Trends and driving forces of spring phenology of oak and beech stands in the Western Carpathians from MODIS times series 2000-2021

doi:10.3832/ifor4121-016

Trends and driving forces of spring phenology of oak and beech stands in the Western Carpathians from MODIS times series 2000-2021

Tomáš Bucha⁽¹⁾ , Milan Koren⁽²⁾, Zuzana Sitková⁽¹⁾, Hana Pavlendová⁽¹⁾, Zora Snopková⁽³⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 16, Issue 6, Pages 334-344 (2023)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor4121-016
Published: Nov 19, 2023 - Copyright © 2023 SISEF

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This study focused on trends and driving forces of the leaf unfolding (LU) onset of oak and beech forests in the Slovak Carpathians along elevational gradients in the period 2000-2021. Particular attention was paid to improving the modelling of the LU onset using the MOD/MYD09 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products. The LU onset was derived from the annual Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) trajectories fitted with a double logistic function. An improved estimate of the onset was obtained by calculating 6 parameters of the logistic function and by comparing with the LU onset from phenological field observations. Between 2000 and 2021, we found a trend towards an earlier LU onset at the national level by ~0.39 day year^-1 for oak stands (p = 0.13) and ~0.08 day year^-1 for beech stands (p = 0.48). The analysis of trends in three elevation zones showed a difference in the LU onset of oak and beech stands as a function of elevation. For oak in 100-350 and 350-500 m zones was found a shift towards an earlier onset by ~0.41 day year^-1 (p = 0.12). This corresponds to a shift of 8.6 days for the entire observation period 2000-2021. In the elevational zone above 500 m, the trend was milder, ~0.27 day year^-1 (p = 0.21), i.e., 5.6 days for the entire analysed period. The shift towards an earlier onset at lower elevations and a later onset at higher elevations for beech was not statistically significant, with p-values between 0.44 and 0.51. The atypical year 2021, with the latest onset of LU during the entire observation period, fundamentally affected the significance of all trends. Nevertheless, the pixel-level analysis revealed a significant trend towards an earlier LU onset (p < 0.05) in 20.3% of oak stands. The same result was found only in 0.8% of beech stands. Strong negative correlations with R² = 0.72 for oak and R² = 0.81 for beech (p < 0.001) were found between the LU onset and March and April temperature deviations from the long-term normal. Temperature changes are the main driving force affecting the LU onset in the studied region.

Keywords

MODIS, NDVI, Oak, Beech, Leaf Unfolding, Double Logistic Function, Phenometric Trends, Air Temperature

Authors’ address

(1)

0000-0001-8434-7527
0000-0001-6354-6105
0000-0003-1336-9512
National Forest Centre - Forest Research Institute, T. G. Masaryka 22, 960 01 Zvolen (Slovak Republic)

(2)

Technical University in Zvolen, Faculty of Forestry, T.G. Masaryka 24, 960 01 Zvolen (Slovak Republic)

(3)

Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, Zelená 5, 947 04 Banská Bystrica (Slovak Republic)

Corresponding author

Tomáš Bucha
bucha@nlcsk.org

Citation

Bucha T, Koren M, Sitková Z, Pavlendová H, Snopková Z (2023). Trends and driving forces of spring phenology of oak and beech stands in the Western Carpathians from MODIS times series 2000-2021. iForest 16: 334-344. - doi: 10.3832/ifor4121-016

Academic Editor

Angelo Nolè

Paper history

Received: Apr 25, 2022
Accepted: Sep 17, 2023

First online: Nov 19, 2023
Publication Date: Dec 31, 2023
Publication Time: 2.10 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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