Search

Climate variables carry signatures of variability at multiple time scales. How these modes of variability are reflected in the state of the terrestrial biosphere is still not quantified, nor discussed at the global scale. Here, we set out to gain a global understanding of the relevance of different modes of variability in vegetation greenness and its co-variability with climate. We used > 30 years of remote sensing records of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to characterize biosphere variability across time scales from sub-monthly oscillations to decadal trends using discrete Fourier decomposition. Climate data of air temperature (Tair) and precipitation (Prec) were used to characterize atmosphere-biosphere co-variability at each time scale. Our results show that short-term (intra-annual) and longer-term (inter-annual and longer) modes of variability make regionally highly important contributions to NDVI variability: Short-term oscillations focus in the tropics where they shape 27 % of NDVI variability. Longer-term oscillations shape 9 % of NDVI variability, dominantly in semi-arid shrublands. Assessing dominant time scales of vegetation-climate co-variation, a natural surface classification emerges which captures patterns not represented by conventional classifications, especially in the tropics. Finally, we find that correlations between variables can differ and even invert signs across time scales. For southern Africa for example, correlation between NDVI and Tair is positive for the seasonal signal, but negative for short-term and longer-term oscillations, indicating that both short and long-term temperature anomalies can induce stress on vegetation dynamics. Such contrasting correlations between time scales exist for 15 % of vegetated area for NDVI with Tair, and 27 % with Prec, indicating global relevance of scale-specific climate sensitivities. Our analysis provides a detailed picture of vegetation-climate co-variability globally, characterizing ecosystems by their intrinsic modes of temporal variability. We find that (i) correlations of NDVI with climate can differ between scales, (ii) non-dominant sub-signals in climate variables may dominate the biospheric response, and (iii) possible links may exist between short-term and longer-term scales. These heterogeneous ecosystem responses on different time scales may depend on climate zone and vegetation type, and are to date not well understood, nor always correspond to transitions in dominant vegetation types. These scale dependencies can be a benchmark for vegetation model evaluation and for comparing remote sensing products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]