Comparison and assessment of NDVI time series for seasonal wetland classification

Satellite-based wetland mapping faces challenges due to the high spatial heterogeneity and dynamic characteristics of seasonal wetlands.Although normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI)time series(NTS)shows great potential in land cover mapping and crop classification,the effectiveness of various NTS with different spatial and temporal resolution has not been evaluated for seasonal wetland classification.To address this issue,we conducted comparisons of those NTS,including the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer(MODIS)NTS with 500 m resolution,NTS fused with MODIS and Landsat data(MOD_LC8-NTS),and HJ-1 NDVI compositions(HJ-1-NTS)with finer resolution,for wetland classification of Poyang Lake.Results showed the following:(1)the NTS with finer resolution was more effective in the classification of seasonal wetlands than that of the MODIS-NTS with 500-m resolution and(2)generally,the HJ-1-NTS performed better than that of the fused NTS,with an overall accuracy of 88.12%for HJ-1-NTS and 83.09%for the MOD_LC8-NTS.Future work should focus on the construction of satellite image time series oriented to highly dynamic characteristics of seasonal wetlands.This study will provide useful guidance for seasonal wetland classification,and benefit the improvements of spatiotemporal fusion models.

Spatial-temporal variations of vegetation cover in Yellow River Basin of China during 1998-2008

Using an integrated method combining wavelet analysis and non-parameter Mann-Kendall test, this paper analyzed spatial-temporal variations of vegetation cover in the Yellow River Basin based on SPOT-VEG images from 1998 to 2008 The results indicate： （1） Vegetation cover presented marked seasonal variation during the study period, with minima around winter and maxima in summer. The detail component D5 （with semi-period of 240 days） has presented a major contribution to the intra-armual variability. Forest vegetation presents a marked decreasing trend, while alpine shrubs, meadow, typical steppe, desert steppe, and forest （meadow） steppe vegetation all show a marked increasing trend. （2） Mean vegetation amount increased from the upper to lower reaches of the basin. It is low in the Ordos Plateau and Loess Plateau, and high in the southern Loess Plateau and the lower reaches. Amplitude of the annual phenological cycle pre- sents an opposite pattern in spatial distribution with that of the mean vegetation amount. （3） Vegetation cover presented a dominant positive inter-annual change trend, which implies that the eco-environment in the region has steadily improved. Only a few areas show a negative trend, which are located in the upper reaches and the southern Loess Plateau.

Spatio-temporal responses of cropland phenophases to climate change in Northeast China

We investigated the responses of cropland phenophases to changes of agricultural thermal conditions in Northeast China using the SPOT-VGT Normalized Difference Vegetation Index （NDVI） ten-day-composed time-series data, observed crop phenophases and the climate data collected from 1990 to 2010. First, the phenological parameters, such as the dates of onset-of-growth, peak-of-growth and end-of-growth as well as the length of the growing season, were extracted from the smoothed NVDI time-series dataset and showed an obvious correlation with the observed crop phenophases, including the stages of seedling, heading, maturity and the length of the growth period. Secondly, the spatio-temporal trends of the major thermal conditions （the first date of ≥10℃, the first frost date, the length of the temperature-allowing growth period and the accumulated temperature （AT） of ≥10℃） in Northeast China were illustrated and analyzed over the past 20 years. Thirdly, we focused on the responses of cropland phenophases to the thermal conditions changes. The results showed that the onset-of-growth date had an obvious positive correlation with the first date of ≥10℃ （P 0.01）, especially in the northern part of the Songnen Plain, the eastern part of the Sanjiang Plain and the middle and eastern parts of Jilin Province. For the extracted length of growing season and the observed growth period, notable correlations were found in almost same regions （P 0.05）. However, there was no obvious correlation between the end-of-growth date and the first frost date in the study area. Opposite correlations were observed between the length of the growing season and the AT of ≥10℃. In the northern part of the Songnen Plain, the eastern part of the Sanjiang Plain and the middle part of Jilin and Liaoning Provinces, the positive correlation coefficients were higher than the critical value of 0.05, whereas the negative correlation coefficients reached a level of 0.55 （P 0.05） in the middle and southern parts of Heilongjiang Province and some parts of the Sanjiang Plain. This finding indicated that the crop growth periods were shortened because of the elevated temperature; in contrast, the extended growth period usually meant a crop transformation from early- or middle-maturing varieties into middle or late ones.

Inter-annual variations in vegetation and their response to climatic factors in the upper catchments of the Yellow River from 2000 to 2010

To understand the variations in vegetation and their correlation with climate factors in the upper catchments of the Yellow River, China, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index（NDVI） time series data from 2000 to 2010 were collected based on the MOD13Q1 product. The coefficient of variation, Theil–Sen median trend analysis and the Mann–Kendall test were combined to investigate the volatility characteristic and trend characteristic of the vegetation. Climate data sets were then used to analyze the correlation between variations in vegetation and climate change. In terms of the temporal variations, the vegetation in this study area improved slightly from 2000 to 2010, although the volatility characteristic was larger in 2000–2005 than in 2006–2010. In terms of the spatial variation, vegetation which is relatively stable and has a significantly increasing trend accounts for the largest part of the study area. Its spatial distribution is highly correlated with altitude, which ranges from about 2000 to 3000 m in this area. Highly fluctuating vegetation and vegetation which showed a significantly decreasing trend were mostly distributed around the reservoirs and in the reaches of the river with hydropower developments. Vegetation with a relatively stable and significantly decreasing trend and vegetation with a highly fluctuating and significantly increasing trend are widely dispersed. With respect to the response of vegetation to climate change, about 20–30% of the vegetation has a significant correlation with climatic factors and the correlations in most areas are positive： regions with precipitation as the key influencing factor account for more than 10% of the area; regions with temperature as the key influencing factor account for less than 10% of the area; and regions with precipitation and temperature as the key influencing factors together account for about 5% of the total area. More than 70% of the vegetation has an insignificant correlation with climatic factors.