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An Annual Plant Growth Proxy in the Mojave Desert Using MODIS-EVI Data

In the arid Mojave Desert, the phenological response of vegetation is largely dependent upon the timing and amount of rainfall, and maps of annual plant cover at any one point in time can vary widely. Our study developed relative annual plant growth models as proxies for annual plant cover using met...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wallace, Cynthia S.A., Thomas, Kathryn A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3790989/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27873958
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s8127792
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author Wallace, Cynthia S.A.
Thomas, Kathryn A.
author_facet Wallace, Cynthia S.A.
Thomas, Kathryn A.
author_sort Wallace, Cynthia S.A.
collection PubMed
description In the arid Mojave Desert, the phenological response of vegetation is largely dependent upon the timing and amount of rainfall, and maps of annual plant cover at any one point in time can vary widely. Our study developed relative annual plant growth models as proxies for annual plant cover using metrics that captured phenological variability in Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) satellite images. We used landscape phenologies revealed in MODIS data together with ecological knowledge of annual plant seasonality to develop a suite of metrics to describe annual growth on a yearly basis. Each of these metrics was applied to temporally-composited MODIS-EVI images to develop a relative model of annual growth. Each model was evaluated by testing how well it predicted field estimates of annual cover collected during 2003 and 2005 at the Mojave National Preserve. The best performing metric was the spring difference metric, which compared the average of three spring MODIS-EVI composites of a given year to that of 2002, a year of record drought. The spring difference metric showed correlations with annual plant cover of R(2) = 0.61 for 2005 and R(2) = 0.47 for 2003. Although the correlation is moderate, we consider it supportive given the characteristics of the field data, which were collected for a different study in a localized area and are not ideal for calibration to MODIS pixels. A proxy for annual growth potential was developed from the spring difference metric of 2005 for use as an environmental data layer in desert tortoise habitat modeling. The application of the spring difference metric to other imagery years presents potential for other applications such as fuels, invasive species, and dust-emission monitoring in the Mojave Desert.
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spelling pubmed-37909892013-10-18 An Annual Plant Growth Proxy in the Mojave Desert Using MODIS-EVI Data Wallace, Cynthia S.A. Thomas, Kathryn A. Sensors (Basel) Article In the arid Mojave Desert, the phenological response of vegetation is largely dependent upon the timing and amount of rainfall, and maps of annual plant cover at any one point in time can vary widely. Our study developed relative annual plant growth models as proxies for annual plant cover using metrics that captured phenological variability in Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) satellite images. We used landscape phenologies revealed in MODIS data together with ecological knowledge of annual plant seasonality to develop a suite of metrics to describe annual growth on a yearly basis. Each of these metrics was applied to temporally-composited MODIS-EVI images to develop a relative model of annual growth. Each model was evaluated by testing how well it predicted field estimates of annual cover collected during 2003 and 2005 at the Mojave National Preserve. The best performing metric was the spring difference metric, which compared the average of three spring MODIS-EVI composites of a given year to that of 2002, a year of record drought. The spring difference metric showed correlations with annual plant cover of R(2) = 0.61 for 2005 and R(2) = 0.47 for 2003. Although the correlation is moderate, we consider it supportive given the characteristics of the field data, which were collected for a different study in a localized area and are not ideal for calibration to MODIS pixels. A proxy for annual growth potential was developed from the spring difference metric of 2005 for use as an environmental data layer in desert tortoise habitat modeling. The application of the spring difference metric to other imagery years presents potential for other applications such as fuels, invasive species, and dust-emission monitoring in the Mojave Desert. Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) 2008-12-03 /pmc/articles/PMC3790989/ /pubmed/27873958 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s8127792 Text en © 2008 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wallace, Cynthia S.A.
Thomas, Kathryn A.
An Annual Plant Growth Proxy in the Mojave Desert Using MODIS-EVI Data
title An Annual Plant Growth Proxy in the Mojave Desert Using MODIS-EVI Data
title_full An Annual Plant Growth Proxy in the Mojave Desert Using MODIS-EVI Data
title_fullStr An Annual Plant Growth Proxy in the Mojave Desert Using MODIS-EVI Data
title_full_unstemmed An Annual Plant Growth Proxy in the Mojave Desert Using MODIS-EVI Data
title_short An Annual Plant Growth Proxy in the Mojave Desert Using MODIS-EVI Data
title_sort annual plant growth proxy in the mojave desert using modis-evi data
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3790989/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27873958
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s8127792
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