Greenness in semi-arid areas across the globe 1981-2007: an Earth Observing Satellite based analysis of trends and drivers

Rasmus Fensholt; Tobias Langanke; Kjeld Rasmussen; Anette Reenberg; Stephen Prince; Compton Tucker; Robert J . Scholes; Quang Bao Le; Alberte Bondeau; Ron Eastman; Howard Epstein; Andrea E. Gaughan; Ulf Hellden; Cheikh Mbow; Lennart Olsson; Jose Paruelo; Christian Schweitzer; Jonathan Seaquist; Konrad Wessels

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2012.01.017

Greenness in semi-arid areas across the globe 1981-2007: an Earth Observing Satellite based analysis of trends and drivers

Rasmus Fensholt, Tobias Langanke, Kjeld Rasmussen, Anette Reenberg, Stephen Prince, Compton Tucker, Robert J . Scholes, Quang Bao Le, Alberte Bondeau, Ron Eastman, Howard Epstein, Andrea E. Gaughan, Ulf Hellden, Cheikh Mbow, Lennart Olsson, Jose Paruelo, Christian Schweitzer, Jonathan Seaquist, Konrad Wessels

Geography

372 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Semi-arid areas, defined as those areas of the world where water is an important limitation for plant growth, have become the subject of increased interest due to the impacts of current global changes and sustainability of human lifestyles. While many ground-based reports of declining vegetation productivity have been published over the last decades, a number of recent publications have shown a nuanced and, for some regions, positive picture. With this background, the paper provides an analysis of trends in vegetation greenness of semi-arid areas using AVHRR GIMMS from 1981 to 2007. The vegetation index dataset is used as a proxy for vegetation productivity and trends are analyzed for characterization of changes in semi-arid vegetation greenness. Calculated vegetation trends are analyzed with gridded data on potential climatic constraints to plant growth to explore possible causes of the observed changes. An analysis of changes in the seasonal variation of vegetation greenness and climatic drivers is conducted for selected regions to further understand the causes of observed inter-annual vegetation changes in semi-arid areas across the globe. It is concluded that semi-arid areas, across the globe, on average experience an increase in greenness (0.015 NDVI units over the period of analysis). Further it is observed that increases in greenness are found both in semi-arid areas where precipitation is the dominating limiting factor for plant production (0.019 NDVI units) and in semi-arid areas where air temperature is the primarily growth constraint (0.013 NDVI units). Finally, in the analysis of changes in the intra-annual variation of greenness it is found that seemingly similar increases in greenness over the study period may have widely different explanations. This implies that current generalizations, claiming that land degradation is ongoing in semi-arid areas worldwide, are not supported by the satellite based analysis of vegetation greenness.

Original language	English
Journal	Remote Sensing of Environment
Volume	121
Pages (from-to)	144-158
Number of pages	15
ISSN	0034-4257
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.01.017
Publication status	Published - Jun 2012

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10.1016/j.rse.2012.01.017

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Fensholt, R., Langanke, T., Rasmussen, K., Reenberg, A., Prince, S., Tucker, C., Scholes, R. J. ., Le, Q. B., Bondeau, A., Eastman, R., Epstein, H., Gaughan, A. E., Hellden, U., Mbow, C., Olsson, L., Paruelo, J., Schweitzer, C., Seaquist, J., & Wessels, K. (2012). Greenness in semi-arid areas across the globe 1981-2007: an Earth Observing Satellite based analysis of trends and drivers. Remote Sensing of Environment, 121, 144-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.01.017

Fensholt, R, Langanke, T, Rasmussen, K, Reenberg, A, Prince, S, Tucker, C, Scholes, RJ, Le, QB, Bondeau, A, Eastman, R, Epstein, H, Gaughan, AE, Hellden, U, Mbow, C, Olsson, L, Paruelo, J, Schweitzer, C, Seaquist, J & Wessels, K 2012, 'Greenness in semi-arid areas across the globe 1981-2007: an Earth Observing Satellite based analysis of trends and drivers', Remote Sensing of Environment, vol. 121, pp. 144-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.01.017

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title = "Greenness in semi-arid areas across the globe 1981-2007: an Earth Observing Satellite based analysis of trends and drivers",

abstract = "Semi-arid areas, defined as those areas of the world where water is an important limitation for plant growth, have become the subject of increased interest due to the impacts of current global changes and sustainability of human lifestyles. While many ground-based reports of declining vegetation productivity have been published over the last decades, a number of recent publications have shown a nuanced and, for some regions, positive picture. With this background, the paper provides an analysis of trends in vegetation greenness of semi-arid areas using AVHRR GIMMS from 1981 to 2007. The vegetation index dataset is used as a proxy for vegetation productivity and trends are analyzed for characterization of changes in semi-arid vegetation greenness. Calculated vegetation trends are analyzed with gridded data on potential climatic constraints to plant growth to explore possible causes of the observed changes. An analysis of changes in the seasonal variation of vegetation greenness and climatic drivers is conducted for selected regions to further understand the causes of observed inter-annual vegetation changes in semi-arid areas across the globe. It is concluded that semi-arid areas, across the globe, on average experience an increase in greenness (0.015 NDVI units over the period of analysis). Further it is observed that increases in greenness are found both in semi-arid areas where precipitation is the dominating limiting factor for plant production (0.019 NDVI units) and in semi-arid areas where air temperature is the primarily growth constraint (0.013 NDVI units). Finally, in the analysis of changes in the intra-annual variation of greenness it is found that seemingly similar increases in greenness over the study period may have widely different explanations. This implies that current generalizations, claiming that land degradation is ongoing in semi-arid areas worldwide, are not supported by the satellite based analysis of vegetation greenness.",

