ОЦЕНКА СЕЗОННОЙ ДИНАМИКИ НОРМАЛИЗОВАННОГО ДИФФЕРЕНЦИАЛЬНОГО ИНДЕКСА РАСТИТЕЛЬНОСТИ (NDVI) И ЕГО ВЗАИМОСВЯЗЬ С КЛИМАТИЧЕСКИМИ ПРЕДИКТОРАМИ В ВОДНО-БОЛОТНЫХ УГОДЬЯХ TЕМБЛАДЕРA (ЭКВАДОР)

Abstract

Wetlands are considered critical ecosystems due to declining quality of their ecosystems services. Nevertheless, there have not been any climate related researched devoted to vegetation condition and biomass amount. Thus, this study examines the seasonal dynamics of vegetation and its correlations with climatic factors. This study is important for understanding of the regulatory function of this ecosystem during climate change. Two Landsat OLI8 images made in 2020 were analyzed. One image refers to the rainy season (April 12), and the other to the dry season (August 2). The radiometric and atmospheric corrections of the images and the determination of the boundaries of the study site (ROI) were developed in ENVI 5.3 program. The normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated with ENVI 5.3 program (histograms allowed to determine biomass), and with ArcGIS 10.3 (for classification index). The Pearson coefficient (r) and the Statistica software were applied to determine the correlations between the variables. The linear relationship between the NDVI, the amount of biomass and the climatic variables was identified. In the rainy season (April) with higher temperature and precipitation, the NDVI was >0.5 and the biomass was 372613.0 t in the major part of “la Tembladera”, while in the dry season (August) with a lower temperature and precipitation rate, both the NDVI (0.14–0.5) and the biomass (333856.95 t) decreased in a considerable area of the wetland. Consequently, the seasonal dynamics of vegetation and its biomass is caused by fluctuations in these climatic variables. Thus, the biomass increased during the rainy season (higher precipitation, temperature, and humidity). These results can be used to further modelling the effects of climate change in these ecosystems.