Articles | Volume 8, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-1141-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-1141-2017
Research article
 | 
13 Dec 2017
Research article |  | 13 Dec 2017

Desertification, resilience, and re-greening in the African Sahel – a matter of the observation period?

Hannelore Kusserow

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Cited articles

Andrews, F. W.: The flowering plants of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Vol. 1 (1950) 237 pp., Vol. 2 (1952) 485 pp., Vol. 3 (1956) 579 pp., 1950–1956.
Anyamba, A. and Tucker, C. J.: Analysis of Sahelian vegetation dynamics using NOAA-AVHRR NDVI data from 1981–2003, J. Arid Environ., 63, 596–614, 2005.
Anyamba, A., Small, J. L., Tucker, C. J., and Pak, E. W.: Thirty-two years of Sahelian zone growing season non-stationary NDVI3g patterns and trends, Remote Sensing, 6, 3101–3122, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs6043101, 2014.
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Aubréville, A.: Climats, forêts et désertification de l'Afrique tropical, Société d'Éditions Géographiques Maritimes et Coloniales, Paris, 352 pp., 1949.
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Short summary
Sahel greening and browning are discussed based on the relevance of edaphic factors, the importance of the observation period, and modifications in the vegetation pattern. The key findings are that (i) vegetation recovery predominantly depends on soil types, (ii) botanical investigations and EO-based time series show a substantial decline in the diversity and cover density of woody species compared to pre-drought conditions, (iii) and pattern formation is a key indicator for ecosystem changes.
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