Abstract

VELA-PELAEZ, Alejandro Antonio et al. Multitemporal analysis of changes in NDVI in a region with forest harvesting. Rev. mex. de cienc. forestales [online]. 2024, vol.15, n.81, pp.160-186.  Epub May 13, 2024. ISSN 2007-1132.  https://doi.org/10.29298/rmcf.v15i81.1425.

The forests of the Yucatán Peninsula have been periodically subjected to various natural and anthropogenic disturbance factors, among these are the occurrence of hurricanes and logging, the latter with a history of more than 300 years. The use of remote sensing has been widely employed for forest cover management and other land uses. Satellite information allows the calculation of several indexes that are useful for purposes of forest management, one of the most widely used is the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which is associated with the fraction of solar radiation absorbed by plants. The objective of this study was to analyze the spatial-temporal dynamics of the NDVI changes in a region under forest harvesting in the state of Quintana Roo and determine their possible causes during the 1985-2022 period. A time series of NDVI values was generated from Landsat sensor images for the years 1985, 1993, 2000, 2010 and 2022. Differences in NDVI values were wide and appear to follow the recurrence of hurricanes in the region. Logging did not explain the upward and downward patterns in NVDI values, nor did these patterns coincide with the changes in vegetation, as they do not change the land cover characteristics. These results provide partial evidence that significant changes in vegetation characteristics occur only after major and extensive disturbances such as hurricanes.

Keywords : Logging; hurricanes; satellite images; Yucatán Peninsula; disturbances; remote sensing.