Modelling light use efficiency using vegetation index and land surface temperature from MODIS in Harvard Forest

Light use efficiency (LUE) is of great importance for carbon cycle and climate change research. This study presents a new LUE model incorporation of vegetation indices (VIs) and land surface temperature (LST) derived from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) in Harvard Forest. Three indices, including the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the two-band enhanced vegetation index (EVI2) and the soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), were selected as indicators of forest canopy greenness. A single VI provided moderate estimates of LUE with coefficients of determination (R 2) 0.6219, 0.7094 and 0.7502 for NDVI, EVI2 and SAVI, respectively. Our results demonstrated that canopy LUE was related both to the canopy photosynthesis efficiency and air temperature (R 2 = 0.5634). Therefore, the MODIS LST product was incorporated as a surrogate for monitoring of environmental stresses as the observed relationship between LST and both air temperature (R 2 = 0.8828) and vapour pressure deficit (VPD) (R 2 = 0.6887). The new model in terms of (VI) × (Scaled (LST)) provided improved estimates of LUE estimation with R 2 of 0.7349, 0.7561 and 0.7879 for NDVI, EVI2 and SAVI, respectively. The results will be useful for the development of future LUE models based entirely on remote-sensing observations.

[1]  J. Monteith.  SOLAR RADIATION AND PRODUCTIVITY IN TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS , 1972 .

[2]  A. Huete.  A soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) , 1988 .

[3]  F. Baret,et al.  Potentials and limits of vegetation indices for LAI and APAR assessment , 1991 .

[4]  C. Field,et al.  A narrow-waveband spectral index that tracks diurnal changes in photosynthetic efficiency , 1992 .

[5]  D. Paslier,et al.  Net Exchange of CO2 in a Mid-Latitude Forest , 1993, Science.

[6]  J. Peñuelas,et al.  Assessment of photosynthetic radiation‐use efficiency with spectral reflectance , 1995 .

[7]  J. William Munger,et al.  Measurements of carbon sequestration by long‐term eddy covariance: methods and a critical evaluation of accuracy , 1996 .

[8]  C. Justice,et al.  Atmospheric correction of visible to middle-infrared EOS-MODIS data over land surfaces: Background, operational algorithm and validation , 1997 .

[9]  A. Huete,et al.  A comparison of vegetation indices over a global set of TM images for EOS-MODIS , 1997 .

[10]  Scott J. Goetz,et al.  Inference of surface and air temperature, atmospheric precipitable water and vapor pressure deficit using Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer satellite observations: comparison with field observations , 1998 .

[11]  Eric A. Davidson,et al.  Seasonal patterns and environmental control of carbon dioxide and water vapour exchange in an ecotonal boreal forest , 1999 .

[12]  H. Mooney,et al.  Carbon metabolism of the terrestrial biosphere , 2000 .

[13]  S. Goetz,et al.  Advances in satellite remote sensing of environmental variables for epidemiological applications. , 2000, Advances in parasitology.

[14]  C. V. M. Bartona,et al.  Remote sensing of canopy light use efficiency using the photochemical reflectance index Model and sensitivity analysis , 2000 .

[15]  M. Day,et al.  Influence of temperature and leaf-to-air vapor pressure deficit on net photosynthesis and stomatal conductance in red spruce (Picea rubens). , 2000, Tree physiology.

[16]  J. E. Hunt,et al.  Commentary: Carbon Metabolism of the Terrestrial Biosphere: A Multitechnique Approach for Improved Understanding , 2000, Ecosystems.

[17]  Dennis D. Baldocchi,et al.  Assessing ecosystem carbon balance : Problems and prospects of the eddy covariance tech-nique． , 2001 .

[18]  P. North,et al.  Remote sensing of canopy light use efficiency using the photochemical reflectance index , 2001 .

[19]  S. Wofsy,et al.  Factors Controlling Long- and Short-Term Sequestration of Atmospheric CO2 in a Mid-latitude Forest , 2001, Science.

[20]  D. Roy,et al.  Achieving sub-pixel geolocation accuracy in support of MODIS land science , 2002 .

[21]  Zhao-Liang Li,et al.  Validation of the land-surface temperature products retrieved from Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data , 2002 .

[22]  N. Broge,et al.  Deriving green crop area index and canopy chlorophyll density of winter wheat from spectral reflectance data , 2002 .

[23]  S. T. Gower,et al.  A cross‐biome comparison of daily light use efficiency for gross primary production , 2003 .

