Long-term vegetation monitoring with NDVI in a diverse semi-arid setting, central New Mexico, USA

Time-series of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) are shown to capture essential features of seasonal and inter-annual vegetation variability at six nearby yet distinct vegetation communities in semi-arid New Mexico, USA NDVI values tend to follow a uniform order across communities, related directly to local vegetation. All communities exhibit a bimodal growing season on average, with peaks in springtime and summer. NDVI fluctuations are more spatially uniform in spring than in summer. NDVI variability corresponds to precipitation variability from the North American monsoon and El Nino-Southern Oscillation, and shows agreement with regional ground measurements. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.