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Assessing Drivers of Vegetation Changes in Drylands from Time Series of Earth Observation Data

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Remote Sensing Time Series

Part of the book series: Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing ((RDIP,volume 22))

Abstract

This chapter summarizes methods of inferring information about drivers of global dryland vegetation changes observed from remote sensing time series data covering from the 1980s until present time. Earth observation (EO) based time series of vegetation metrics, sea surface temperature (SST) (both from the AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) series of instruments) and precipitation data (blended satellite/rain gauge) are used for determining the mechanisms of observed changes. EO-based methods to better distinguish between climate and human induced (land use) vegetation changes are reviewed. The techniques presented include trend analysis based on the Rain-Use Efficiency (RUE) and the Residual Trend Analysis (RESTREND) and the methodological challenges related to the use of these. Finally, teleconnections between global sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies and dryland vegetation productivity are illustrated and the associated predictive capabilities are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This book chapter is written within the frame of the project entitled Earth Observation based Vegetation productivity and Land Degradation Trends in Global Drylands. The project is funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF) Sapere Aude programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Geography, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Rasmus Fensholt, Stephanie Horion, Torbern Tagesson, Andrea Ehammer, Kenneth Grogan, Feng Tian & Kjeld Rasmussen

  2. DHI GRAS, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Silvia Huber

  3. Laboratory of Geo-Information Science and Remote Sensing, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Jan Verbesselt

  4. Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Stephen D. Prince

  5. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    Compton J. Tucker

Authors
  1. Rasmus Fensholt
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  2. Stephanie Horion
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  3. Torbern Tagesson
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  4. Andrea Ehammer
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  5. Kenneth Grogan
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  6. Feng Tian
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  7. Silvia Huber
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  8. Jan Verbesselt
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  9. Stephen D. Prince
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  10. Compton J. Tucker
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  11. Kjeld Rasmussen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rasmus Fensholt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. German Remote Sensing Data Center, DFD, German Aerospace Center, DLR, Wessling, Germany

    Claudia Kuenzer

  2. German Remote Sensing Data Center, DFD, German Aerospace Center, DLR, Wessling, Germany

    Stefan Dech

  3. Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang Wagner

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Fensholt, R. et al. (2015). Assessing Drivers of Vegetation Changes in Drylands from Time Series of Earth Observation Data. In: Kuenzer, C., Dech, S., Wagner, W. (eds) Remote Sensing Time Series. Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15967-6_9

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