Effects of the 2018 drought on mire productivity in Skogaryd - Evaluation of ground sensors, satellite data and meteorological data

Sammanfattning: The drought is a complex meteorological phenomenon associated with low precipitation and low water saturation in atmosphere, soils and plants and can has a great effect on aboveground biomass and change the structure and function of the ecosystems. The droughts also are known to reduce the primary and secondary productivity of vegetation. The Climate has high influence on vegetation productivity. The global increases of mean temperature mainly caused by emissions of greenhouse gases are widely acknowledged by the scientific community. The summer of 2018, Europe experienced an exceptional drought and heatwave, also affecting the vegetation productivity in ecosystems. The frequency of droughts in Europe in the last years and particularly in Northern ecosystems, has motivated the interest in studying the impact of 2018 drought in Skogaryd using satellite data, ground sensor and meteorological data such as air temperature, precipitation and relative humidity. The work in this thesis was to examine how drought affected the mire ecosystem in southwest Sweden located in Skogaryd. Satellite-based remote sensing was used to calculate Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and Two-band version of Enhanced Vegetation Index derived from ground sensors and Sentinel 2 over the months of growing season, for the years 2017 to 2020. The climate data for the same period were used to examine the relation between vegetation indices and meteorological variables. The studied remote sensing parameters indicates that the values of vegetation indices were generally lower during the summer of 2018 in dry mire and wet mire. The Air temperature and relative humidity are the meteorological variables that affected mire productivity in Skogaryd. The study of the dynamic and evolution of ecosystems presented are important due the frequent change that ecosystem presents. The results could help in identification through remote sensing the increases and decreases of vegetation productivity and as well as planning of development activities in Skogaryd (Mycklemossen).