satellite sensor images , 1992 .

[13]  Fernando Gustavo Tomasel,et al.  Prediction of functional characteristics of ecosystems: a comparison of artificial neural networks and regression models , 1997 .

[14]  B. Holben.  Characteristics of maximum-value composite images from temporal AVHRR data , 1986 .

[15]  S. McNaughton,et al.  Ecosystem-level patterns of primary productivity and herbivory in terrestrial habitats , 1989, Nature.

[16]  D. Lloyd,et al.  A phenological classification of terrestrial vegetation cover using shortwave vegetation index imagery , 1990 .

[17]  J. T. Callahan.  Long-Term Ecological Research , 1984 .

[18]  J. Maccracken,et al.  Plant community variability on a small area in southeastern Montana , 1983 .

[19]  L. Swift,et al.  Climate Variability and Ecosystem Response , 1990 .

[20]  J. Singh,et al.  The structure and function of ten Western North American grasslands: II. Intra-Seasonal dynamics in primary producer compartments , 1978 .

[21]  A. Goudie,et al.  The warm desert environment , 1977 .

[22]  J. Paruelo,et al.  ANPP ESTIMATES FROM NDVI FOR THE CENTRAL GRASSLAND REGION OF THE UNITED STATES , 1997 .

[23]  S. Nicholson,et al.  A comparison of the vegetation response to rainfall in the Sahel and East Africa, using normalized difference vegetation index from NOAA AVHRR , 1990 .

[24]  D. Engle,et al.  Effects of Late Summer Fire on Tallgrass Prairie Microclimate and Community Composition , 1988 .

[25]  O. Sala,et al.  Effect of animal husbandry on herbivore-carrying capacity at a regional scale , 1992, Nature.

[26]  W. Lauenroth,et al.  The structure and function of ten Western North American grasslands: I. Abiotic and vegetational characteristics , 1978 .

[27]  R. Redmann.  PRODUCTION ECOLOGY OF GRASSLAND PLANT COMMUNITIES IN WESTERN NORTH DAKOTA , 1975 .

[28]  Larry L. Tieszen,et al.  The Seasonal Contribution of C"3 and C"4 Plant Species to Primary Production in a Mixed Prairie , 1980 .

[29]  N. West.  Aboveground Litter Production of Three Temperate Semidesert Shrubs , 1985 .

[30]  J. Paruelo,et al.  Relative Abundance of Plant Functional Types in Grasslands and Shrublands of North America , 1996 .

[31]  D. Young,et al.  Influence of Microclimate and Growth Form on Plant Temperatures of Early Spring Species in a High-elevation Prairie , 1983 .

[32]  D. Kleinbaum,et al.  Applied Regression Analysis and Other Multivariate Methods , 1978 .

[33]  O. Sala,et al.  Regional climatic similarities in the temperate zones of North and South America , 1995 .

[34]  Sharon E. Nicholson,et al.  A STUDY OF RAINFALL AND VEGETATION DYNAMICS IN THE AFRICAN SAHEL USING NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX , 1990 .

[35]  W. Lauenroth.  Grassland Primary Production: North American Grasslands in Perspective , 1979 .

[36]  D. Milchunas,et al.  Quantitative Effects of Grazing on Vegetation and Soils Over a Global Range of Environments , 1993 .

[37]  J. Malingreau.  Global vegetation dynamics - Satellite observations over Asia , 1986 .

[38]  O. Sala,et al.  Woody and herbaceous aboveground production of a Patagonian steppe. , 1991 .

[39]  Jesslyn F. Brown,et al.  Development of a land-cover characteristics database for the conterminous U.S. , 1991 .

[40]  S. Running.  Estimating Terrestrial Primary Productivity by Combining Remote Sensing and Ecosystem Simulation , 1990 .

[41]  A. Fischer.  A simple model for the temporal variations of NDVI at regional scale over agricultural countries. Validation with ground radiometric measurements , 1994 .

[42]  John M. Crowley,et al.  Küchler, A.Q. Potential Natural Vegetation of the Conterminous United States. American Geographical Society Special Pub. No. 36. New York, American Geographical Society, 1964. Carte accompagnée d’un manuel : illustrations, bibliographie. , 1964 .

[43]  W. Parton,et al.  Primary Production of the Central Grassland Region of the United States , 1988 .

[44]  A. Fischer.  A model for the seasonal variations of vegetation indices in coarse resolution data and its inversion to extract crop parameters , 1994 .

[45]  C. Tucker,et al.  Satellite remote sensing of primary production , 1986 .

[46]  M. Abrams,et al.  Effect of Topographic Position and Fire on Species Composition in Tallgrass Prairie in Northeast Kansas , 1987 .

[47]  José M. Paruelo,et al.  REGIONAL PATTERNS OF NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX IN NORTH AMERICAN SHRUBLANDS AND GRASSLANDS , 1995 .

[48]  D. Frank,et al.  Temporal variation in actual evapotranspiration of terrestrial ecosystems: patterns and ecological implications , 1994 .

[49]  H. Mooney,et al.  Emergence of the Study of Global Ecology: Is Terrestrial Ecology an Impediment to Progress? , 1991, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[50]  Compton J. Tucker,et al.  Satellite remote sensing of total herbaceous biomass production in the Senegalese Sahel - 1980-1984 , 1985 .

[51]  Jay E. Anderson,et al.  Impacts of black-tailed jackrabbits at peak population densities on sagebrush-steppe vegetation. , 1986 .

[52]  R. B. Murray.  Response of three shrub communities in southeastern Idaho to spring-applied tebuthiuron. , 1988 .