Quantification of aboveground rangeland productivity and anthropogenic degradation on the Arabian Peninsula using Landsat imagery and field inventory data

The productivity of semi-arid rangelands on the Arabian Peninsula is spatially and temporally highly variable, and increasing grazing pressure as well as the likely effects of climatic change further threatens vegetation resources. Using the Al Jabal al Akhdar mountains in northern Oman as an example, our objectives were to analyse the availability and spatial distribution of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and the extent and causes of vegetation changes during the last decades with a remote sensing approach. A combination of destructive and non-destructive biomass measurements by life-form specific allometric equations was used to identify the ANPP of the ground vegetation (