Shifting Vegetation Phenology in Protected Areas: A Response to Climate Change

This study comprehensively examined the impact of climate change on vegetation phenology within Romanian protected areas (PAs), focusing on critical phenological indicators such as the start of season (SOS), end of season (EOS), length of season (LOS), position of peak (POP), and photosynthetic metrics, including mean spring (MSP) and mean autumn (MAU). The overarching objective was to quantify the extent to which bioclimatic variables, particularly temperature and precipitation, drive shifts in vegetation phenology and ecosystem dynamics in regionally diverse and ecologically sensitive landscapes. Using high-resolution remote-sensing data from the  Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) from Terra satellite (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and leaf area index (LAI)) combined with climate data from ERA5-Land Climate Reanalysis (2001–2020), this study provides a robust assessment of long-term vegetation trends.