Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.5194/npg-31-535-2024
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Learning extreme vegetation response to climate drivers with recurrent neural networks
Author Martinuzzi, F.; Mahecha, M.D.; Camps-Valls, G.; Montero, D.; Williams, T.; Mora, K.
Source Titel Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics
Year 2024
Department RS
Volume 31
Issue 4
Page From 535
Page To 557
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Abstract The spectral signatures of vegetation are indicative of ecosystem states and health. Spectral indices used to monitor vegetation are characterized by long-term trends, seasonal fluctuations, and responses to weather anomalies. This study investigates the potential of neural networks in learning and predicting vegetation response, including extreme behavior from meteorological data. While machine learning methods, particularly neural networks, have significantly advanced in modeling nonlinear dynamics, it has become standard practice to approach the problem using recurrent architectures capable of capturing nonlinear effects and accommodating both long- and short-term memory. We compare four recurrent-based learning models, which differ in their training and architecture for predicting spectral indices at different forest sites in Europe: (1) recurrent neural networks (RNNs), (2) long short-term memory networks (LSTMs), (3) gated recurrent unit networks (GRUs), and (4) echo state networks (ESNs). While our results show minimal quantitative differences in their performances, ESNs exhibit slightly superior results across various metrics. Overall, we show that recurrent network architectures prove generally suitable for vegetation state prediction yet exhibit limitations under extreme conditions. This study highlights the potential of recurrent network architectures for vegetation state prediction, emphasizing the need for further research to address limitations in modeling extreme conditions within ecosystem dynamics.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=29950
Martinuzzi, F., Mahecha, M.D., Camps-Valls, G., Montero, D., Williams, T., Mora, K. (2024):
Learning extreme vegetation response to climate drivers with recurrent neural networks
Nonlinear Process Geophys. 31 (4), 535 - 557 10.5194/npg-31-535-2024