Spatiotemporal Peatland Productivity and Climate Relationships Across the Western South American Altiplano

The South American Altiplano is one of the largest semiarid high‐altitude plateaus in the world. Within the Altiplano, peatlands known as “bofedales” are important components of regional hydrology and provide key water resources and ecosystem services to Andean communities. Warming temperatures, cha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Biogeosciences 2021-06, Vol.126 (6), p.n/a
Main Authors: Anderson, Talia G., Christie, Duncan A., Chávez, Roberto O., Olea, Matias, Anchukaitis, Kevin J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accumulation
Altiplano
Andes
Atmospheric circulation
bofedales
Climate change
Climate variability
Dynamics
Ecosystem services
Growing season
Hydroclimate
Hydrology
Influence
Landsat
Landsat satellites
NDVI
Normalized difference vegetative index
Peatlands
Plateaus
Productivity
Rain
Rainfall
Remote sensing
Snow
Snow accumulation
Summer
Variability
Vegetation
Vegetation index
Water resources
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Summary:The South American Altiplano is one of the largest semiarid high‐altitude plateaus in the world. Within the Altiplano, peatlands known as “bofedales” are important components of regional hydrology and provide key water resources and ecosystem services to Andean communities. Warming temperatures, changes in hydroclimate, and shifting atmospheric circulation patterns all affect peatland dynamics and hydrology. It is therefore urgent to better understand the relationships between climate variability and the spatiotemporal variations in peatland productivity across the Altiplano. Here, we explore climate influences on peatland vegetation using 31 years of Landsat data. We focus specifically on the bofedal network in the western Altiplano, the driest sector of the plateau, and use the satellite‐derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as an indicator of productivity. We develop temporally and spatially continuous NDVI products at multiple scales in order to evaluate relationships with climate variables over the past three decades. We demonstrate that cumulative precipitation and snow persistence over the prior 2 years are strongly associated with growing season productivity. A step change in peatland productivity between 2013–2015 drives an increasing trend in NDVI and is likely a response to consecutive years of anomalously high snow accumulation and rainfall. Early summer minimum temperatures emerge as a secondary influence on productivity. Understanding large‐scale productivity dynamics and characterizing the response of bofedales to climate variability over the last three decades provides a baseline to monitor the responses of Andean peatlands to climate change. Plain Language Summary A unique network of peatlands, locally known as bofedales, are found in the highlands of the Central Andes in South America. We specifically focus on the Chilean bofedal network and evaluate year to year changes in vegetation productivity, as represented by “greenness” (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). We find that the accumulation of snow and rain over two years is an important climate influence on subsequent bofedal growing season productivity across the region. We also show that early summer minimum temperatures have a secondary influence on bofedal productivity at the regional level. Finally, we show that a recent greening (2013–2015) was preceded by years of high snow and rain accumulation. Key Points We develop temporally continuous Normalized Differ
ISSN:2169-8953
2169-8961
DOI:10.1029/2020JG005994