Analysis of forest vegetation - climate feedback regimes through satellite remote sensing imagery

Vegetation and climate interact through a series of complex feedbacks, which are not very well un-derstood.The patterns of forest vegetation are largely determined by temperature, precipitation, solar irradiance, soil conditions and CO2 concentration. Vegetation impacts climate directly through moisture, energy, and momentum ex-changes with the atmosphere and indirectly through biogeochemical processes that alter atmospheric CO2 concentration. Changes in forest vegetation land cover alter the surface albedo and radiation fluxes, leading to a local temperature change and eventually a vegetation response. This albedo (energy) feedback is particularly important when forests mask snow cover. Forest vegetation-climate feedback regimes are designated based on the temporal correlations between the vegetation and and the surface temperature and precipitation. The different feedback regimes are linked to the relative importance of vegetation and soil moisture in determining land surface–atmosphere interactions. The first-climate feed-backs are assessed in terms of the surface albedo and temperature and precipitation correlations. Observed vegetation feedbacks on temperature and precipitation are assessed based on MODIS Terra, and IKONOS satellite data across the forested area in North/Eastern part of Bucharest town, Branesti in Romania for 2001-2013 period. The computed feed-back parameters can be used to evaluate vegetation–climate interactions simulated by models with dynamic vegetation. Specific aim of this paper is to assess the forest vegetation climate feedbacks on forest ecosystem and its biodiversity as well as on adjacent environment areas and to provide early warning strategies on the remote sensing spectral informa-tion basis.