Findings from a preliminary investigation of the effects of aquatic habitat (water) availability on giant gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas) demography in the Sacramento Valley, California, 2014–17
Jonathan P. Rose, Julia S. M. Ersan, Gabriel A. Reyes, K. Benjamin Gustafson, Alexandria M. Fulton, Kristen J. Fouts, Raymund F. Wack, Glenn D. Wylie, Michael L. Casazza, Brian J. Halstead
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1114
The giant gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas) is a semi-aquatic species of snake precinctive to the Central Valley of California. Because the Central Valley has experienced a substantial loss of wetland habitat, giant gartersnake populations are largely found in aquatic habitats associated with rice agriculture. In dry years, less water may be...
Landsat time series analysis of fractional plant cover changes on abandoned energy development sites
Eric K. Waller, Miguel L. Villarreal, Travis B. Poitras, Travis W. Nauman, Michael C. Duniway
2018, International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (73) 407-419
Oil and natural gas development in the western United States has increased substantially in recent decades as technological advances like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have made extraction more commercially viable. Oil and gas pads are often developed for production, and then capped, reclaimed, and left to recover when no...
Assessing the effectiveness of riparian restoration projects using Landsat and precipitation data from the cloud-computing application ClimateEngine.org
Mark B. Hausner, Justin L. Huntington, Caroline Nash, Charles Morton, Daniel J. McEvoy, David S. Pilliod, Katherine C. Hegewisch, Britta Daudert, John T. Abatzoglou, Gordon E. Grant
2018, Ecological Engineering (120) 432-440
Riparian vegetation along streams provides a suite of ecosystem services in rangelands and thus is the target of restoration when degraded by over-grazing, erosion, incision, or other disturbances. Assessments of restoration effectiveness depend on defensible monitoring data, which can be both expensive and difficult to collect. We present a method...
Mean composite fire severity metrics computed with Google Earth Engine offer improved accuracy and expanded mapping potential
Sean Parks, Lisa M. Holsinger, Morgan Voss, Rachel A. Loehman, Nathaniel P. Robinson
2018, Remote Sensing (10)
Landsat-based fire severity datasets are an invaluable resource for monitoring and research purposes. These gridded fire severity datasets are generally produced with pre-and post-fire imagery to estimate the degree of fire-induced ecological change. Here, we introduce methods to produce three Landsat-based fire severity metrics using the Google Earth Engine (GEE)...
Remote sensing analysis of vegetation at the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Arizona and surrounding area
Laura M. Norman, Barry R. Middleton, Natalie R. Wilson
2018, Journal of Applied Remote Sensing (12) 1-19
Mapping of vegetation types is of great importance to the San Carlos Apache Tribe and their management of forestry and fire fuels. Various remote sensing techniques were applied to classify multitemporal Landsat 8 satellite data, vegetation index, and digital elevation model data. A multitiered unsupervised classification generated over 900 classes...
Spatiotemporal analysis of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 data to support monitoring of dryland ecosystems
Neal J. Pastick, Bruce K. Wylie, Zhuoting Wu
2018, Remote Sensing (10)
Drylands are the habitat and source of livelihood for about two fifths of the world’s population and are highly susceptible to climate and anthropogenic change. To understand the vulnerability of drylands to changing environmental conditions, land managers need to effectively monitor rates of past change and remote sensing offers a...
An initial validation of Landsat 5 and 7 derived surface water temperature for U.S. lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries
Blake A. Schaeffer, John Iiames, John L. Dwyer, Erin Urquhart, Wilson Salls, Jennifer Rover, Bridget Seegers
2018, International Journal of Remote Sensing (39) 7789-7805
The United States Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research Control Act of 2014 identified the need for forecasting and monitoring harmful algal blooms (HAB) in lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries across the nation. Temperature is a driver in HAB forecasting models that affects both HAB growth rates and toxin production. Therefore,...
A tale of two wildfires; testing detection and prediction of invasive species distributions using models fit with topographic and spectral indices
Amanda M. West, Paul H. Evangelista, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Darin Shulte
2018, Landscape Ecology (33) 969-984
ContextDeveloping species distribution models (SDMs) to detect invasive species cover and evaluate habitat suitability are high priorities for land managers.ObjectivesWe tested SDMs fit with different variable combinations to provide guidelines for future invasive species model development based on transferability between...
