Landscape-scale analysis of shrub encroachment unveils the complexity of greening in the Carpathian Mountains

Article Article scientifique Article Landscape-scale analysis of shrub encroachment unveils the complexity of greening in the Carpathian Mountains eng 2025-09-19 2025-10-01 author Turtureanu Pavel Dan 0000-0002-7422-3106 author Bayle Arthur 0000-0002-3442-0789 432579 Forel Communs (FOREL) author Nicoud Baptiste 414471 author Pușcaș Mihai author Choler Philippe 104056 10.1088/1748-9326/ae05b2 1748-9326 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ae05b2 <p>Over recent decades, cold-climate ecosystems have exhibited a pronounced increase in vegetation greenness, and shrub encroachment is a major ecological process underlying these changes. Our knowledge of these dynamics remains limited in the temperate mountains of Eastern Europe, which have experienced significant land-use shifts, especially following the collapse of the communist regime. It is noteworthy that the contribution of shrubs has not been evaluated, partly due to the difficulty of providing high-resolution mapping of shrublands. In this study, we integrated four decades of Landsat-derived NDVI time series with a customized land cover classification based on Sentinel-2 imagery to investigate greenness dynamics above 1500 m elevation in the Carpathian Mountains. The classification targeted key shrubland types using spectral indices tailored to seasonal pigment variations. We also conducted diachronic visual analysis of aerial photographs, including Cold War-era satellite images, to evaluate long-term vegetation changes. We found significant positive greenness trends in 44% of the study area, with the highest magnitude located at mid-elevations (1800–2300 m) and on north-facing slopes. High-resolution land cover mapping revealed that Ericaceous and <i>Juniperus</i> -dominated shrublands were the strongest contributors to greening. Visual interpretation of historical imagery confirmed widespread woody encroachment in these areas. We suggest that the decline of traditional land-use, particularly extensive grazing practices, is a key driver of these ecological shifts, promoting the resurgence of previously more widespread subalpine shrublands. Our findings highlight the importance of integrating high-resolution remote sensing observations and diachronic analysis of aerial photographs to disentangle the complexity of vegetation greening in high-elevation ecosystems.</p> Dewey 550 CNRS France Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca MUGO 34073/16.08.2023 UEFISCDI PN-IV-P2-2.1-TE-2023-0726 Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie 41 Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau 153 false Environmental research letters 20 10 68da7de2-b44f-40e9-9318-9f2449458803 Article (Published version) Public Turtureanu_2025_Environ._Res._Lett..pdf 4244597 application/pdf CC BY-4.0 09796b74d3f06ce4634d31722e4b71f4f90bf549eef1f9eedc1a010460bac074 openAccess Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau

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Landscape-scale analysis of shrub encroachment unveils the complexity of greening in the Carpathian Mountains	Environmental research letters			2025	5	3

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Nicoud, Baptiste