2023

DESCRIPTION

Rising levels of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere cause an increase in plant photosynthesis, known as he carbon fertilization effect. Between 1982 and 2020 atmosphere CO2 levels have risen 17% yielding an increase in plant photosynthesis of 12%. This serves as one of the reasons we can observe an increase in the global vegetation index between 2001 and 2022.

However, this initial positive effect for plant growth is deceptive. With the growing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and in the vegetation, the plants contain less nitrogen, an essential nutrient for growth. This nutrient deficiency shows the potential negative impacts of the carbon fertiliation effects. In addition, the Earth’s rising temperatures greatly affect the efficiency of plant’s CO2 absorption and can reduce photosynthesis efficiency. These cases demonstrate the importance of reducing CO2 emissions and global warming effects in order to preserve global plant life. 


ABOUT THE DATA

The utilized data set represents the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index [NDVI] of each given month within each year. The data is publically accessible through NASA NEO, collected via “Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer [MODIS] aboard NASA’s Terra satellite.”

This mapping represents the conversion of the NDVI data into colored pixels and plotted at their correct geographical position.




VISUALIZATION CREATION

The vegeation visualization is based upon a custom generative growth algorithm. The growth utilizes the pixel data, originally from the NDVI maps, growing unique patterns. Each month of the year is restricted to its encolsed circular area also driveing the generative patterns. The colors are based off of the NDVI index classifying the vegetation, ranging from -0.1 [arid] to 0.9 [dense].











VEGETATION GROWTH BY YEAR

2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022


2023 ELIZABETH I. MCCAFFREY