Vegetation response to hydrologic and geomorphic factors in an arid region of the Baja California Peninsula

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment Vol. 186; no. 2; pp. 1009 - 1021
• Main Authors: Rodríguez-Moreno, Victor M, Bullock, Stephen H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer-Verlag 01.02.2014; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analysis; Arid zones; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; canopy; Climate; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecosystem; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Management; Environmental monitoring; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Hydrologic sciences; Hydrology; Igneous rocks; Mexico; Models, Statistical; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Precipitation; Productivity; Rain; Rainfall measurement; regression analysis; Remote sensing; Remote Sensing Technology; Satellite Imagery; Studies; Topography; Variables; Vegetation; Vegetation mapping; Water content; Weather; Mexico; United States > US; TRMM; NDII; Substrate–vegetation relations; Topographic Wetness Index; Remote sensing; SAVI
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-013-3435-5

Remotely sensed imageries were used to analyze the response of desert vegetation to physiographic factors and accumulated precipitation in drier and wetter years within a region of >16,500 km² sampled with 5,000 random pixels of 30 m. Vegetation development was indexed by the annual maximum values for greenness (SAVI) and canopy water content (NDII). Precipitation was interpolated from the 0.25° grid of the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission satellite-based estimates, showing a regional average of ∼55 mm in the wetter year. The vegetation indices were only weakly related to total precipitation, often in a negative sense. Terrain factors that most often affected the vegetation indices, in multiple regression models, were Topographic Wetness Index, elevation, and slope gradient; these often had different signs for SAVI and for NDII. Models for NDII on intrusive igneous rocks gave better results than on extrusive igneous rocks. The strongest patterns in vegetation development were the contrast among Pacific coast, Cordillera, and Gulf coast subregions and the generally stronger results for NDII than SAVI.