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The relationship between central Indian terrestrial vegetation and monsoon rainfall distributions in different hydroclimatic extreme years using time-series satellite data

The relationship between central Indian terrestrial vegetation and monsoon rainfall distributions in different hydroclimatic extreme years using time-series satellite data
The relationship between central Indian terrestrial vegetation and monsoon rainfall distributions in different hydroclimatic extreme years using time-series satellite data

The study explored the dependence of the spatio-temporal pattern of rainfall and its variability on the spatial distribution of forests in the central Indian landscape, which covers ~1 million km 2, includes five states, and supports a population of 329 million people. The monsoon rainfall is, thus, a crucial source of freshwater for these population. We analyzed the relationship between rainfall and satellite-derived vegetation vigor, vegetation fraction, and elevation across 22 experimental zones across central India (i.e., forested, non-forested, and agricultural regions; buffer zones within and outside forests). Around 87% of annual rainfall is received during the monsoon, with maximum rainfall (~1600 mm) in Odisha and minimum (~900 mm) in Maharashtra. The average rainfall was greater (~1500 mm) inside forests than in non-forested regions (~1000 mm). Moreover, 245 mm km −2 year −1 of rainfall was observed over forests during monsoon, but only 215 mm km −2 year −1 in non-forested areas. Overall, rainfall increases from the forest edge towards the forest core logarithmically at a rate of ~10 mm km −1 year −1, and it decreases exponentially when moving away from the forest edge at an average rate of −20 mm km −1 year −1 over 0-to-50 km range, and at a rate of −7.5 mm km −1 year −1 over the 50-to-100 km range. This rate of decrease was maximum in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand and minimum in Chhattisgarh. The results confirmed the crucial role of forests in the distribution of monsoon rainfall, but in the elevated and Western Ghats regions, the orographic effect is dominant. These findings are of great concern to forest policymakers to conserve and protect the central Indian forests.

CHIRPS, Central India, MODIS, Rainfall variability, Tropical forest, Western Ghats
0177-798X
45-69
Singh, B.
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Jeganathan, C.
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Rathore, V.S.
17f414d2-2969-47bd-9a53-763d6eae1cc8
Atkinson, P.M.
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Behera, M.D.
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Singh, C.P.
4dbafcee-e460-41c9-b957-8f72d3008a73
Dash, J.
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Roy, P.S.
2378908e-92f7-48fe-8d05-4769ab39fff4
Singh, B.
dd4c4e7a-81f0-4486-8e16-c7891fd899d7
Jeganathan, C.
f859ef31-fe01-4623-9ebf-d78466c974ca
Rathore, V.S.
17f414d2-2969-47bd-9a53-763d6eae1cc8
Atkinson, P.M.
e90932c0-e1bf-4907-b224-34b68adb5604
Behera, M.D.
927bb995-072a-4e42-90e8-4e26bb8ce3d0
Singh, C.P.
4dbafcee-e460-41c9-b957-8f72d3008a73
Dash, J.
51468afb-3d56-4d3a-aace-736b63e9fac8
Roy, P.S.
2378908e-92f7-48fe-8d05-4769ab39fff4

Singh, B., Jeganathan, C., Rathore, V.S., Atkinson, P.M., Behera, M.D., Singh, C.P., Dash, J. and Roy, P.S. (2024) The relationship between central Indian terrestrial vegetation and monsoon rainfall distributions in different hydroclimatic extreme years using time-series satellite data. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 155 (1), 45-69. (doi:10.1007/s00704-023-04582-2).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The study explored the dependence of the spatio-temporal pattern of rainfall and its variability on the spatial distribution of forests in the central Indian landscape, which covers ~1 million km 2, includes five states, and supports a population of 329 million people. The monsoon rainfall is, thus, a crucial source of freshwater for these population. We analyzed the relationship between rainfall and satellite-derived vegetation vigor, vegetation fraction, and elevation across 22 experimental zones across central India (i.e., forested, non-forested, and agricultural regions; buffer zones within and outside forests). Around 87% of annual rainfall is received during the monsoon, with maximum rainfall (~1600 mm) in Odisha and minimum (~900 mm) in Maharashtra. The average rainfall was greater (~1500 mm) inside forests than in non-forested regions (~1000 mm). Moreover, 245 mm km −2 year −1 of rainfall was observed over forests during monsoon, but only 215 mm km −2 year −1 in non-forested areas. Overall, rainfall increases from the forest edge towards the forest core logarithmically at a rate of ~10 mm km −1 year −1, and it decreases exponentially when moving away from the forest edge at an average rate of −20 mm km −1 year −1 over 0-to-50 km range, and at a rate of −7.5 mm km −1 year −1 over the 50-to-100 km range. This rate of decrease was maximum in Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand and minimum in Chhattisgarh. The results confirmed the crucial role of forests in the distribution of monsoon rainfall, but in the elevated and Western Ghats regions, the orographic effect is dominant. These findings are of great concern to forest policymakers to conserve and protect the central Indian forests.

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Accepted/In Press date: 29 July 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 11 August 2023
Published date: January 2024
Additional Information: Funding Information: This work was supported by Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India, which funded the PhD program of BS (Ref. No. OO/Estb/Ph.D/20017-18/2772). Funding Information: The authors thank NASA (Land Processing Distributed Active Archive Center) for providing the MODIS data and the Climate Hazard Group, University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB ), for providing the CHIRPS data freely. We would also like to thank Dr. Raman Sukumar, Honorary Professor, Centre of Ecological Science, Indian Institute Sciences, Bangalore, for his valuable comments and suggestions. The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the editor of the journal and all the anonymous reviewers whose comments have helped to significantly improve this manuscript. The open source R computing and analysis software was used in this research. Figures generated using R codes are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.
Keywords: CHIRPS, Central India, MODIS, Rainfall variability, Tropical forest, Western Ghats

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 482254
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/482254
ISSN: 0177-798X
PURE UUID: 2a9f5ba7-e636-4f65-81be-66e74c2bfb6f
ORCID for J. Dash: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5444-2109

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Date deposited: 22 Sep 2023 16:34
Last modified: 29 Jul 2024 04:01

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Contributors

Author: B. Singh
Author: C. Jeganathan
Author: V.S. Rathore
Author: P.M. Atkinson
Author: M.D. Behera
Author: C.P. Singh
Author: J. Dash ORCID iD
Author: P.S. Roy

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