Influence of climate variables and vegetation composition on phenology of peatland vegetation

Influence of climate variables and vegetation composition on phenology and optical properties of peatland vegetation

Author: Michal Antala (antala.michal9 @ gmail.com), presented September 23th, 2021


Peatlands belong to the largest carbon stores on terrestrial surface. Carbon has accumulated in peatlands during millennia thanks to specific abiotic conditions and vegetation adapted to these conditions. However, climate change alters peatland vegetation composition and phenology. Monitoring peatlands is challenging due to their distribution in remote areas. Therefore, remote sensing is an ideal tool for the assessment of changes in peatland vegetation. To estimate the influence of climate on peatland vegetation, we measured reflectance and sun-induced fluorescence over vegetation subjected to different climate scenarios. The results of modeled vegetation phenology based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) prove that the start and peak of the season occur earlier in warmer and drier condition. However, we observed a substantial variability among repetitions despite our experimental plots represent the same vegetation community. Therefore, we used an indoor facility with hyperspectral cameras for imaging peatland vegetation cores and examined the optical properties of different plants. The results of this experiment provide insight into reflectance spectra of different peatland plants and help to understand their influence on phenology and optical properties observed at canopy level under various climatic conditions.