|
|
 |
Developing protocols for remote-sensing based inventorying &
monitoring (I&M) of vegetation patterns across several I&M networks
of the National Park Service
A primary goal of the
National Park Service’s Inventory and Monitoring program
(NPS I&M) is to “monitor park ecosystems to better understand their
dynamic nature and condition and to provide reference points for
comparisons with other, altered environments.” In conjunction with
several networks within the NPS I&M, we are developing protocols for
long-term, remote-sensing based monitoring of landscape patterns and
vegetation changes.
Sierra Nevada Network (SIEN)
Southwest Alaska Network (SWAN)
Northern and Southern Colorado Plateau Networks (NCPN & SCPN)
North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN)
|
|
North American Forest
Dynamics
North American Forest Disturbance and Regrowth since 1972 (Phase I): Within the
North American Carbon Program (NACP), there is a strong recognition that analysis of the forest
carbon cycle must include the effects of disturbance processes. Two key sources of information to
address this problem are: (1) passive optical remote sensing from the 35+ year Landsat archive
and (2) plot-level forest inventory data from the US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA)
system. Integrating these two data sources allows us to produce detailed statistical summaries and maps
of disturbance and regrowth. Phase I work focused on construction of dense Landsat time series and
obtaining a valid statistical sample of disturbance rates spread across US forests and demonstrating
techniques to obtain changes in aboveground live biomass associated with disturbance and regrowth by
integrating Landsat reflectance trajectories with FIA plot-level biomass data. Status: Ongoing
Role of North American Forest Disturbance and Regrowth in NACP
(Phase II): Building on the first phase of NAFD, Phase II relies on the use of dense (annual or biennial)
time series of Landsat imagery that have been integrated with FIA data to produce biomass trajectories for
as many as 50-75 Landsat scenes nationally. This phase has six major objectives: (1) Reduce error
in nationwide estimates of forest disturbance and regrowth, (2) Convert data cube reflectance to data cube
biomass, (3) Develop nationwide maps of forest biomass dynamics, (4) Partner with Canada and Mexico,
(5) Develop formal collaborative relationships with other NACP-funded scientists, and (6) Quantify the
forest component of woody encroachment nationally. Collectively, these activities will expand and refine
our knowledge of North American forest dynamics, and thus significantly reduce uncertainties in carbon flux
estimates.
|
|
Integrating Remote Sensing,
Field Observations, and Models to Understand Disturbance and Climate Effects on the Carbon Balance of the West Coast
U.S.
Our primary goals are to provide a regional test of the overall
North American Carbon Program (NACP) strategy by demonstrating bottom-up and top-down approaches to determine the
carbon balance of the West Coast of the US, and to develop global carbon cycle modeling and analysis focused on the
use of remote sensing data. Our objectives are to: (1) Improve, test, and apply a bottom-up approach that synthesizes
a spatially nested hierarchy of observations (multispectral remote sensing, inventories, flux and extensive sites),
and the Biome-BGC model to quantify the carbon balance across the region; (2) Improve, test, and apply a top-down
approach for regional and global carbon flux modeling that uses a model-data fusion scheme (MODIS products, AmeriFlux,
CO2 concentration network) and a boundary layer model to estimate NEP across the region and partition it among gross
primary production (GPP), autotrophic respiration (RA), and heterotrophic respiration (RH); (3) Provide critical
understanding of the controls on regional carbon balance (how NEP and carbon stocks are influenced by disturbance from
fire and management, land use, and interannual climate variation).
Phase I (completed) of this project focused on modeling and understanding disturbance and climate effects on the carbon
balance of Oregon and Northern California. Phase II (on-going) extends this work to include all of Oregon, Washington and
California.
|
|
Northern Eurasia Land Dynamics
Analysis (NELDA)
The Northern Eurasia Land Dynamics Analysis (NELDA) project seeks
to harness NASA remote sensing technology and local knowledge of
land-cover conditions in order to validate and improve land cover/land-cover change products for Northern Eurasia. The NELDA
project will establish a network of test sites for analyzing land
cover, land-cover change, and disturbance captured with time series
of Landsat-resolution imagery. The test sites will provide
data for validation of existing coarse-resolution land-cover
products and samples of important vegetation change and disturbance
processes. We will use these samples to develop and test methods for
continental mapping of vegetation disturbance. Finally, we
will produce a new, updated land cover map for Northern Eurasia
based on MODIS data for circa 2005 at 500-m spatial resolution. |
|
Northwest Forest Disturbance Mapping Update
LARSE has a long tradition of mapping stand-replacing disturbance in Pacific Northwest forests (see Northwest
Forest Plan Disturbance Mapping in completed projects section; Cohen et al., 1996; Cohen et al., 1998; Oetter et al.,
2000; Cohen et al., 2002). Previous projects have resulted in disturbance maps for the Northwest Forest Plan Area
between 1972 and 2002. Currently, we are updating our maps to 2007 using yearly imagery and trajectory based change
detection as described in the North American Forest Disturbance Project. |
|
Mapping Current Conditions & Modeling the Dynamic Responses of Riparian Vegetation & Salmon Habitat in Oregon
The proposed research integrates riparian zone
mapping with dynamic models to project the response of riparian
zones, stream channels and salmon habitat to natural disturbance and
land-use activities. The overall objective of this work is to
produce a decision support tool for habitat restoration planning
that incorporates advanced remote-sensing technology and information
about disturbance-recovery processes with existing knowledge of
critical habitat needs for salmonids. The proposal has two
components: 1) remote sensing and riparian mapping, 2) riparian and
aquatic modeling. We will apply the remote sensing and mapping
methods to two intensively monitored watersheds – Nehalem and Middle
Fork John Day Rivers – and apply modeling to them to
examine current conditions relative to the historic range of
variability, examine potential of passive restoration to meet
recovery goals, and examine the potential of active restoration to
accelerate recovery.
