Rainfall Intra-Seasonal Variability and Vegetation Growth in the Ferlo Basin (Senegal)

During the monsoon season, the spatiotemporal variability of rainfall impacts the growth of vegetation in the Sahel. This study evaluates this effect for the Ferlo basin in central northern Senegal. Relationships between rainfall, soil moisture (SM), and vegetation are assessed using remote sensing data (TRMM3B42 and RFE 2.0 for rainfall, ESA-CCI.SM for soil moisture and MODIS Leaf Area Index (LAI)). The principal objective was to analyze the response of vegetation growth to water availability during the rainy season using statistical criteria at the scale of homogeneous vegetation-soil zones. The study covers the period from June to September for the years 2000 to 2010. The surface SM is well correlated with both rainfall products. On ferruginous soils, better correlation of intra-seasonal variations and stronger sensitivity of the vegetation to rainfall are found compared to lithosols soils. LAI responds, on average, two to three weeks after a rainfall anomaly. Moreover, dry spells (negative anomalies) of seven days’ length (three days for SM anomaly) significantly affect vegetation growth (maximum LAI within the season). A strong and significant link is also found between total precipitation and the number of dry spells. These datasets proved to be sufficiently reliable to assess the impacts of rainfall variability on vegetation dynamics.