Dryland ecosystems functions and their interactions with the climate in the Sudano-Sahelian region of Africa are being studied using the 30 yr, harmonized record of AVHRR and MODIS data, together with new meteorological and land condition data. The aim is to better understand the mechanisms of vegetation-environment interactions in tropical drylands, such as the responses to episodic rainfall pulses, variations in water infiltration and interactions between exogenous and endogenous vegetation behavior. While there is information on local scale vegetation dynamics (e.g. from the HAPEX-Sahel and current AMMA field studies), the implications for the regional scale are little known, as is suggested by the extensive areas with poor correlations between annual vegetation growth and rainfall, notwithstanding the strong regional correlations. A survey of periodicities in vegetation cover, leaf are index and net production for the time-series will be presented together with a modeling study of the consequences for the energy, water and carbon balances and the effects of anthropogenic land cover changes.
(See also companion poster 'Ecosystem and climate variability in West Africa – a study using the SSiB4/TRIFFID biophysical/dynamic vegetation model' by Xue, Song, Cox, and Prince).
Presentation Type: Poster
Poster Session: Ecosystems Science
NASA TE Funded Awards Represented:
Prince, Stephen
Vegetation dynamics in drylands and implications for regional climate: analysis of two decades of observations in the African Sahel