|
|
Landsat and Vegetation Change: Towards 50 Years of Observation and Characterization
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is the
next-generation Landsat satellite, expected to be launched during the summer of 2011. LARSE Director
Warren Cohen serves as a member of the Landsat Science Team, which provides advice and recommendations
to the USGS and other partners on topics that will affect the overall success of the LDCM mission. In that
capacity, he draws upon various past and present projects that take advantage of the Landsat archive, the
most temporally extensive, spatially-explicit data record for understanding vegetation change at a global
scale. The two most important of those projects include the North American Forest Dynamics Study (NAFD) and
the various National Park Service Inventory & Monitoring projects, both of which focus on the vegetation
monitoring capabilities of Landsat data when used in combination with inventory and related field and
airphoto data.
|
|
Mapping Urbanization in the Snohomish Watershed, WA
To satisfy the goals of the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and the Washington Governor’s
Office, we are producing maps of urbanization in the Snohomish
watershed during the period 1972-2004. The resulting maps and
write-up will be incorporated by the Salmon Recovery Office into the
"State of the Salmon" report. |
|
 |
Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System
LEDAPS is a NASA-funded project to map North American forest disturbance
since 1975 from the Landsat satellite record. LEDAPS will also produce comprehensive maps of surface
reflectance for 1975, 1990, and 2000 for the United States and Canada. LEDAPS
is part of NASA's contribution to the
North American Carbon
Program (NACP), a component of the USGCRP Carbon Cycle Science Program.
|
|
 |
Satellite Laser Altimetry of Forests
This research is exploring how lidar waveforms from the GLAS sensor can be used to estimate forest
height and aboveground biomass over three pilot study areas: the Pacific Northwest, southeast of the
U.S. and the northwestern Amazon Basin. With no other global lidar data collection scheduled for the
near future, GLAS data represent an importnant source of information for global forest canopy height
and aboveground biomass.
|
 |
Assessing Eastern North American Forest Disturbance and Regrowth: Potential from Passive Optical
Remote Sensing Evaluated in the Mid-Atlantic Region
This project was funded by NASA Terrestrial Ecology Program in support of the North American Carbon
Program (NACP). The Forest Cover Change
Project had the following goals:
1. To evaluate approaches for monitoring Mid-Atlantic land- and forest-cover change, disturbance, and
recovery with passive optical satellite remote sensing observations (i.e. Landsat, MODIS, IKONOS).
2. To create a validated set of techniques for exploiting passive optical remote sensing to provide
the needed forest measurements in Eastern U.S. forests that will support NACP goals.
3. To address a hierarchy of increasing measurement difficulty: (a) mapping forest disturbance, regrowth,
and change; (b) obtaining forest age assessments for regenerating forests; and (c) obtaining direct
estimates of biomass and biomass change for regenerating forests.
|
 |
Partial Harvest Mapping Project
We collected field and photo data to support an effort to map partial harvests in central
Washington. This project complemented previous and ongoing work to map stand-replacing
harvests and fires in the Pacific Northwest. Our goal was to estimate change in forest
cover as a continuous variable for two focus areas identified as critical by the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW). We also provided estimates of the loss of biomass
associated with detected partial harvests. This project was funded by the Washington DNR
and DFW.
|
 |
Linking In Situ Measurements, Remote Sensing, and Models to Validate MODIS Products Related
to the Terrestrial Carbon Cycle
The overall goal of BigFoot was to provide validation of MODLand (MODIS Land Science Team)
science products, including land cover, leaf area index (LAI), fraction absorbed photosynthetic
active radiation (fAPAR) , and net primary production (NPP). To do so, we used ground measurements,
remote sensing data, and ecosystem process models at sites representing different biomes.
