Characterizing the Response of Vegetation Cover to Water Limitation in Africa Using Geostationary Satellites
Abstract Hydrological interactions between vegetation, soil, and topography are complex, and heterogeneous in semi‐arid landscapes. This along with data scarcity poses challenges for large‐scale modeling of vegetation‐water interactions. Here, we exploit metrics derived from daily Meteosat data over...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002730 |
| _version_ | 1827958793103736832 |
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| author | Çağlar Küçük Sujan Koirala Nuno Carvalhais Diego G. Miralles Markus Reichstein Martin Jung |
| author_facet | Çağlar Küçük Sujan Koirala Nuno Carvalhais Diego G. Miralles Markus Reichstein Martin Jung |
| author_sort | Çağlar Küçük |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Hydrological interactions between vegetation, soil, and topography are complex, and heterogeneous in semi‐arid landscapes. This along with data scarcity poses challenges for large‐scale modeling of vegetation‐water interactions. Here, we exploit metrics derived from daily Meteosat data over Africa at ca. 5 km spatial resolution for ecohydrological analysis. Their spatial patterns are based on Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) time series and emphasize limiting conditions of the seasonal wet to dry transition: the minimum and maximum FVC of temporal record, the FVC decay rate and the FVC integral over the decay period. We investigate the relevance of these metrics for large scale ecohydrological studies by assessing their co‐variation with soil moisture, and with topographic, soil, and vegetation factors. Consistent with our initial hypothesis, FVC minimum and maximum increase with soil moisture, while the FVC integral and decay rate peak at intermediate soil moisture. We find evidence for the relevance of topographic moisture variations in arid regions, which, counter‐intuitively, is detectable in the maximum but not in the minimum FVC. We find no clear evidence for wide‐spread occurrence of the “inverse texture effect” on FVC. The FVC integral over the decay period correlates with independent data sets of plant water storage capacity or rooting depth while correlations increase with aridity. In arid regions, the FVC decay rate decreases with canopy height and tree cover fraction as expected for ecosystems with a more conservative water‐use strategy. Thus, our observation‐based products have large potential for better understanding complex vegetation‐water interactions from regional to continental scales. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T15:41:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-414b4a277d02400085b04bf82a11477b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1942-2466 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T15:41:47Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-414b4a277d02400085b04bf82a11477b2023-04-27T07:53:09ZengAmerican Geophysical Union (AGU)Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems1942-24662022-03-01143n/an/a10.1029/2021MS002730Characterizing the Response of Vegetation Cover to Water Limitation in Africa Using Geostationary SatellitesÇağlar Küçük0Sujan Koirala1Nuno Carvalhais2Diego G. Miralles3Markus Reichstein4Martin Jung5Department of Biogeochemical Integration Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena GermanyDepartment of Biogeochemical Integration Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena GermanyDepartment of Biogeochemical Integration Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena GermanyHydro‐Climate Extremes Lab (H‐CEL) Faculty of Bioscience Engineering Ghent University Ghent BelgiumDepartment of Biogeochemical Integration Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena GermanyDepartment of Biogeochemical Integration Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena GermanyAbstract Hydrological interactions between vegetation, soil, and topography are complex, and heterogeneous in semi‐arid landscapes. This along with data scarcity poses challenges for large‐scale modeling of vegetation‐water interactions. Here, we exploit metrics derived from daily Meteosat data over Africa at ca. 5 km spatial resolution for ecohydrological analysis. Their spatial patterns are based on Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) time series and emphasize limiting conditions of the seasonal wet to dry transition: the minimum and maximum FVC of temporal record, the FVC decay rate and the FVC integral over the decay period. We investigate the relevance of these metrics for large scale ecohydrological studies by assessing their co‐variation with soil moisture, and with topographic, soil, and vegetation factors. Consistent with our initial hypothesis, FVC minimum and maximum increase with soil moisture, while the FVC integral and decay rate peak at intermediate soil moisture. We find evidence for the relevance of topographic moisture variations in arid regions, which, counter‐intuitively, is detectable in the maximum but not in the minimum FVC. We find no clear evidence for wide‐spread occurrence of the “inverse texture effect” on FVC. The FVC integral over the decay period correlates with independent data sets of plant water storage capacity or rooting depth while correlations increase with aridity. In arid regions, the FVC decay rate decreases with canopy height and tree cover fraction as expected for ecosystems with a more conservative water‐use strategy. Thus, our observation‐based products have large potential for better understanding complex vegetation‐water interactions from regional to continental scales.https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002730Africafractional vegetation covergeostationaryecohydrologywater limitation |
| spellingShingle | Çağlar Küçük Sujan Koirala Nuno Carvalhais Diego G. Miralles Markus Reichstein Martin Jung Characterizing the Response of Vegetation Cover to Water Limitation in Africa Using Geostationary Satellites Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems Africa fractional vegetation cover geostationary ecohydrology water limitation |
| title | Characterizing the Response of Vegetation Cover to Water Limitation in Africa Using Geostationary Satellites |
| title_full | Characterizing the Response of Vegetation Cover to Water Limitation in Africa Using Geostationary Satellites |
| title_fullStr | Characterizing the Response of Vegetation Cover to Water Limitation in Africa Using Geostationary Satellites |
| title_full_unstemmed | Characterizing the Response of Vegetation Cover to Water Limitation in Africa Using Geostationary Satellites |
| title_short | Characterizing the Response of Vegetation Cover to Water Limitation in Africa Using Geostationary Satellites |
| title_sort | characterizing the response of vegetation cover to water limitation in africa using geostationary satellites |
| topic | Africa fractional vegetation cover geostationary ecohydrology water limitation |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002730 |
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