Secondary Forest Detection in a Neotropical Dry Forest Landscape Using Landsat 7 ETM+ and IKONOS Imagery¹

Abstract

We integrate forest structure and remotely sensed data for four successional stages (pasture, early, intermediate, and late) of a tropical dry forest area located in the Sector Santa Rosa of the Guanacaste Conservation Area in northwestern Costa Rica. We used a combination of spectral vegetation indices derived from Landsat 7 ETM+ medium resolution and IKONOS high‐resolution imagery. The indices (using the red and near‐infrared bands) simple ratio and normalized difference vegetation index separated the successional stages well. Two other indices using mid‐infrared bands did not separate successional stages as well. In a comparison of the successional stages with chronological age, there was no separability in the spectral reflectance among different age classes. Successional stages, in contrast, showed distinct groups with minimal overlap. We also applied a simple validation in another dry forest located in the Palo Verde National Park in the province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica, with reasonably good results.

Assessment of Land Use-Cover Changes and Successional Stages of Vegetation in the Natural Protected Area Altas Cumbres, Northeastern Mexico, Using Landsat Satellite Imagery

“…The analysis of succession and detection of secondary forests based on multiple layers and scenes of different years has already been used; similarly, other studies have also worked with five or even more temporal stages [22,23]. In this sense, the use of Landsat satellite images for the analysis of LULCC is a widely used method [3,5,8,9,62], including multitemporal approaches which encompasses several stages [4,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]64,81].…”

“…This is of major importance, because any analysis of land cover transition or persistence implies different processes of recovery or modification in vegetation and, more precisely, time of regeneration, which is more accentuated for multitemporal analysis [3,8,9,[14][15][16][17][18][19]. Regardless of the method used to delimit the succession time or the presence of secondary vegetation [20,22,23], we must stress the necessity of the evaluation of succession patterns in future studies of land-use cover changes, as was done in this study.…”

Distinguishing Early Successional Plant Communities Using Ground-Level Hyperspectral Data

“…The four fields studied at the Blandy Experimental Farm differ in land use history [1] and in soil characteristics. Therefore, it is important to take land use history into account when studying invaded systems [55,56] and secondary successional systems [54,57]. Additionally, species composition can influence soil characteristics by mechanically changing the soil, affecting nutrient cycling, altering soil biota, and by changing herbivore community compositions [5,58].…”

Intercepción de precipitación en tres estadios de sucesión de un Bosque húmedo Tropical, Parque Nacional Guanacaste, Costa Rica

“…En las últimas décadas se ha demostrado con el empleo de tecnología satelital, una restauración sostenida de la cobertura forestal en los bosques seco y húmedo de la provincia de Guanacaste (Arroyo-Mora et al 2005;CalvoAlvarado et al 2009b;Cordero-Montoya et al 2008), cuya consecuencia en el comportamiento del ciclo hidrológico aún no ha sido evaluada.…”