The present study classified global Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs) derived from seasonal vegetation dynamics of the GIMMS3g NDVI time-series. Rotated Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was run on the derived phenological and productivity variables, which selected the Standing Biomass (approximation of Net Primary Productivity), the Cyclic Fraction (seasonal vegetation productivity), the Perm...

Accurate measurements of regional to global scale vegetation dynamics (phenology) are required to improve models and understanding of inter-annual variability in terrestrial ecosystem carbon exchange and climate–biosphere interactions. Since the mid-1980s, satellite data have been used to study these processes. In this paper, a new methodology to monitor global vegetation phenology from time se...

Analyzing how climate change affects vegetation distribution is one of the central issues of global change ecology as this has important implications for the carbon budget of terrestrial vegetation. Mapping vegetation distribution under historical climate scenarios is essential for understanding the response of vegetation distribution to future climatic changes. The reconstructions of palaeoveg...

The presence and continued existence of tidal morphologies, and in particular of salt marshes, is intimately connected with biological activity, especially with the presence of halophytic vegetation. Here, we review recent contributions to tidal biogeomorphology and identify the presence of multiple competing stable states arising from a two-way feedback between biomass productivity and topogra...

We continue investigation of the effect of position in announcements of newly received articles, a single day artifact, with citations received over the course of ensuing years. Earlier work [1, 2] focused on the " visibility " effect for positions near the beginnings of announcements, and on the " self-promotion " effect associated to authors intentionally aiming for these positions, with both...

Monitoring of net primary productivity (NPP) is especially important for the fragile ecosystems in arid and semi-arid regions. Great interest exists in observing large-scale vegetation dynamics and understanding spatial and temporal patterns of NPP in these areas. In this study we present results of NPP obtained with the model BETHY/DLR for Kazakhstan for 2003-2011 and its spatial and temporal ...

We discuss a simplifed, conceptual model for the dynamics of the soil-vegetation system in drylands. The model considers the different dynamical processes taking place in vegetated and non-vegetated soil and it distinguishes between the upper soil layer, where rapid evaporation dominates, and the deeper root layer where only plant transpiration takes place. We explore the role of rainfall inter...

semi-steppe rangelands are a complex, highly dynamic and often multi-layered mosaic of grassland, shrubland, and intermediate communities. a few recent studies have explicitly or implicitly developed synthetic hypotheses about how interactive effects of human made disturbances initiate dynamic changes in plant community composition to cause a shifting mosaic of vegetation pattern across the lan...

The Budyko curve describes the patterns observed between between climate, evapotranspiration and run-off and has proven to be a useful model for predicting catchment energy and water balances. In this paper we review the Budyko curve’s underlying framework and, based on the literature, present an argument for why it is important to include vegetation dynamics into the framework for some purpose...