Examining phenological variation of on-year and off-year bamboo forests based on the vegetation and environment monitoring on a New Micro-Satellite (VENµS) time-series data

ABSTRACT

Moso bamboo is an evergreen plant that extensively distributes in subtropical regions. Comparing to other forest types, Moso bamboo forest has some unique characteristics: high growth rate, short harvesting rotation, and on/off-year phenomenon. Plant phenology plays an important role in regulating carbon sequestration of the bamboo forest ecosystem. However, it is a challenge task to capture the phenological features of Moso bamboo forests on a regional scale due to frequent change of canopy structures and lack of high spatiotemporal remotely sensed data. The Vegetation and Environment monitoring on a New Micro-Satellite (VENµS) data with high spatiotemporal resolution provide the potential to examine the seasonal change of Moso bamboo forests. This research employs the VENµS time-series data (from January 2018 to December 2019) to analyse the spectral characteristics of on-year/off-year Moso bamboo forests and other two evergreen forest types (i.e., broadleaf forest and coniferous forest). The optimal spectral ranges for examining the seasonal variation of bamboo forests were determined. Three red-edge-based vegetation indices were reconstructed using the Harmonic analysis of time series (Hants) and compared. Red-edge position index (REPI) was selected to identify different phenological periods of Moso bamboo forests and other evergreen forest types. The results show that the spectral range of 730–920 nm in the VENμS data is sensitive to seasonal variation of Moso bamboo forests. The REPI can more effectively identify the two-year growing cycle of the bamboo forests than other vegetation indices, especially the bamboo shoots period. The start of the growing season of the off-year bamboo forest is approximately 50 to 60 days earlier than on-year bamboo forest. The results provided time-series phenological datasets of on-year and off-year Moso bamboo forests, which is valuable for local governments to conduct better ecological management and decision-making.

Acknowledgements

The time-series VENμS data were provided by Israel Aerospace Agency (ISA) and French Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research is financially supported by Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation [grant# LQ19D010010], China Scholarship Council [grant# 201808330382], and the Zhejiang A&F University’s Research and Development Fund [Grant No. 2013FR052].