Multi-scale remote sensing for the assessment of habitat condition at a breeding colony of Lesser Snow Geese

摘要

In recent decades, increasing numbers of Lesser Snow Geese have damaged vegetation over extensive areas of their northern breeding grounds. Management requires information on the timing and extent of this damage and Landsat imagery is one of the few consistent, long-term, spatially extensive data sources available. With ground-based radiometric and vegetation data collected at a long-term goose study site, a relationship between reflectance and vegetation amount is being established for areas of goose summer habitat. For natural vegetation, relatively little attention has been paid to the choice of radiometric index and vegetation measure. Three vegetation measures (biomass, LAI, and cover) were collected, along with radiometric information at 0.5m resolution in the first five Landsat bands. Various published indices are being evaluated for their sensitivity to vegetation measures and their robustness across species compositions. Estimation of vegetation quantities in several years will allow the mapping of habitat change over time.