Vol. 9, No. 2, 22-30, 2010

Abstract
The aim of this study is to characterise the vegetation dynamics of the Iberian Peninsula using MODIS-NDVI time series (2000-2008) at 1 km resolution. For this purpose, NDVI profiles are analysed using filtered data derived from a spectral technique, a multi-resolution analysis (MRA) based on the wavelet transform (WT). The MRA results in an additive decomposition of the time series into several components associated with variations on a particular temporal scale. First, the functional diversity of the Iberian Peninsula is described by using several metrics derived from the first component of the MRA (filtered time series). Second, a trend analysis is performed with the fifth component of the MRA having a semi-period around a year (inter-annual component) in order to detect potential vegetation changes over the considered period. The 3-month scale Standard Precipitation Index (SPI-3) was used to better identify changes. As a result of the functional diversity a characterisation of the Ecosystem Function Types (EFT) of the Iberian Peninsula with 30 representative classes is obtained. The EFT present a decreasing northwest to southeast biomass gradient. An exploratory analysis with the CORINE land cover classification revealed the importance of land cover in explaining the functioning of particular ecosystems, particularly for ecosystems showing a strong seasonal dynamics, such as rice and non-irrigated crops. Finally, the trend analysis indicates that most vegetation changes over the considered period are due to forest fires and are connected to the SPI trend.

ISSN 1729-3782