2009 LTER All Scientists Meeting - GIS/Remote Sensing

Patterns and Processes of Fragmentation Near Konza Prairie LTER

Tom Prebyl — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:32:35 +0000

Poster Number:

322

Presenter/Primary Author:

Tom Prebyl

Co-Authors:

John Harrington, Jr.

Co-Authors:

Milan Shrestha

Co-Authors:

Sainan Zhang

Fragmentation of natural habitats, driven by urban growth and other land use modifications, acts to decrease the amount of core habitat as well as the connectivity among core areas. As a result, landscape fragmentation can have negative impacts on the ecological communities, ecosystem services, and metapopulation dynamics.

Student Poster:

Yes

Understanding and mapping plant distributions surrounding marsh hammocks within the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER

Christine Hladik — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:28:20 +0000

Poster Number:

320

Presenter/Primary Author:

Christine Hladik

Co-Authors:

Alana Lynes

Co-Authors:

Chester Jackson

Co-Authors:

Merryl Alber

Co-Authors:

Clark Alexander

Co-Authors:

Steve Pennings

Accurate habitat mapping in salt marshes is important for both management and conservation goals, as it provides information essential for identifying sensitive areas and documenting changes over time as the result of sea level rise or human perturbations. The goal of this study is to characterize patterns of marsh plant distribution in the salt marshes surrounding back barrier islands (hammocks) within the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER. In the summer of 2007 the GCE LTER surveyed over 50 hammocks of different origin and size.

Student Poster:

Yes

A Parcel-level Dasymetric Approach to Mapping Changes in the Distribution of Urban Flooding Risks, Baltimore, Maryland (1950-2000)

Kirstin Dow — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:00:12 +0000

Poster Number:

307

Presenter/Primary Author:

Kirstin Dow

Co-Authors:

J. Morgan Grove

Co-Authors:

Sierra Murdoch

Co-Authors:

Jarlath O'Neill-Dunn

Co-Authors:

Chris Boone

Co-Authors:

Geoff Buckley

Environmental justice research seeks to understand the patterns and processes shaping the distribution of environmental burdens and amenities across society. While environmental justice research in the US has generally focused on toxics, urban design, hazard management, and segregation have reshaped patterns of risk associated with environmental processes, such as flooding, and the social patterns of exposure to those risks. In Baltimore, flood risks have been a major impetus behind the engineering of the hydrologic systems of the city.

Detecting the potential effects of sea-level rise on woody plant physiology and carbon sequestration at the Virginia Coast Reserve

Steven Brantley — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:16:45 +0000

Poster Number:

208

Presenter/Primary Author:

Steven Brantley

Co-Authors:

Julie Naumann

Co-Authors:

Jacklyn Vick

Co-Authors:

Donald Young

Barrier islands may represent an underestimated sink for atmospheric carbon because they combine potential for high above-ground primary productivity (ANPP) with young, infertile soils capable of sequestering significant amounts of carbon. Ecosystem ANPP on many barrier islands of the Virginia Coast Reserve (VCR) has been further enhanced by the rapid expansion of woody shrubs. Compared to adjacent grasslands, shrubs in coastal systems combine high leaf area index with high photosynthetic rates.

Student Poster:

Yes

Extracting habitat features from hyperspectral imagery of the Duplin salt marshes at Sapelo Island, Georgia

John Schalles — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:56:09 +0000

Poster Number:

206

Presenter/Primary Author:

John Schalles

Co-Authors:

Christine Hladik

Co-Authors:

Steve Pennings

Co-Authors:

Alana Lynes

Co-Authors:

Maria Steele

Co-Authors:

John Carpenter

Aerial, hyperspectral AISA imagery (http://calmit.unl.edu/champ/) at 1 m resolution was acquired at low tide on the morning of June 20, 2006 for the Duplin River watershed located within the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Reserve. The Duplin site is a Georgia Coastal Ecosystems focus for integrative studies. Ground truth habitat data, collected within two weeks of the imagery, included: salt marsh communities (plant species cover, canopy height, biomass, soil properties, invertebrate densities) and open water (chlorophyll a, total suspended matter, CDOM).

