ARS | Publication request: MODIS EVI as a Surrogate for Net Primary Production across Precipitation Regimes

Submitted to: Research Insights in Semiarid Ecosystems Symposium
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: October 2, 2010
Publication Date: October 2, 2010
Citation: Ponce, G., Bresloff, C., Huete, S., Moran, M.S., Huxman, T., Bosch, D.D., Bradford, J., Buda, A.R., Gunter, S.A., Mcnab, H., Mcclaran, M., Peters, D.C., Sadler, E.J., Seyfried, M.S., Starks, P.J., Sutherland Montoya, D. 2010. MODIS EVI as a Surrogate for Net Primary Production across Precipitation Regimes. Research Insights in Semiarid Ecosystems Symposium. University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ., October 2, 2010.

Technical Abstract: According to Global Climate Models (GCMs) the occurrence of extreme events of precipitation will be more frequent in the future. Therefore, important challenges arise regarding climate variability, which are mainly related to the understanding of ecosystem responses to changes in precipitation patterns and how to assess the impact across diverse biomes. As part of this assessment process, previous studies have found that Above-ground Net Primary Productivity (ANPP) was positively related to increases in annual precipitation and this relation may converge across biomes during dry years. One of the major challenges in studying this ecosystem response at the continental scale is the lack of ANPP field measurements over extended areas with suitable temporal variability. In this study, the MODIS-Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) was presented as a surrogate for ANPP and combined with precipitation datasets from twelve different USDA experimental sites across the United States for a 10-year study 2000-2009. Results from this analysis confirmed that integrated-EVI for different biomes converged to a common precipitation use efficiency during water-limited periods and that an integrated-EVI may be a viable surrogate for ANPP measurements for further ecological research.