BigFoot sites measured 5 x 5 km in size and surrounded the relatively small footprint (1 km2) of
CO2 flux towers. At each site we made multi-year in situ measurements of ecosystem structure and
functional characteristics related to the terrestrial carbon cycle. Our sampling design allowed us to
explicitly examine scales of fine-grained spatial pattern in these properties, and provided for a
field-based ecological characterization of the flux tower footprint. Multi-year measurements ensured
that inter-annual validity of MODLand products were assessed.
|
 |
Northwest Forest Plan Disturbance Mapping Project
This project's goal was the detection and mapping of stand replacement disturbances occurring in the
Northwest Forest Plan Area between 1984 and 2002. Both clear-cuts and major fire events produce
significant changes in forest cover that are readily detected in sequential Landsat images. Building
on earlier LARSE research (Cohen et al., 1998; Oetter et al., 2000; Cohen et al., 2002), we employed
a relatively simple, cost-effective change-detection method that is roughly 90% accurate
(Cohen et al., 2002). The immediate use of this map was to monitor the effectiveness of the
Late-Successional and Old-Growth Module of the Northwest Forest Plan. Other potential uses may include
habitat modeling and regional evaluation of changing forest management practices.
|
 |
Modeling Carbon Dynamics and Their Economic Implications in Two Forested Regions: Pacific Northwestern USA and
Northwestern Russia
This research project was drafted to compare two significant forest regions, the United States Pacific Northwest
and the St. Petersburg region of Russia, with the overall objective of determining the relative importance of
land-use versus biogeoclimatic factors in controlling spatial and temporal patterns of carbon dynamics. Our
laboratory's involvement in the effort was to provide the remote sensing components of the land cover and
disturbance maps that drive the carbon flux modeling process.
|
 |
Regional Analysis of Net Ecosystem Productivity of Pacific Northwest Forests: Scaling Methods, Validation and
Results Across Major Forest Types and Age Classes
Net ecosystem productivity (NEP) is a critical characteristic of terrestrial ecosystem response to environment.
Processes controlling NEP operate on a variety of temporal and spatial scales and are influenced by physiology,
allocation, forest development, climate and disturbance. We are simulating NPP and NEP in Oregon and Washington
using a combination of remote sensing, site data, and process models. Model outputs are being tested using
detailed ecosystem studies at intensive sites, more basic ecological measurements at other existing intensive
sites, and survey data from Forest Health Monitoring (FHM), Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots, and
Current Vegetation Survey (CVS) plots. In spatially explicit applications, we are predicting and evaluating
forest productivity for an east-west longitudinal swath along a steep climatic gradient through central Oregon
from the coast to the semi-arid east side of the Cascade Mountains, and a north-south latitudinal swath from the
south.
|
 |
Interagency Vegetation Mapping Project (IVMP)
The Interagency Vegetation Mapping Project (IVMP) is a joint effort by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land
Management to map forest structure and composition variables (quadratic mean diameter, percent canopy cover,
and percent cover of broadleaves and conifers) in western Oregon and Washington using Landsat-5 TM data.
Project products will be used in the effectiveness monitoring of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) modules
including late-successional / old-growth forests, northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets and aquatic /
riparian species. IVMP is using regression modeling to relate satellite spectral values to “ground
truth” derived from inventory plots in order to map forest characteristics as continuous variables rather
than as classes. This technique allows the same map product to be delivered to each NWFP module team, which then
can break the map into classes appropriate for their specific needs.
|
 |
Integration of Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus and Lidar for Forest Ecosystems
The overall goal of this project is to provide a framework for integrating Landsat, lidar, ground, and
environmental data for applications in forest ecology. The research addresses two primary objectives:
Objective 1. Statistically relate lidar waveforms to ground-measured forest structural attributes.
Objective 2. Develop alternative strategies for characterizing forest structure and composition over large
landscapes using combined Landsat, lidar, ground, and environmental data.
|
 |
Pacific Northwest Ecosystem Research Consortium: Willamette River Basin Mapping Project
The Pacific Northwest Ecosystem Research Consortium (PNW-ERC), funded by the Environmental Protection Agency,
was created "to address specific priority environmental problems in the Northwest, while at the same time
developing the ecological understanding and scientific approaches needed to implement ecosystem management on a
broad scale." There are 31 focused projects within the PNW-ERC, addressing a wide variety of ecological
research questions over two different ecological provinces. The Willamette River Basin Mapping Project (WRBMP)
is an effort to provide a detailed land use/ land cover map of the Willamette River Basin from Landsat Thematic
Mapper (TM) data. This map will be used to correlate current land use patterns with existing ecological
conditions, and to provide the reference for the generation of future land cover scenarios. In addition, the map
will be used by various local planning groups, including the Willamette Valley Livability Forum and the Governor's
Watershed Councils.
|
 |
Causes and Consequences of Land Cover Change in a Greater Ecosystem: Trend and Risk Assessment, Monitoring,
and Outreach
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) is probably typical of many greater ecosystems surrounding nature
reserves. Abiotic factors result in biodiversity and intense human land use overlapping on private lands
outside of nature reserves. Thus, these reserves, typically thought of as refugia for biodiversity, may be
insufficient for maintaining native species. The goal of this study is to better understand these linkages
between biodiversity and land use. Hopefully, with this knowledge, decision makers can find ways to better
sustain both native species and the growing human community in the GYE.
|
|
