scholarly journals Satellite Based Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation Is Congruent with Plant Diversity in India

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Swapna Mahanand ◽  
Mukunda Dev Behera ◽  
Partha Sarathi Roy ◽  
Priyankar Kumar ◽  
Saroj Kanta Barik ◽  
...  

A dynamic habitat index (DHI) based on satellite derived biophysical proxy (fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation, FAPAR) was used to evaluate the vegetation greenness pattern across deserts to alpine ecosystems in India that account to different biodiversity. The cumulative (DHI-cum), minimum (DHI-min), and seasonal (DHI-sea) DHI were generated using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-based FAPAR. The higher DHI-cum and DHI-min represented the biodiversity hotspots of India, whereas the DHI-sea was higher in the semi-arid, the Gangetic plain, and the Deccan peninsula. The arid and the trans-Himalaya are dominated with grassland or barren land exhibit very high DHI-sea. The inter-year correlation demonstrated an increase in vegetation greenness in the semi-arid region, and continuous reduction in greenness in the Northeastern region. The DHI components validated using field-measured plant richness data from four biogeographic regions (semi-arid, eastern Ghats, the Western Ghats, and Northeast) demonstrated good congruence. DHI-cum that represents the annual greenness strongly correlated with the plant richness (R2 = 0.90, p-value < 0.001), thereby emerging as a suitable indicator for assessing plant richness in large-scale biogeographic studies. Overall, the FAPAR-based DHI components across Indian biogeographic regions provided understanding of natural variability of the greenness pattern and its congruence with plant diversity.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 2083
Author(s):  
Siyuan Chen ◽  
Liangyun Liu ◽  
Xue He ◽  
Zhigang Liu ◽  
Dailiang Peng

The fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) is an essential climate variable (ECV) widely used for various ecological and climate models. However, all the current FAPAR satellite products correspond to instantaneous FAPAR values acquired at the satellite transit time only, which cannot represent the variations in photosynthetic processes over the diurnal period. Most studies have directly used the instantaneous FAPAR as a reasonable approximation of the daily integrated value. However, clearly, FAPAR varies a lot according to the weather conditions and amount of incoming radiation. In this paper, a temporal upscaling method based on the cosine of the solar zenith angle (SZA) at local noon ( c o s ( S Z A n o o n ) ) is proposed for converting instantaneous FAPAR to daily integrated FAPAR. First, the diurnal variations in FAPAR were investigated using PROSAIL (a model of Leaf Optical Properties Spectra (PROSPECT) integrating a canopy radiative transfer model (Scattering from Arbitrarily Inclined Leaves, SAIL)) simulations with different leaf area index (LAI) values corresponding to different latitudes. It was found that the instantaneous black sky FAPAR at 09:30 AM provided a good approximation for the daily integrated black sky FAPAR; this gave the highest correlation (R2 = 0.995) and lowest Root Mean Square Error (RMSE = 0.013) among the instantaneous black sky FAPAR values observed at different times. Secondly, the difference between the instantaneous black sky FAPAR values acquired at different times and the daily integrated black sky FAPAR was analyzed; this could be accurately modelled using the cosine value of solar zenith angle at local noon ( c o s ( S Z A n o o n ) ) for a given vegetation scene. Therefore, a temporal upscaling method for typical satellite products was proposed using a cos(SZA)-based upscaling model. Finally, the proposed cos(SZA)-based upscaling model was validated using both the PROSAIL simulated data and the field measurements. The validated results indicated that the upscaled daily black sky FAPAR was highly consistent with the daily integrated black sky FAPAR, giving very high mean R2 values (0.998, 0.972), low RMSEs (0.007, 0.014), and low rMAEs (0.596%, 1.378%) for the simulations and the field measurements, respectively. Consequently, the cos(SZA)-based method performs well for upscaling the instantaneous black sky FAPAR to its daily value, which is a simple but extremely important approach for satellite remote sensing applications related to FAPAR.


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Archibald ◽  
A. Kirton ◽  
M. R. van der Merwe ◽  
R. J. Scholes ◽  
C. A. Williams ◽  
...  

Abstract. Inter-annual variability in primary production and ecosystem respiration was explored using eddy-covariance data at a semi-arid savanna site in the Kruger Park, South Africa. New methods of extrapolating night-time respiration to the entire day and filling gaps in eddy-covariance data in semi-arid systems were developed. Net ecosystem exchange (NEE) in these systems occurs as pulses associated with rainfall events, a pattern not well-represented in current standard gap-filling procedures developed primarily for temperate flux sites. They furthermore do not take into account the decrease in respiration at high soil temperatures. An artificial neural network (ANN) model incorporating these features predicted measured fluxes accurately (MAE 0.42 gC/m2/day), and was able to represent the seasonal patterns of photosynthesis and respiration at the site. The amount of green leaf area (indexed using satellite-derived estimates of fractional interception of photosynthetically active radiation fAPAR), and the timing and magnitude of rainfall events, were the two most important predictors used in the ANN model. These drivers were also identified by multiple linear regressions (MLR), with strong interactive effects. The annual integral of the filled NEE data was found to range from −138 to +155 g C/m2/y over the 5 year eddy covariance measurement period. When applied to a 25 year time series of meteorological data, the ANN model predicts an annual mean NEE of 75(±105) g C/m2/y. The main correlates of this inter-annual variability were found to be variation in the amount of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR), length of the growing season, and number of days in the year when moisture was available in the soil.


1998 ◽  
Vol 17 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 89-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.A. Walter‐Shea ◽  
B.L. Blad ◽  
M.A. Mesarch ◽  
C.J. Hays ◽  
D.W. Deering ◽  
...  

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