Figure 5

Changes in normalized bare ground index scores during the four years of greatest increase in bare ground cover, Split by bare ground percentile, based on the median degradation scores of the final three years of the time series (2018–2020). Positive numbers along the y axis signify an increase in bare ground cover, while negative numbers signify a decrease. Whiskers represent 95% confidence intervals around the median. Outliers are not shown. All contrasts were statistically different in the ANOVA tests, unless otherwise indicated. n.s.: not significant.