Fusing MODIS with Landsat 8 data to downscale weekly normalized difference vegetation index estimates for central Great Basin rangelands, USA
Stephen P. Boyte, Bruce K. Wylie, Matthew B. Rigge, Devendra Dahal
2018, GIScience and Remote Sensing (55) 376-399
Data fused from distinct but complementary satellite sensors mitigate tradeoffs that researchers make when selecting between spatial and temporal resolutions of remotely sensed data. We integrated data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor aboard the Terra satellite and the Operational Land Imager sensor aboard the Landsat 8 satellite...
Reduced arctic tundra productivity linked with landform and climate change interactions
Mark J. Lara, Ingmar Nitze, Guido Grosse, Philip Martin, A. David McGuire
2018, Scientific Reports (8)
Arctic tundra ecosystems have experienced unprecedented change associated with climate warming over recent decades. Across the Pan-Arctic, vegetation productivity and surface greenness have trended positively over the period of satellite observation. However, since 2011 these trends have slowed considerably, showing signs of browning in many regions. It is unclear what...
Evaluating the potential for near-shore bathymetry on the Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, using Landsat 8 and WorldView-3 imagery
Sandra K. Poppenga, Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Dean B. Gesch, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Dean J. Tyler
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5024
Satellite-derived near-shore bathymetry (SDB) is becoming an increasingly important method for assessing vulnerability to climate change and natural hazards in low-lying atolls of the northern tropical Pacific Ocean. Satellite imagery has become a cost-effective means for mapping near-shore bathymetry because ships cannot collect soundings safely while operating close to the...
A remote sensing-based model of tidal marsh aboveground carbon stocks for the conterminous United States
Kristin B. Byrd, Laurel Ballanti, Nathan Thomas, Dung Nguyen, James R. Holmquist, Marc Simard, Lisamarie Windham-Myers
2018, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (139) 255-271
Remote sensing based maps of tidal marshes, both of their extents and carbon stocks, have the potential to play a key role in conducting greenhouse gas inventories and implementing climate mitigation policies. Our objective was to generate a single remote sensing model of tidal marsh aboveground biomass and carbon that...
Tundra landform and vegetation productivity trend maps for the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska
Mark J. Lara, Ingmar Nitze, Guido Grosse, A. David McGuire
2018, Scientific Data (5) 1-10
Arctic tundra landscapes are composed of a complex mosaic of patterned ground features, varying in soil moisture, vegetation composition, and surface hydrology over small spatial scales (10–100 m). The importance of microtopography and associated geomorphic landforms in influencing ecosystem structure and function is well founded, however, spatial data products describing local...
One-meter topobathymetric digital elevation model for Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, 1944 to 2016
Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Sandra K. Poppenga, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Dean J. Tyler, Dean B. Gesch, Maria Kottermair, Andrea Jalandoni, Edward Carlson, Cindy A. Thatcher, Matthew M. Barbee
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5047
Atoll and island coastal communities are highly exposed to sea-level rise, tsunamis, storm surges, rogue waves, king tides, and the occasional combination of multiple factors, such as high regional sea levels, extreme high local tides, and unusually strong wave set-up. The elevation of most of these atolls averages just under...
Identifying optimal remotely-sensed variables for ecosystem monitoring in Colorado Plateau drylands
Travis B. Poitras, Miguel L. Villarreal, Eric K. Waller, Travis W. Nauman, Mark E. Miller, Michael C. Duniway
2018, Journal of Arid Environments (153) 76-87
Water-limited ecosystems often recover slowly following anthropogenic or natural disturbance. Multitemporal remote sensing can be used to monitor ecosystem recovery after disturbance; however, dryland vegetation cover can be challenging to accurately measure due to sparse cover and spectral confusion between soils and non-photosynthetic vegetation. With the goal of optimizing...
Wetlands inform how climate extremes influence surface water expansion and contraction
Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Charles R. Lane, Michael L. McManus, Laurie C. Alexander, Jay R. Christensen
2018, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (22) 1851-1873
Effective monitoring and prediction of flood and drought events requires an improved understanding of how and why surface water expansion and contraction in response to climate varies across space. This paper sought to (1) quantify how interannual patterns of surface water expansion and contraction vary spatially across the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR)...
Climate-related variation in plant peak biomass and growth phenology across Pacific Northwest tidal marshes
Kevin J. Buffington, Bruce D. Dugger, Karen M. Thorne
2018, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (202) 212-221
The interannual variability of tidal marsh plant phenology is largely unknown and may have important ecological consequences. Marsh plants are critical to the biogeomorphic feedback processes that build estuarine soils, maintain marsh elevation relative to sea level, and sequester carbon. We calculated Tasseled Cap Greenness, a metric of plant biomass, using...
