Abigail Dolunt
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Mohammed Ombadi
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering / Engineering
Program:
Authors: Abigail Dolunt, Mohammed Ombadi
Session: Session 6: 3:40 pm – 4:30 pm
Poster: 54
Abstract
Meteorological droughts, typically defined as time periods with a significant precipitation deficit, have a wide range of impacts on streamflow, soil moisture, vegetation health, and crop production. In this study, we investigate the impacts of drought on vegetation health in the state of Michigan from 1982 through 2022. First, periods of drought were identified using daily precipitation data from 95 stations in the Global Historical Climatology Network daily (GHCNd) dataset. This analysis was carried out by accumulating daily precipitation to the monthly time scale, which was then used to compute Standardized Precipitation Index. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data was used as a proxy to monitor the state of vegetation. Through statistical analysis, our study aims to examine the association between droughts and vegetation health across the state of Michigan. Overall, our results show a moderate to low positive correlation between SPI and NDVI, suggesting that precipitation may not be a strong limiting factor to vegetation health in Michigan.