author = "Rasmus Fensholt and Tobias Langanke and Kjeld Rasmussen and Anette Reenberg and Stephen Prince and Compton Tucker and Scholes, {Robert J .} and Le, {Quang Bao} and Alberte Bondeau and Ron Eastman and Howard Epstein and Gaughan, {Andrea E.} and Ulf Hellden and Cheikh Mbow and Lennart Olsson and Jose Paruelo and Christian Schweitzer and Jonathan Seaquist and Konrad Wessels",

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doi = "10.1016/j.rse.2012.01.017",

language = "English",

volume = "121",

pages = "144--158",

journal = "Remote Sensing of Environment",

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T1 - Greenness in semi-arid areas across the globe 1981-2007

T2 - an Earth Observing Satellite based analysis of trends and drivers

AU - Fensholt, Rasmus

AU - Langanke, Tobias

AU - Rasmussen, Kjeld

AU - Reenberg, Anette

AU - Prince, Stephen

AU - Tucker, Compton

AU - Scholes, Robert J .

AU - Le, Quang Bao

AU - Bondeau, Alberte

AU - Eastman, Ron

AU - Epstein, Howard

AU - Gaughan, Andrea E.

AU - Hellden, Ulf

AU - Mbow, Cheikh

AU - Olsson, Lennart

AU - Paruelo, Jose

AU - Schweitzer, Christian

AU - Seaquist, Jonathan

AU - Wessels, Konrad

PY - 2012/6

Y1 - 2012/6

N2 - Semi-arid areas, defined as those areas of the world where water is an important limitation for plant growth, have become the subject of increased interest due to the impacts of current global changes and sustainability of human lifestyles. While many ground-based reports of declining vegetation productivity have been published over the last decades, a number of recent publications have shown a nuanced and, for some regions, positive picture. With this background, the paper provides an analysis of trends in vegetation greenness of semi-arid areas using AVHRR GIMMS from 1981 to 2007. The vegetation index dataset is used as a proxy for vegetation productivity and trends are analyzed for characterization of changes in semi-arid vegetation greenness. Calculated vegetation trends are analyzed with gridded data on potential climatic constraints to plant growth to explore possible causes of the observed changes. An analysis of changes in the seasonal variation of vegetation greenness and climatic drivers is conducted for selected regions to further understand the causes of observed inter-annual vegetation changes in semi-arid areas across the globe. It is concluded that semi-arid areas, across the globe, on average experience an increase in greenness (0.015 NDVI units over the period of analysis). Further it is observed that increases in greenness are found both in semi-arid areas where precipitation is the dominating limiting factor for plant production (0.019 NDVI units) and in semi-arid areas where air temperature is the primarily growth constraint (0.013 NDVI units). Finally, in the analysis of changes in the intra-annual variation of greenness it is found that seemingly similar increases in greenness over the study period may have widely different explanations. This implies that current generalizations, claiming that land degradation is ongoing in semi-arid areas worldwide, are not supported by the satellite based analysis of vegetation greenness.

AB - Semi-arid areas, defined as those areas of the world where water is an important limitation for plant growth, have become the subject of increased interest due to the impacts of current global changes and sustainability of human lifestyles. While many ground-based reports of declining vegetation productivity have been published over the last decades, a number of recent publications have shown a nuanced and, for some regions, positive picture. With this background, the paper provides an analysis of trends in vegetation greenness of semi-arid areas using AVHRR GIMMS from 1981 to 2007. The vegetation index dataset is used as a proxy for vegetation productivity and trends are analyzed for characterization of changes in semi-arid vegetation greenness. Calculated vegetation trends are analyzed with gridded data on potential climatic constraints to plant growth to explore possible causes of the observed changes. An analysis of changes in the seasonal variation of vegetation greenness and climatic drivers is conducted for selected regions to further understand the causes of observed inter-annual vegetation changes in semi-arid areas across the globe. It is concluded that semi-arid areas, across the globe, on average experience an increase in greenness (0.015 NDVI units over the period of analysis). Further it is observed that increases in greenness are found both in semi-arid areas where precipitation is the dominating limiting factor for plant production (0.019 NDVI units) and in semi-arid areas where air temperature is the primarily growth constraint (0.013 NDVI units). Finally, in the analysis of changes in the intra-annual variation of greenness it is found that seemingly similar increases in greenness over the study period may have widely different explanations. This implies that current generalizations, claiming that land degradation is ongoing in semi-arid areas worldwide, are not supported by the satellite based analysis of vegetation greenness.

U2 - 10.1016/j.rse.2012.01.017

DO - 10.1016/j.rse.2012.01.017

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0034-4257

VL - 121

SP - 144

EP - 158

JO - Remote Sensing of Environment

JF - Remote Sensing of Environment

ER -

Greenness in semi-arid areas across the globe 1981-2007: an Earth Observing Satellite based analysis of trends and drivers

Abstract

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