[24]  R. Valentini,et al.  A new assessment of European forests carbon exchanges by eddy fluxes and artificial neural network spatialization , 2003 .

[25]  A. Strahler,et al.  Monitoring vegetation phenology using MODIS , 2003 .

[26]  D. Baldocchi.  Assessing the eddy covariance technique for evaluating carbon dioxide exchange rates of ecosystems: past, present and future , 2003 .

[27]  R. Oren,et al.  Stomatal sensitivity to vapor pressure deficit and its relationship to hydraulic conductance in Pinus palustris. , 2004, Tree physiology.

[28]  E. Davidson,et al.  Satellite-based modeling of gross primary production in an evergreen needleleaf forest , 2004 .

[29]  Maosheng Zhao,et al.  A Continuous Satellite-Derived Measure of Global Terrestrial Primary Production , 2004 .

[30]  T. A. Black,et al.  A MODIS-derived photochemical reflectance index to detect inter-annual variations in the photosynthetic light-use efficiency of a boreal deciduous forest , 2005 .

[31]  Maosheng Zhao,et al.  Improvements of the MODIS terrestrial gross and net primary production global data set , 2005 .

[32]  T. Vesala,et al.  On the separation of net ecosystem exchange into assimilation and ecosystem respiration: review and improved algorithm , 2005 .

[33]  A. Viña,et al.  Relationship between gross primary production and chlorophyll content in crops: Implications for the synoptic monitoring of vegetation productivity , 2006 .

[34]  Josep Peñuelas,et al.  Relationship between light use efficiency and photochemical reflectance index in soybean leaves as affected by soil water content , 2006 .

[35]  Craig M. Trotter,et al.  Estimating photosynthetic light‐use efficiency using the photochemical reflectance index: the effects of short‐term exposure to elevated CO2 and low temperature , 2006 .

[36]  W. Oechel,et al.  On the use of MODIS EVI to assess gross primary productivity of North American ecosystems , 2006 .

[37]  A. Huete,et al.  Amazon rainforests green‐up with sunlight in dry season , 2006 .

[38]  T. Vesala,et al.  Deriving a light use efficiency model from eddy covariance flux data for predicting daily gross primary production across biomes , 2007 .

[39]  Nicholas C. Coops,et al.  Comparison of MODIS gross primary production estimates for forests across the U.S.A. with those generated by a simple process model, 3-PGS , 2007 .

[40]  S. Wofsy,et al.  Factors controlling CO2 exchange on timescales from hourly to decadal at Harvard Forest , 2007 .

[41]  Pamela L. Nagler,et al.  Relationship between evapotranspiration and precipitation pulses in a semiarid rangeland estimated by moisture flux towers and MODIS vegetation indices , 2007 .

[42]  Z. Wan.  New refinements and validation of the MODIS Land-Surface Temperature/Emissivity products , 2008 .

[43]  W. Oechel,et al.  A new model of gross primary productivity for North American ecosystems based solely on the enhanced vegetation index and land surface temperature from MODIS , 2008 .

[44]  A. Huete,et al.  Development of a two-band enhanced vegetation index without a blue band , 2008 .

[45]  Chaoyang Wu,et al.  Estimating chlorophyll content from hyperspectral vegetation indices : Modeling and validation , 2008 .

[46]  J. Peñuelas,et al.  Normalized difference spectral indices for estimating photosynthetic efficiency and capacity at a canopy scale derived from hyperspectral and CO2 flux measurements in rice , 2008 .

[47]  Andrew E. Suyker,et al.  Synoptic Monitoring of Gross Primary Productivity of Maize Using Landsat Data , 2008, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[48]  Wenjiang Huang,et al.  Remote estimation of gross primary production in wheat using chlorophyll-related vegetation indices , 2009 .

[49]  Adrian V. Rocha,et al.  Advantages of a two band EVI calculated from solar and photosynthetically active radiation fluxes , 2009 .

[50]  P. Ceccato,et al.  Evaluation of MODIS land surface temperature data to estimate air temperature in different ecosystems over Africa , 2010 .

[51]  Chaoyang Wu,et al.  Gross primary production estimation from MODIS data with vegetation index and photosynthetically active radiation in maize , 2010 .

[52]  Zheng Niu,et al.  An evaluation of EO-1 hyperspectral Hyperion data for chlorophyll content and leaf area index estimation , 2010 .