Amazon forest spectral seasonality is consistent across sensor resolutions and driven by leaf demography

Abstract

Controversy surrounds the reported dry season greening of the Central Amazon forests based on the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). As the solar zenith angle decreases during the dry season, it affects the sub-pixel shade content and artificially increases Near-infrared (NIR) reflectance and EVI. MODIS' coarse resolution also creates a challenge for cloud and terrain filtering. To reduce these artifacts and then validate MODIS seasonal spectral patterns we use 16 years of 1 km resolution MODIS-MAIAC (Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction) images, corrected to a nadir view and 45° solar zenith angle, together with an improved cloud filter. Then we show that the 30 m Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) surface reflectance over two Landsat scenes provides independent evidence supporting the MODIS-MAIAC seasonality for EVI, NIR, and GCC (an additional important vegetation index, green chromatic coordinate). Our empirical method for controlling for sun-sensor geometry effects in Landsat scenes encompasses the use of seasonally distinct images that have similar solar zenith angles and cloud-free pixels on flat uplands having the same phase angle. We extended this validation to nine Amazon sub-basins comprising ∼546 Landsat-8 images. Our study shows that the dry-season green-up pattern observed by MODIS is corroborated by Landsat-8, and is independent of satellite data artifacts. To investigate the mechanisms driving these seasonal changes we further used Central Amazon tower-mounted RGB cameras providing a 4-year record at the Amazon Tall Tower (ATTO, 2°8′36″S, 59°0′2″W) and a 7-year record at the Manaus k34 tower (2°36′33″ S, 60°12′33″W) to obtain monthly upper canopy green leaf cover (a proxy for Leaf Area Index - LAI) and monthly leaf age class abundances (based on the age since leaf flushing, by crown). These were compared to seasonal patterns of GCC and EVI in small MODIS-MAIAC windows centered on each tower. MODIS-MAIAC GCC was positively correlated with newly flushed leaves (R2 = 0.76 and 0.44 at ATTO and k34, respectively). EVI correlated strongly with the abundance of mature leaves (R2 = 0.82 and 0.80) but was poorly correlated with LAI (R2 = 0.20 and 0.41, respectively). Therefore, seasonal spectral patterns in the Central Amazon are likely controlled by leaf age variation, not quantity of leaf area.