This Letter describes analysis of the trends of NDVI in the Iberian peninsula from 1982 to 2000. The results were compared with the influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. Significant spatial differences emerge in vegetation trend analysis, identifying a positive trend in the northern part and stability or negative trends in the south. Such a spatial pattern is significantly related to NAO influence on vegetation, which is linked to precipitation distribution in the Iberian peninsula and greatly influenced by this atmospheric pattern. The relationships between vegetation trends and NAO are discussed in detail.

This research was funded by the projects BSO2002-02743, REN2002-01023-CLI and REN2003-07453 (Financed by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, Spain and FEDER), and “Programa de grupos de investigación consolidados” (grupo Clima, Cambio Global y Sistemas Naturales, BOA 147 of 18-12-2002), financed by Aragón Government. Data used by the authors in this study include data produced through funding from the Earth Observing System Pathfinder Program of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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