forest is found in mixed deciduous forest throughout the North of Thailand and it covers about 25,000 km2 1. The optimum condition for growing teak is where the range of annual rainfall is approximately 1,250-1,650 mm with the marked dry season of 3-5 months. Teak seedlings grown under the high constant soil moisture (near the saturation point) for eight weeks were about five times greater, in terms of dry matter production, than those grown under the severe soil moisture stress (near the wilting point) 1. The critical maximum and minimum day/night temperature for growth and development of teak seedlings were about 36°/ 31° and 21°/16°C, respectively 2. According to the model projections by Gopalakrishnan et. al. 3, 30% of teak grids in India are vulnerable to climate change under both A2 and B2 scenarios (scenario A2: atmospheric CO2 concentration reaches 740 ppm by 2085; B2 scenario: CO2 concentration reaches 575 ppm by 2085), the future climate may not be optimal for teak at these grids due to changes of sunlight, water and CO2.This suggests that teak plantations in Thailand may be vulnerable to changing climate. Therefore, monitoring teak plantation dynamics and understanding its relationship with climate variability is becoming important which should be considered for long-term teak plantation programs. Vegetation phenology is the study of the timing of periodic biological events in the plant as influenced by the environment 3. Long-term monitoring phenological patterns on trees provide information to indicate how plants have responded to variations in climatic conditions, which links to biodiversity and ecosystem services 4. In Thailand, minimum and maximum temperatures have been increasing continuously during the last 60 years 5. Extreme climate phenomena such as El Nino in 1997-1998 and 2009-2010 have become more frequent and severe. Many areas in the North of Thailand were affected by drought during summer to early rainy season in 2010 5. Other researches have shown that temperature extreme indices have significantly increased in Northern Thailand during 1960-2010, and climate projections indicate that summer days are expected to increase significantly in the future 6. Annual rainfall is projected to increase by 9.65% in the period of 2011-2099 compared to the period 1960-2010 6. However, the impacts of projected climate changes on the vegetation of the tropic zones, particularly Southeast Asia, are currently poorly understood 7. Therefore, there is an urgent need to take into account such impacts in order to determine the effects of climate factors on forest phenology including teak plantation. Satellite imagery provides consistent and repeatable measurements at a spatial and temporal scale of vegetation dynamics 8, 9, 10. Among remotely sensed surface parameter, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has been widely used as an indicator of vegetation growth status, special density distribution and phenology 11, 9, 12, 13. In terms of forest ecosystem and biodiversity research in Thailand, there is a need to increase our understanding of how the vegetation responds to climate variability in the spatial and temporal scale.This research paper is the first step trying to fill the knowledge gap and to quantify the response of vegetation dynamics to climate variability, by using teak plantation as a case study. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS A. Study Area Lampang is situated in Northern Thailand with an area of 12,534 square kilometers. Lampang is located on a plateau with an altitude of 268.80 meters above sea level (Fig.1). In Lampang, the maximum summer temperature was 41.5°C, while the minimum winter temperature was 10.5°C. The average Proceedings of the International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the 275 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Policy and Practice 27-29 June 2016, Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand
Proceedings of International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Sustainable Development Goals : Policy and Practice 27-29 June 2016 at the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park, Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand
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