Assessing how environmental changes affect the distribution and dynamics of vegetation and animal populations is becoming increasingly important for terrestrial ecologists to enable better predictions of the effects of global warming, biodiversity reduction or habitat degradation. The ability to predict ecological responses has often been hampered by our rather limited understanding of trophic interactions. Indeed, it has proven difficult to discern direct and indirect effects of environmental change on animal populations owing to limited information about vegetation at large temporal and spatial scales. The rapidly increasing use of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in ecological studies has recently changed this situation. Here, we review the use of the NDVI in recent ecological studies and outline its possible key role in future research of environmental change in an ecosystem context.

/pdf/using-the-satellite-derived-ndvi-to-assess-ecological-2axju5fq7n.pdf

Using the satellite-derived NDVI to assess ecological responses to environmental change

Plants are finely tuned to the seasonality of their environment, and shifts in the timing of plant activity (i.e. phenology) provide some of the most compelling evidence that species and ecosystems are being influenced by global environmental change. Researchers across disciplines have observed shifting phenology at multiple scales, including earlier spring flowering in individual plants and an earlier spring green-up' of the land surface revealed in satellite images. Experimental and modeling approaches have sought to identify the mechanisms causing these shifts, as well as to make predictions regarding the consequences. Here, we discuss recent advances in several fields that have enabled scaling between species responses to recent climatic changes and shifts in ecosystem productivity, with implications for global carbon cycling.

https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/pdf/S0169-5347(07)00130-9.pdf

Shifting plant phenology in response to global change

Improvements of the MODIS terrestrial gross and net primary production global data set

Development of a two-band enhanced vegetation index without a blue band

/pdf/remote-sensing-of-the-environment-4yfxjaaswe.pdf

John C.F. Hodges

Papers

Monitoring vegetation phenology using MODIS