Relationship between fire regime and vegetation symphenological timing in Sardinia

Fire is a basic ecological factor that contributes to determine vegetation biodiversity and dynamics in time and space. Fuel characteristics play an essential role in fire ignition and propagation; for instance fuel availability and flammability are closely related to the coarse-scale vegetation phenological trends that directly affect wildfire distribution in time and space. In this perspective, the annual NDVI profiles derived from high temporal resolution satellite images like SPOT Vegetation represent an effective tool for monitoring plant seasonal dynamics at the landscape scale. The objective of this study consists in relating the wildfire regime in Sardinia during 2000-2004 with the remotely sensed phenological parameters of the vegetation, segmented according to potential natural vegetation characteristics. The results of our study highlight a good correspondence between the NDVI temporal dynamics of the potential natural vegetation of Sardinia and the corresponding fires regime characteristics.