Review 50 years of water extraction in the Pampa del Tamarugal basin: Can Prosopis tamarugo trees survive in the hyper-arid Atacama Desert (Northern Chile)? R.O. Ch  avez a, c, * , J.G.P.W. Clevers a , M. Decuyper b , S. de Bruin a , M. Herold a a Laboratory of Geo-Information Science and Remote Sensing, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AAWageningen, The Netherlands b Forest Ecology & Management, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AAWageningen, The Netherlands c Universidad Austral de Chile, Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Facultad de Ciencias. Valdivia, Chile article info Article history: Received 3 February 2015 Received in revised form 14 July 2015 Accepted 10 September 2015 Available online 21 September 2015 Keywords: Arid ecosystems Drought stress NDVI Remote sensing Time series Water management abstract Groundwater-dependent ecosystems are threatened worldwide by unsustainable groundwater (GW) extraction. This is the case of the Prosopis tamarugo Phil forest in the hyper-arid Atacama Desert (Northern Chile), one of the most extreme ecosystems on Earth. Despite concerns about the conservation of this ecosystem, little research has been done to quantify the effects of the increasing GW depth (GWD) on the Tamarugo population. Here we provide a spatio-temporal assessment of the water condition of Tamarugo trees and propose GWD thresholds for their conservation. We studied spatio-temporal changes of GWD and the water status of the forest using Landsat images and hydrogeological records (1988e2013). This was complemented with a digital inventory and estimation of the green canopy fraction (GCF) of all trees using fine resolution satellite images. Since Tamarugos are solar trackers, their canopy spectral reflectance changes on a diurnal and seasonal basis. Thus, novel remote sensing drought stress indicators were defined: the mean NDVI in winter (NDVI W ) accounting for foliage loss and the NDVI difference between mean winter and summer (DNDVI WS ) accounting for canopy water loss. NDVI W and DNDVI WS of the Tamarugo forest declined on average 19% and 51%, respectively, while GW depleted on average 3 m over the period 1988e2013. About 730,000 trees were identified in the study area, from which 5.2% showed a GCF < 0.25 associated with severe drought stress. A GWD > 12 m increasingly limited the paraheliotropic leaf movement, leading to dehydration and foliage loss. Tam- arugos at 12e16 m GWD suffered moderate drought stress while GWD of 16e20 m implied severe drought stress. We suggest 20 m GWD as a critical threshold for the survival of Tamarugo trees. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 293 2. Material and methods .......................................................... .................................................. 294 2.1. Species description .......................................................................................................... 294 2.2. Study area .................................................................................................................. 294 2.3. Hydrogeological data ......................................................................................................... 294 2.3.1. DGA extraction wells (2011) ................................................ .......................................... 294 2.3.2. DGA monitoring wells (1989e2013) .................................................................................... 295 2.3.3. GWD grid maps (1988e2013) .......................................................................................... 295 2.3.4. Precipitation records (1992e2013) ..................................................................................... 295 * Corresponding author. Laboratory of Geo-Information Science and Remote Sensing, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AAWageningen, The Netherlands. E-mail addresses: roberto.chavez@wur.nl, roberto.chavez.o@gmail.com (R.O. Ch avez). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.09.007 0140-1963/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Arid Environments 124 (2016) 292e303