Effective Leaf Area Index - Anomalies
This layer presents the Effective Leaf Area Index (LAIe) Anomalies, representing the deviation of current vegetation density from the historical average. Monitoring the change of LAI is essential for assessing the evolution of the vegetation over Africa.
LAI anomalies are calculated relative to the average values between 2003 and 2010. The dataset captures LAI anomalies every 10 days, reflecting the high variability and rapid changes in African vegetation cover. Increases in temperature and precipitation deficits are the primary drivers for negative anomalies (reduced foliage density). Beyond climatic factors, human activities or animal grazing may also locally impact the state and density of leaves.
This layer is part of the a href="https://fapar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/_www/index.php">Earth Land Information System (ELIS).
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Pinty B., Andredakis I., Clerici M., Kaminski T., Taberner M., Verstraete M. M., Gobron N., Plummer S., and Widlowski J.-L. Exploiting the MODIS albedos with the Two-stream Inversion Package (JRC-TIP): 1. Effective leaf area index, vegetation, and soil properties. Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, 2011, 116 (D09105), p. 1-20. DOI: 10.1029/2010JD015372
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This indicator shows variations in the vegetation health and / or cover which may be due to other stress factors than rainfall or soil moisture deficits, such as plant diseases. Therefore this indicator must be used jointly with other indicators giving information on the deficit of rainfall and / or soil moisture, in order to determine if the variation in the vegetation response (LAI) is linked with a drought event or not.
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