Mapping and measuring aeolian sand dunes with photogrammetry and LiDAR from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and multispectral satellite imagery on the Paria Plateau, AZ, USA

Solazzo, Daniel; Sankey, Joel B.; Sankey, Temuulen Tsagaan; Munson, Seth M.

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.07.023

Cited by 59 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Our study demonstrates the utility of sub‐centimeter 3‐band optical UAS imagery to develop fine‐scale, spatially explicit maps of biocrust cover and biocrust patch connectivity in a semiarid ecosystem. To date, the majority of research in rangelands and drylands has shown the utility of UAS for accurate characterization of plant community composition (Lu and He, 2017), aboveground biomass estimates (Cunliffe et al 2016; Sankey et al 2018), vegetation change (Sankey et al 2019) and soil surface topography (Gillan et al 2017; Solazzo et al, 2018), but there has been less focus on characterizing the distribution and composition of soils and microorganisms that occupy the interspaces between vascular plants. Our study demonstrates that it is feasible to use an inexpensive, consumer‐grade camera and UAS to map biocrust and soil cover at very fine scales, and to characterize their spatial patterns in a way that provides meaningful information to support land management.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultra‐high‐resolution mapping of biocrusts with Unmanned Aerial Systems

Havrilla

Villarreal

DiBiase

et al. 2020

Remote Sens Ecol Conserv

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Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) occur in drylands globally where they support ecosystem functioning by increasing soil stability, reducing dust emissions and modifying soil resource availability (e.g. water, nutrients). Determining biocrust condition and extent across landscapes continues to present considerable challenges to scientists and land managers. Biocrusts grow in patches, cover vast expanses of rugged terrain and are vulnerable to physical disturbance associated with ground-based mapping techniques. As such, remote sensing offers promising opportunities to map and monitor biocrusts. While satellite-based remote sensing has been used to detect biocrusts at relatively large spatial scales, few studies have used high-resolution imagery from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to map fine-scale patterns of biocrusts. We collected sub-centimeter, true color 3-band imagery at 10 plots in sagebrush and pinyon-juniper woodland communities in a semiarid ecosystem in the southwestern US and used objectbased image analysis (OBIA) to segment and classify the imagery into maps of light and dark biocrusts, bare soil, rock and various vegetation covers. We used field data to validate the classifications and assessed the spatial distribution and configuration of different classes using fragmentation metrics. Map accuracies ranged from 46 to 77% (average 65%) and were higher in pinyon-juniper (average 70%) versus sagebrush (average 60%) plots. Biocrust classes showed generally high accuracies at both pinyon-juniper plots (average dark crust = 70%; light crust = 80%) and sagebrush plots (average dark crust = 69%; light crust = 77%). Point cloud density, sun elevation and spectral confusion between vegetation cover explained some differences in accuracy across plots. Spatial analyses of classified maps showed that biocrust patches in pinyon-juniper plots were generally larger, more aggregated and contiguous than in sagebrush plots. Pinyon-juniper plots also had greater patch richness and a lower Shannon evenness index than sagebrush plots, suggesting greater soil cover heterogeneity in this plant community type.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultra‐high‐resolution mapping of biocrusts with Unmanned Aerial Systems

Havrilla

Villarreal

DiBiase

et al. 2020

Remote Sens Ecol Conserv

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“…Fluvial sediment is also remobilized to form a major source of airborne dust in U.S. deserts (Reheis & Kihl, 1995). Conversely, sediment blown into rivers by wind provides a source of fluvial sediment in U.S. deserts (Solazzo et al, 2018), as in other drylands globally (e.g., Xu et al, 2006). Thus, future climate alteration will have complex effects on coupled fluvial‐aeolian systems.…”

Section: Anticipated Changes In the Western United Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geomorphic and Sedimentary Effects of Modern Climate Change: Current and Anticipated Future Conditions in the Western United States

