Dynamics of woody plant cover in the Sahelian agroecosystems of the northern region of Burkina Faso since the 1970s–1980s droughts
| Autor: | Jean-Philippe Waaub, Farid Traoré, Wendpouiré Arnaud Zida, Babou André Bationo |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Agroecosystem
Global and Planetary Change 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Ecology Agroforestry Forestry 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences 01 natural sciences 040103 agronomy & agriculture 0401 agriculture forestry and fisheries Environmental science Cover (algebra) 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Woody plant |
| Zdroj: | Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 50:659-669 |
| ISSN: | 1208-6037 0045-5067 |
| Popis: | This study was carried out in the northern region of Burkina Faso under Sahelian climatic conditions. The area was particularly affected by the 1970s–1980s droughts that led to the degradation of land and vegetation. Since the early 1990s, a gradual return of rainfall has been observed throughout the Sahel region. In this new environmental context, understanding the development of woody plants is important for effective conservation and management. We analyzed the dynamics of woody plant cover over the 30 years following the end of the 1970s–1980s droughts by using Landsat images from 1986, 1999, and 2015 with 30 m spatial resolution and taking into account changes in rainfall and land use. The change in the enhanced vegetation index 1 (EVI1) at the beginning of the dry season was used as a proxy for the change in photosynthetic activity of woody plants. Results showed an improvement in EVI1 on 98% of the study area, with a mean increase of 0.20 from 1986 to 2015. This improvement was accompanied by an increase in agroforestry and was weakly correlated with rainfall. The improvement in EVI1 was unstable, however, with a decline from 1999 to 2015 in the areas undergoing regreening. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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