NDVI
Standardized mean site-level shoot length growth was positively
correlated with late summer (July-August) NDVI (r=0.44,
p<0.01, Fig. 6a) as well as NDVImax (r=0.40,
p<0.05). There was a weak link between standardized branch
initiation and NDVImax (r=0.26, p<0.1; Fig.
6b). There were no negative correlations between standardized branch
mortality frequency and NDVI in the research area. There was a slight
positive trend in late summer NDVI over the period 1981-2013 (r=0.24,
p<0.1; Fig. 6a), but not in NDVImax.
Late summer NDVI and NDVImax were positively related to
summer and, notably, winter temperatures (Table 3). Furthermore, there
were positive relationships between late summer NDVI and spring
precipitation sums, and weakly, late winter precipitation sums (Table
3).