Fire effects in the northern Chihuahuan Desert derived from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper spectral indices

White, Joseph D.; Swint, Pamela

doi:10.1117/1.jrs.8.083667

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Modeling studies have indicated that shrub recruitment and growth at an early stage of encroachment can be controlled with lower grazing intensity and recurrent prescribed or natural fires (Ravi & D'Odorico, ). The natural fire return intervals for North American desert grasslands like the Chihuahuan Desert have been estimated to be around 7–10 years to sustain grass dominance (McPherson, ; White & Swint, ). Hence, recurrent prescribed fires can used by land managers to maintain Chihuahuan Desert grasslands and can result in the reduction of shrub cover and redistribution of sediment and nutrients from shrub islands to grass and bare interspaces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Postfire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Element Tracers

et al. 2018

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Grasslands, which provide fundamental ecosystem services in many arid and semiarid regions of the world, are undergoing rapid increases in fire activity and are highly susceptible to postfire‐accelerated soil erosion by wind. A quantitative assessment of physical processes that integrates fire‐wind erosion feedbacks is therefore needed relative to vegetation change, soil biogeochemical cycling, air quality, and landscape evolution. We investigated the applicability of a novel tracer technique—the use of multiple rare earth elements (REE)—to quantify soil transport by wind and to identify sources and sinks of wind‐blown sediments in both burned and unburned shrub‐grass transition zone in the Chihuahuan Desert, NM, USA. Results indicate that the horizontal mass flux of wind‐borne sediment increased approximately threefold following the fire. The REE tracer analysis of wind‐borne sediments shows that the source of the horizontal mass flux in the unburned site was derived from bare microsites (88.5%), while in the burned site it was primarily sourced from shrub (42.3%) and bare (39.1%) microsites. Vegetated microsites which were predominantly sinks of aeolian sediments in the unburned areas became sediment sources following the fire. The burned areas showed a spatial homogenization of sediment tracers, highlighting a potential negative feedback on landscape heterogeneity induced by shrub encroachment into grasslands. Though fires are known to increase aeolian sediment transport, accompanying changes in the sources and sinks of wind‐borne sediments may influence biogeochemical cycling and land degradation dynamics. Furthermore, our experiment demonstrated that REEs can be used as reliable tracers for field‐scale aeolian studies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Postfire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Element Tracers

et al. 2018

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“…Many studies focused on fuel types and biomass to assess wildfire risk [77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84] or used spectral vegetation indices to measure impacts of previous fires. 83,85 In addition, remote sensing was commonly used with the goal of modeling the spread of invasive grasses because of their role in increasing wildfire risk. 3,86,87 Using environmental characteristics to predict wildfire likelihood and severity was an approach found in several studies using slope, elevation, and climate.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfire Risk and Hazardous Fuel Reduction Treatments Along the US-Mexico Border: A Review of the Science (1986-2019)

Laushman

Munson

Villarreal

2020

Air, Soil and Water Research

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The ecosystems along the border between the United States and Mexico are at increasing risk to wildfire due to interactions among climate, land-use, and fuel loads. A wide range of fuel treatments have been implemented to mitigate wildfire and its threats to valued resources, yet we have little information about treatment effectiveness. To fill critical knowledge gaps, we reviewed wildfire risk and fuel treatment studies that were conducted near the US-Mexico border and published in the peer-reviewed literature between 1986 and 2019. The number of studies has grown during this time in warm desert to forest ecosystems on primarily federal lands. The most common study topics included fire effects on native species, the role of invasive species and woody encroachment on wildfire risk, historical fire regimes, and remote sensing and modeling to study wildfire risk across the landscape. A majority of fuel treatment studies focused on prescribed burns, and fuel treatments collectively had mixed effects on mitigating future wildfire risk and threats to ecosystems depending on vegetation and fire characteristics. The diversity of ecosystems and land ownership along the US-Mexico border present unique challenges for understanding and managing wildfire risk, and also create opportunities for collaboration and cross-site studies to promote knowledge across broad environmental gradients.

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“…Of the many previously cited papers which use space-borne remote sensing to investigate ecological questions within individual western national parks, it is surprising that only two focus on vegetation phenology specifically: O'Leary et al [30], who stressed the impact of snowmelt timing on green-up, and Wallace et al [32], who mapped invasive buffelgrass and its phenology. This highlights a notable gap in the literature, considering that the importance of long-term, continuous remote sensing data was emphasized by White and Swint [29] and Soulard et al [40], while most of the remote sensing studies of the western national parks have analyzed only a limited number of snapshot images [28,31,39] or 3-5 years of satellite data [29,32,37]. As pointed out by O'Leary et al [30], conifer regions have especially received insufficient attention in remote sensing phenological studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Spatio-Temporal Variability in Remotely Sensed Vegetation Greenness Across Yellowstone National Park

2019

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The study’s objective was to quantify the responses of vegetation greenness and productivity to climate variability and change across complex topographic, climatic, and ecological gradients in Yellowstone National Park through the use of remotely sensed data. The climate change signal in Yellowstone was pronounced, including substantial warming, an abrupt decline in snowpack, and more frequent droughts. While phenological studies are increasing in Yellowstone, the near absence of long-term and continuous ground-based phenological measurements motivated the study’s application of remotely sensed data to aid in identifying ecological vulnerabilities and guide resource management in light of on ongoing environmental change. Correlation, time-series, and empirical orthogonal function analyses for 1982–2015 focused on Daymet data and vegetation indices (VIs) from the Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The study’s key questions address unique time scales. First, what are the dominant meteorological drivers of variability in vegetation greenness on seasonal to interannual time scales? Key results include: (1) Green-up is the most elevation- and climate-sensitive phenological stage, with La Niña-induced cool, wet conditions or an anomalously deep snowpack delaying the green-up wave. (2) Drought measures were the dominant contributors towards phenological variability, as winter–spring drought corresponded to enhanced April–June greening and spring–summer drought corresponded to reduced August–September greening. Second, how have patterns of productivity changed in response to climate change and disturbances? Key results include: (1) The park predominantly exhibited positive productivity trends, associated with lodgepole pine re-establishment and growth following the 1988 fires. (2) Landscapes which were undisturbed by the 1988 fires showed no apparent sign of warming-induced greening. This study motivates a systematic investigation of remote-sensing data across western parks to identify ecological vulnerabilities and support the development of climate change vulnerability assessments and adaptation strategies.

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Fire effects in the northern Chihuahuan Desert derived from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper spectral indices

Cited by 5 publications

References 38 publications

Quantifying Postfire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Element Tracers

Quantifying Postfire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Element Tracers

Wildfire Risk and Hazardous Fuel Reduction Treatments Along the US-Mexico Border: A Review of the Science (1986-2019)

Spatio-Temporal Variability in Remotely Sensed Vegetation Greenness Across Yellowstone National Park

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