ISSN 2070-7401 (Print), ISSN 2411-0280 (Online)
Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa
CURRENT PROBLEMS IN REMOTE SENSING OF THE EARTH FROM SPACE

  

Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2020, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 154-163

The relation of forest NDVI to climate in Volga basin

P.A. Shary 1 , L.S. Sharaya 2 , L.V. Sidyakina 2 
1 Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science RAS, Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia
2 Institute of Volga Basin Ecology RAS, Togliatti, Russia
Accepted: 22.06.2020
DOI: 10.21046/2070-7401-2020-17-4-154-163
Study of NDVI for dark coniferous, light coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forests and climate features in Volga basin has shown that most strong links between NDVI and climate are observed for dark coniferous forests. The main climate features for all forests were continentality, variability of temperature estimated as its standard deviation, winter temperature, sum of negative temperatures, Kira’s coldness index, and snow index. Potential evapotranspiration in October was also important — in November, average temperature changes from positive to negative in the region. The relation of NDVI to average annual temperature was relatively weak, and weaker — with precipitation. The latter is related to that water deficit is not a limiting factor for forests in the region. In general, summer NDVI for all forests was strongly related to winter, rather than summer temperatures. This was better expressed for dark coniferous forests. This may be explained by both winter frosts, and effects of so-called winter drought. The latter is expressed in that at the end of winter when plant roots are still frozen but transpiration is already essential, above-ground parts of plants loose water, and this may be expressed later, during growing season. Maximal values of water deficit (defined as the difference between potential and actual evaportanspiration) were found when forests do not grow: 251 mm/year for dark coniferous forest, 254 for mixed, 282 for light coniferous, 326 for deciduous.
Keywords: NDVI, coniferous and deciduous forests, climate features, winter drought
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