Flores-Cárdenas, F.; Millán-Aguilar, O.; Díaz-Lara, L.; Rodríguez-Arredondo, L.; Hurtado-Oliva, M.A., and Manzano-Sarabia, M., 2018. Trends in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index for mangrove areas in northwestern Mexico.

Impacts of climate forcing on mangrove ecosystems have been highlighted by several authors. Nowadays, free access to Landsat imagery represents an opportunity to explore the likely impacts of climate variability on mangrove ecosystems using extended time series of vegetation indices—such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index—as proxies of health status. A comparison of time series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index for mangrove areas located in La Paz (Baja California Sur, Mexico) was performed and the linear trend was evaluated for statistical significance. A significant and negative trend was observed for mangroves located in areas with limited freshwater inputs. In addition, a low but still significant correlation was observed between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index anomalies and the Multivariate El Niño Index for the 1993–2011 period. Analysis of time series suggested that mangroves located in areas with hydrologic stress are responding with a health decline and a weak response to El Niño Southern Oscillation events.