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Spatio-temporal distribution of the timing of start and end of growing season along vertical and horizontal gradients in Japan

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Abstract

We detected the spatio-temporal variability in the timing of start (SGS) and end of growing season (EGS) in Japan from 2003 to 2012 by analyzing satellite-observed daily green-red vegetation index with a 500-m spatial resolution. We also examined the characteristics of SGS and EGS timing in deciduous broadleaf and needleleaf forests along vertical and horizontal gradients and then evaluated the relationship between their timing and daily mean air temperature. We found that for the timing of SGS and EGS, changes along the vertical gradient in deciduous broadleaf forest tended to be larger than those in deciduous needleleaf forest. For both forest types, changes along the vertical and horizontal gradients in the timing of EGS tended to be smaller than those of SGS. Finally, in both forest types, the sensitivity of the timing of EGS to air temperature was much less than that of SGS. These results suggest that the spatio-temporal variability in the timing of SGS and EGS detected by satellite data, which may be correlated with leaf traits, photosynthetic capacity, and environment conditions, provide useful ground-truthing information along vertical and horizontal gradients.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center in the Earth Observing System Data Gateway for providing the MODIS data. We thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their kind and constructive comments. This work was supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (S-9; to S. Nagai and R. Suzuki) of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, by KAKENHI (24710021 and 23710005; Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists B by JSPS to S. Nagai and T. M. Saitoh), and by the Centre for Environmental Remote Sensing, Chiba University (to S. Nagai and R. Suzuki). We are grateful to Yusuke Onoda (Kyoto University) for his valuable discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 3173-25 Showa-machi, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, 236-0001, Japan

    Shin Nagai & Rikie Suzuki

  2. River Basin Research Center, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu, 501-1193, Japan

    Taku M. Saitoh

  3. Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, 305-8572, Japan

    Kenlo Nishida Nasahara

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  1. Shin Nagai
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Correspondence to Shin Nagai.

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Fig. S1

Average daily mean air temperature from 2003 to 2012 in 0–200 m over 35゜−37゜N (bold solid line) and 400–600 m over 43゜−46゜N (dotted line). The range of the multiyear mean timing of the timing of start (SGS) and end of growing season (EGS) in deciduous broadleaf forest (DBF) and deciduous needleleaf forest (DNF) was shown in the top of figure (gray shaded). (JPEG 165 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 486 kb)

Fig. S2

Distribution of the average effective cumulative temperatures (ECT) for the timing of start (SGS) and end of growing season (EGS) in deciduous broadleaf forest (DBF) and deciduous needleleaf forest (DNF). Gradients are vertical (y-axis) and horizontal (x-axis). (a) SGS in DBF; (b) SGS in DNF; (c) EGS in DBF; (d) EGS in DNF. N/A: not available. (JPEG 322 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 911 kb)

Table S1

Summary of the linear regression function of the timing of start (SGS) and end of growing season (EGS) along the vertical gradient in deciduous broadleaf forest (DBF) and deciduous needleleaf forest (DNF) in different latitude zones (DOCX 25 kb)

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Nagai, S., Saitoh, T.M., Nasahara, K.N. et al. Spatio-temporal distribution of the timing of start and end of growing season along vertical and horizontal gradients in Japan. Int J Biometeorol 59, 47–54 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-014-0822-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-014-0822-8

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