## 7 Conclusions  
This study evaluated the degradation of New Mexico's rangelands during the 1984 2015 period with respect to climate using an NDVI timeseries--as a surrogate of NPP--and precipitation to represent climate variability. These datasets were evaluated using the TSS-RESTREND method to detect breakpoints in the NDVI timeseries, direction and significance of change in productivity at each pixel. The study developed a breakpoint assessment framework that allowed to quantitively evaluate the identified changes that used an independent productivity data (i.e., RPMS). A qualitative assessment of the changes against land management activities, drought, and wildfire was also conducted. The study indicated that about 17.6% of New Mexico experienced a decrease in productivity while 12.8% of the state experienced an increase in productivity. More than half of the state (55.6%) had insignificant change productivity, 10.8% was classified as indeterminant, and the remaining 3.2% was considered as agriculture was not evaluated. The degradation in productivity was observed in about 2.2%, 4.5%, and 1.7% of NM's grassland, shrubland, and evergreen forest land cover classes, respectively. Simultaneously, about 5.7%, 1.3%, and 0.92% of NM's shrublands, grasslands, and evergreen forests were characterized by an increase in productivity, respectively. Regionally, significant decrease in productivity was observed in the northeaster and southeastern quadrants of the state while significant increase was observed in northwestern, southwestern, and a small portion in southeastern quadrants. The timing and number of detected breakpoints coincided with NM's drought frequency and severity and some fire incidents. The TSS-RESTREND showed 55% agreement with the RPMS data over areas with significant decrease in productivity based on randomly selected pixels. Regionally, there was an agreement between the TSS-RESTREND and RPMS on the occurrence of significant degradation in productivity over the grasslands and shrublands within the Arizona/New Mexico Tabledands and in the Chihuahua Desert ecoregions, respectively. A long timeseries assessment of rangeland productivity in New Mexico is critical to support decisions related to ecosystems management and conservation. The findings of this study can be used to address some of the rangeland degradation challenges that directly impact rangeland conditions, forage supply in the region, and New Mexican's livelihood as these systems support livestock production. In areas where degradation was prevalent (i.e., northeastern, and southeastern NM), special intervention would be needed to conserve the biodiversity of rangeland and increase the resilience of these ecosystems. As this study considered only precipitation, it was noticed that the rising temperature can play a significant role in vegetation. Thus, future analysis should consider its effects on rangeland productivity. Future research should also pay more attention to the association of degradation and productivity with recurring droughts. Conceptualization, M.G.G. and H.M.E.G. ; data curation, M.G.G. and T.A.A. ; formal analysis, M.G.G. ; funding acquisition, H.M.E.G. ; investigation, M.G.G., H.M.E. and T.A.A. ; methodology, M.G.G., H.M.E. and T.A.A. ; project administration, H.M.E.G. ; resources, H.M.E.G. ; software, M.G.G. supervision, H.M.E.G. ; validation, M.G.G., H.M.E. and T.A.A. ; visualization, M.G.G., H.M.E.G. and T.A.A. ; writing--original draft, M.G.G. ; writing--review & editing, H.M.E.G. and T.A.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This research was partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), awards #1739835 and#IIA-1301346, and New Mexico State University. The data used in this study are openly available in data [43; 44; 45; 46; 47; 48]. The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their time and effort in providing valuable comments and suggestions that helped in improving the manuscript. The authors declare no conflict of interest.