East

Sankey

2020

Reviews of Geophysics

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Hydroclimatic changes associated with global warming over the past 50 years have been documented widely, but physical landscape responses are poorly understood thus far. Detecting sedimentary and geomorphic signals of modern climate change presents challenges owing to short record lengths, difficulty resolving signals in stochastic natural systems, influences of land use and tectonic activity, long-lasting effects of individual extreme events, and variable connectivity in sediment-routing systems. We review existing literature to investigate the nature and extent of sedimentary and geomorphic responses to modern climate change, focusing on the western United States, a region with generally high relief and high sediment yield likely to be sensitive to climatic forcing. Based on fundamental geomorphic theory and empirical evidence from other regions, we anticipate climate-driven changes to slope stability, watershed sediment yields, fluvial morphology, and aeolian sediment mobilization in the western United States. We find evidence for recent climate-driven changes to slope stability and increased aeolian dune and dust activity, whereas changes in sediment yields and fluvial morphology have been linked more commonly to nonclimatic drivers thus far. Detecting effects of climate change will require better understanding how landscape response scales with disturbance, how lag times and hysteresis operate within sedimentary systems, and how to distinguish the relative influence and feedbacks of superimposed disturbances. The ability to constrain geomorphic and sedimentary response to rapidly progressing climate change has widespread implications for human health and safety, infrastructure, water security, economics, and ecosystem resilience. Plain Language Summary Climatic changes associated with global warming over the past 50 years have been documented widely, but physical landscape responses are poorly understood. Detecting landscape signals of modern climate change is difficult for many reasons but is important because these problems relate closely to human health and safety, infrastructure, water security, and ecosystems. We reviewed the scientific literature to investigate landscape responses to modern climate change in the western United States, focusing on slope failures, watershed sediment output, river shape, and wind-blown sediment. Some changes to slope stability and wind-blown sediment are evident, whereas factors other than climate have been more important thus far in controlling sediment output and river shape. We identify ways in which more information is needed from many more places, in the western United States and globally, to understand landscape response to ongoing climate change.

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“…(2017a , b ) used ground-based hyperspectral data as well as UAV hyperspectral and lidar data to characterize individual plant species and canopies over small areas covering 1–3-ha areas. Such hyperspectral measurements were further scaled up to include larger areas of 10–30 ha using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multispectral sensors ( Sankey et al ., 2017a , b ; Solazzo et al ., 2018 ; Elkind et al ., 2019 ) that only included four spectral bands centred at the visible and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.…”

Section: Future Directions: Scaling Trait Expression From Genotypes Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive capacity in the foundation tree species Populus fremontii: implications for resilience to climate change and non-native species invasion in the American Southwest

Hultine

Allan

Blasini

et al. 2020

Conservation Physiology

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Populus fremontii (Fremont cottonwood) is recognized as one of the most important foundation tree species in the southwestern USA and northern Mexico because of its ability to structure communities across multiple trophic levels, drive ecosystem processes and influence biodiversity via genetic-based functional trait variation. However, the areal extent of P. fremontii cover has declined dramatically over the last century due to the effects of surface water diversions, non-native species invasions and more recently climate change. Consequently, P. fremontii gallery forests are considered amongst the most threatened forest types in North America. In this paper, we unify four conceptual areas of genes to ecosystems research related to P. fremontii’s capacity to survive or even thrive under current and future environmental conditions: (i) hydraulic function related to canopy thermal regulation during heat waves; (ii) mycorrhizal mutualists in relation to resiliency to climate change and invasion by the non-native tree/shrub, Tamarix; (iii) phenotypic plasticity as a mechanism for coping with rapid changes in climate; and (iv) hybridization between P. fremontii and other closely related Populus species where enhanced vigour of hybrids may preserve the foundational capacity of Populus in the face of environmental change. We also discuss opportunities to scale these conceptual areas from genes to the ecosystem level via remote sensing. We anticipate that the exploration of these conceptual areas of research will facilitate solutions to climate change with a foundation species that is recognized as being critically important for biodiversity conservation and could serve as a model for adaptive management of arid regions in the southwestern USA and around the world.

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Mapping and measuring aeolian sand dunes with photogrammetry and LiDAR from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and multispectral satellite imagery on the Paria Plateau, AZ, USA

Cited by 59 publications

References 57 publications

Ultra‐high‐resolution mapping of biocrusts with Unmanned Aerial Systems

Ultra‐high‐resolution mapping of biocrusts with Unmanned Aerial Systems

Geomorphic and Sedimentary Effects of Modern Climate Change: Current and Anticipated Future Conditions in the Western United States

Adaptive capacity in the foundation tree species Populus fremontii: implications for resilience to climate change and non-native species invasion in the American Southwest

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