A comparison of multiple phenology data sources for estimating seasonal transitions in deciduous forest carbon exchange

There are currently numerous data sources available for estimating the timing of recurrent plant phenology transitions. We compared measurements from several phenology data sources to understand the relationship between phenology metrics derived from these data sources and the timing of seasonal transitions in net ecosystem exchange (NEE). We identified the timing of start, peak, end and the duration of the carbon uptake season, as well as the timing of the transitions from sink to source and source to sink using 11 years of NEE data from the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS). Using fitted logistic functions we identified proxy metrics for phenological transitions from the time series of Albedo, fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR), Plant Area Index (PAI), and MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI), and leaf area index (LAI) products of various spatial representations. We found that no single source of phenological data was able to accurately describe annual patterns of flux phenology. However, for each transition in NEE (e.g., start of season, transition to net sink), the metrics from one or more data sources were significantly (p < 0.05) correlated with the timing of these recurring events. A marginally significant trend toward a longer NEE carbon uptake period over 11 years was not detected by any of the metrics, primarily because none of the metrics were available for the full duration of the NEE data, and NEE did not show significant and consistent trends during the sub-sets of the time when proxy data were available. The results of our study highlight the relative strengths and weaknesses of each phenology data source for directly estimating seasonal transitions and interannual trends in carbon flux phenology of a deciduous forest.