100 years of forest cover change in the urbanizing Gwynns Falls watershed, Baltimore, Maryland: spatial and temporal dynamics

Weiqi Zhou — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:54:32 +0000

Poster Number:

187

Presenter/Primary Author:

Weiqi Zhou

Co-Authors:

Ganlin Huang

Co-Authors:

Steward T. A. Pickett

Co-Authors:

M. L. Cadenasso

Landscape structure in the Eastern US experienced great changes in the last century with the expansion of forest cover into abandoned agricultural land and clearance of forest cover for urban development. Quantifying the changes in forest cover is a prerequisite to understanding the potential effects of those changes on ecological processes. In this paper, the spatial and temporal patterns of forest cover from 1914 to 2004 in the Gwynns Falls watershed in Baltimore, Maryland were quantified from historical forest maps and aerial photographs.

Effect of Remote Sensing Image Resolution on the Retrieval of Biomass and Productivity Estimates for Giant Kelp Forests

Tanique Rush — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:21:22 +0000

Poster Number:

177

Presenter/Primary Author:

Tanique Rush

Co-Authors:

Richard Zimmerman

Co-Authors:

Victoria Hill

The productivity of giant kelp forests is highly variable across time and space. Winter storms and summer periods of nutrient limitation act as bottom-up regulators of kelp abundance and growth in a geography-dependent manner. Our goal is to develop a predictive understanding of giant kelp forest dynamics in the nearshore waters of California using a combination of (i) bio-optical modeling of kelp productivity, (ii) high-resolution remote sensing of kelp cover, biomass and its physiological state.

Student Poster:

Yes

Suspended Solids in Streams as Influenced by Land Management on Tallgrass Prairie

Kyle Winders — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:12:39 +0000

Poster Number:

168

Presenter/Primary Author:

Kyle Winders

Co-Authors:

Walter Dodds

Co-Authors:

Eric Banner

Suspended solids in streams are important to monitor and manage because high levels of suspended solids have been shown to affect the primary and secondary production of a stream. The loading rate of total suspended solids (TSS) can greatly be influenced by the land management of a stream site’s catchment area. A computer-based geographic information system (GIS) was used to assess what land cover/land use variables were highly correlated to high levels of TSS in Kansas Flinthill streams on a long-term data set collected by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Student Poster:

Yes

Scaling Local Measurements of Giant Kelp Canopy Cover and Biomass to Regional Estimates Using Satellite Observations

Kyle Cavanaugh — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:22:05 +0000

Poster Number:

151

Presenter/Primary Author:

Kyle Cavanaugh

Co-Authors:

David A Siegel

Co-Authors:

Daniel C Reed

Co-Authors:

Brian P Kinlan

Little is known about the local to regional scale variability in biomass and productivity of many subtidal ecosystems as direct surveys for these habitats are often time and labor intensive. Here, we combined high-resolution satellite imagery with detailed diver sampling to assess changes in giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) canopy cover and biomass along a ~60 km stretch coastline in the Santa Barbara Channel, California. Kelp canopy extent was determined by using principal component analysis on multispectral SPOT 5 satellite imagery.

Student Poster:

Yes

LTERmaps

Theresa Valentine — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:44:47 +0000

Poster Number:

139

Presenter/Primary Author:

Theresa Valentine

Co-Authors:

Jamie Hollingsworth

Co-Authors:

John Carpenter

Co-Authors:

Adam Skibble

Co-Authors:

Jonathan Walsh

LTERmaps is an internet interface to LTER site base data. The application uses internet mapping software to provide access to site locations, boundaries, and Trends data tables. Several approaches were tried by the inter-site working group including off the shelf internet mapping applications, Google Maps and Google Earth. The poster will highlight the process of collecting the data for the project, the value of video conference calls during the project, and the types of data configurations tried, and the pros and cons of the different approaches.