2017 Landsat Science Team Summer Meeting Summary
Christopher J. Crawford, Thomas R. Loveland, Michael A. Wulder, James R. Irons
2018, The Earth Observer (30) 21-25
The summer meeting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-NASA Landsat Science Team (LST) was held June 11-13, 2017, at the USGS’s Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center near Sioux Falls, SD. This was the final meeting of the Second (2012-2017) LST.1 Frank Kelly [EROS—Center Director] welcomed the attendees and...
Analysis of vegetation recovery surrounding a restored wetland using the normalized difference infrared index (NDII) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)
Natalie R. Wilson, Laura Norman
2018, International Journal of Remote Sensing (39) 3243-3274
Watershed restoration efforts seek to rejuvenate vegetation, biological diversity, and land productivity at Cienega San Bernardino, an important wetland in southeastern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. Rock detention and earthen berm structures were built on the Cienega San Bernardino over the course of four decades, beginning in 1984 and continuing...
Landsat classification of surface-water presence during multiple years to assess response of playa wetlands to climatic variability across the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative region
Daniel J. Manier, Jennifer R. Rover
2018, Open-File Report 2017-1166
To improve understanding of the distribution of ecologically important, ephemeral wetland habitats across the Great Plains, the occurrence and distribution of surface water in playa wetland complexes were documented for four different years across the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GPLCC) region. This information is important because it informs land...
Estimating wetland connectivity to streams in the Prairie Pothole Region: An isotopic and remote sensing approach
J. R. Brooks, David M. Mushet, Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Scott G. Leibowitz, J. R. Christensen, Brian Neff, Donald O. Rosenberry, W. D. Rugh, L.C. Alexander
2018, Water Resources Research (54) 955-977
Understanding hydrologic connectivity between wetlands and perennial streams is critical to understanding the reliance of stream flow on inputs from wetlands. We used the isotopic evaporation signal in water and remote sensing to examine wetland‐stream hydrologic connectivity within the Pipestem Creek watershed, North Dakota, a watershed dominated by prairie‐pothole wetlands....
Monitoring algal blooms in drinking water reservoirs using the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager
Darryl Keith, Jennifer Rover, Jason Green, Brian Zalewsky, Mike Charpentier, Glen Hursby, Joseph Bishop
2018, International Journal of Remote Sensing (39) 2818-2846
In this study, we demonstrated that the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor is a powerful tool that can provide periodic and system-wide information on the condition of drinking water reservoirs. The OLI is a multispectral radiometer (30 m spatial resolution) that allows ecosystem observations at spatial and temporal scales that...
Mapping forest change using stacked generalization: An ensemble approach
Sean P. Healey, Warren B. Cohen, Zhiqiang Yang, C. Kenneth Brewer, Evan B. Brooks, Noel Gorelick, Alexander J. Hernandez, Chengquan Huang, M. Joseph Hughes, Robert E. Kennedy, Thomas Loveland, Gretchen G. Moisen, Todd A. Schroeder, Stephen V. Stehman, James Vogelmann, Curtis E. Woodcock, Limin Yang, Zhe Zhu
2018, Remote Sensing of Environment (204) 717-728
The ever-increasing volume and accessibility of remote sensing data has spawned many alternative approaches for mapping important environmental features and processes. For example, there are several viable but highly varied strategies for using time series of Landsat imagery to detect changes in forest cover. Performance among algorithms varies across complex natural systems, and it...
A land product characterization system for comparative analysis of satellite data and products
Kevin Gallo, Gregory L. Stensaas, John L. Dwyer, Ryan Longhenry
2018, Remote Sensing (10)
A Land Product Characterization System (LPCS) has been developed to provide land data and products to the community of individuals interested in validating space-based land products by comparing them with similar products available from other sensors or surface-based observations. The LPCS facilitates the application of global multi-satellite and in...
Historical cover trends in a sagebrush steppe ecosystem from 1985 to 2013: Links with climate, disturbance, and management
Hua Shi, Matthew B. Rigge, Collin G. Homer, George Z. Xian, Debbie Meyer, Brett Bunde
2018, Ecosystems (21) 913-929
Understanding the causes and consequences of component change in sagebrush steppe is crucial for evaluating ecosystem sustainability. The sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) steppe ecosystem of the northwest USA has been impacted by the invasion of exotic grasses, increasing fire return intervals, changing land management practices, and fragmentation, often lowering the...