Title :
Long-Term Phenology and Variability of Southern African Vegetation
Author :
Steenkamp, Karen ; Wessels, Konrad ; Archibald, Sally ; Von Maltitz, Graham
Author_Institution :
Remote Sensing Res. Unit, Meraka Inst., Tshwane
Abstract :
Satellite-derived phenology allows monitoring of terrestrial vegetation on a global scale and provides an integrative view at the landscape level . Understanding these seasonal phenological patterns is essential to (i) the characterisation and classification of vegetation, (ii) studying the impact of climate change , and influence of rainfall variability (iii) monitoring desertification and (iv) detecting changes in land use/land cover. This study analyzed vegetation phenology across Southern Africa in order to investigate which phenometrics (and their inter-annual variability) distinguish biomes based on functional patterns. A second objective was to quantify the inter-annual variability of phenometrics during a 15-year period (1985 to 2000).
Keywords :
climatology; geomorphology; geophysics computing; image classification; phenology; rain; vegetation; AD 1985 to 2000; Southern Africa; biomes; climate change; desertification monitoring; functional patterns; interannual variability; land cover; land use; phenometrics; rainfall variability; seasonal phenological patterns; terrestrial vegetation monitoring; vegetation classification; Africa; Biosphere; Curve fitting; Ecosystems; Fires; Pattern analysis; Productivity; Remote monitoring; Temperature distribution; Vegetation mapping; Time-series; inter-annual variability; phenology;
Conference_Titel :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2008. IGARSS 2008. IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Boston, MA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2807-6
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2808-3
DOI :
10.1109/IGARSS.2008.4779474
