TY - JOUR
T1 - Remote sensing of tamarisk biomass, insect herbivory, and defoliation
T2 - Novel methods in the grand Canyon region, Arizona
AU - Sankey, Temuulen Ts
AU - Sankey, Joel B.
AU - Horne, Rene
AU - Bedford, Ashton
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation through the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program. The authors wish to thank: Barbara Ralston for discussions that helped conceive the study, and for assisting with field work; Sasha Reed for completing the leaf/litter chemistry analysis and for helpful review of an earlier draft of the manuscript; Charles Yackulic for helpful discussions that improved the statistical analyses; Laura Cagney for helpful reviews of the remote sensing data products; Pamela Nagler for providing the USGS internal manuscript review; Terry Arundel and Brad Davis for assistance with the data processing. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. We also thank Northern Arizona University (NAU)/NASA Space Grant Undergraduate Internship Program for supporting the undergraduate researcher and author, Rene Horne
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
PY - 2016/8
Y1 - 2016/8
N2 - Tamarisk is an invasive, riparian shrub species in the southwestern USA. The northern tamarisk beetle (Diorhabda carinulata) has been introduced to several states to control tamarisk. We classified tamarisk distribution in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona using 0.2 m resolution, airborne multispectral data and estimated tamarisk beetle effects (overall accuracy of 86 percent) leading to leaf defoliation in a 49,408 m2area. We also estimated individual tamarisk tree biomass and their uncertainties using airborne lidar data (100 points/ m2). On average, total aboveground tamarisk biomass was 8.68 kg/m2(SD = 17.6). The tamarisk beetle defoliation resulted in a mean leaf biomass loss of 0.52 kg/m2and an equivalent of 25,692 kg across the entire study area. Our defoliated tamarisk map and biomass estimates can help inform restoration treatments to reduce tamarisk. Continued monitoring of tamarisk and tamarisk beetle effects are recommended to understand the currently-unknown eventual equilibrium between the two species and the cascading effects on ecosystem processes.
AB - Tamarisk is an invasive, riparian shrub species in the southwestern USA. The northern tamarisk beetle (Diorhabda carinulata) has been introduced to several states to control tamarisk. We classified tamarisk distribution in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona using 0.2 m resolution, airborne multispectral data and estimated tamarisk beetle effects (overall accuracy of 86 percent) leading to leaf defoliation in a 49,408 m2area. We also estimated individual tamarisk tree biomass and their uncertainties using airborne lidar data (100 points/ m2). On average, total aboveground tamarisk biomass was 8.68 kg/m2(SD = 17.6). The tamarisk beetle defoliation resulted in a mean leaf biomass loss of 0.52 kg/m2and an equivalent of 25,692 kg across the entire study area. Our defoliated tamarisk map and biomass estimates can help inform restoration treatments to reduce tamarisk. Continued monitoring of tamarisk and tamarisk beetle effects are recommended to understand the currently-unknown eventual equilibrium between the two species and the cascading effects on ecosystem processes.
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U2 - 10.14358/PERS.82.8.645
DO - 10.14358/PERS.82.8.645
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85018664590
SN - 0099-1112
VL - 82
SP - 645
EP - 652
JO - Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing
JF - Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing
IS - 8
ER -