Rainfall validates MODIS-derived NDVI as an index of spatio-temporal variation in green biomass across non-montane semi-arid and arid Central Asia

Formica, Adam F., Burnside, Robert J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2859-7294 and Dolman, Paul M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9340-2791 (2017) Rainfall validates MODIS-derived NDVI as an index of spatio-temporal variation in green biomass across non-montane semi-arid and arid Central Asia. Journal of Arid Environments, 142. 11–21. ISSN 0140-1963

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Abstract

As satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is related to vegetation biomass, it may provide a proxy for habitat quality across extensive species ranges where ground-truth data are scarce. However, NDVI may have limited accuracy in sparsely-vegetated arid and semi-arid environments due to signal contamination by substrate reflectance. To validate NDVI as a vegetation proxy in the low-altitude deserts of Central Asia, we examine its response to precipitation across the migratory corridor of Asian Houbara. NDVI increases with precipitation, both spatially (adj. R2 = 0.58, p < 0.001) and temporally (mean adj. R2 across n=244, 1 degree cells = 0.44; GLMM across cells p < 0.001). More vegetated regions show a stronger temporal response of vegetation biomass for a given precipitation increment (slope of NDVI to precipitation in per cell temporal models increases with inter-annual mean NDVI; adj. R2 = 0.38, p < 0.001), reinforcing the conclusion that NDVI provides a proxy for vegetation abundance. The strong signature of rainfall shows MODIS NDVI offers a potentially powerful proxy for spatial and temporal variation in arid and semi-arid vegetation at a resolution of 1 degree and 1 year over the houbara's breeding and wintering range, and probably also at finer spatial resolutions.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	ndvi,validation,precipitation,asian houbara,extensive grazing,pastoralism,global and planetary change,nature and landscape conservation ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2306
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Resources, Sustainability and Governance (former - to 2018)
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	08 Mar 2017 01:41
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 02:15
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/62881
DOI:	10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.02.005

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