Remote Soil Moisture Measurement from Drone-Borne Reflectance Spectroscopy: Applications to Hydroperiod Measurement in Desert Playas

Levy, Joseph S.; Johnson, J.

doi:10.3390/rs13051035

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Water fluxes from hillslopes to streams are often controlled by water tracks, zero‐order geomorphic features that concentrate surface and subsurface flow paths connecting upland and lowland water fluxes (Tananaev, 2022). Water in water tracks flows within the active layer above the permafrost table, concentrating water in the wetter landscapes of Alaska (Trochim et al., 2016), the polar deserts in the Canadian High Arctic (Paquette et al., 2017), and the dry valleys of Antarctica (Levy & Johnson, 2021; Levy et al., 2011). Water tracks are saturated stripes or bands, often curvilinear, and are primarily defined by differential saturation and ecological assemblages compared to the surrounding hillslope (Curasi et al., 2016; Levy et al., 2011; Paquette et al., 2017; Trochim et al., 2016).…”

Section: Background: Hillslope‐channel Interactions In Permafrost Lan...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Hillslope‐Channel Transitions and the Role of Water Tracks in a Changing Permafrost Landscape

Del Vecchio,

Zwieback,

Rowland

et al. 2023

JGR Earth Surface

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The Arctic is experiencing rapid climate change, and the effect on hydrologic processes and resulting geomorphic changes to hillslopes and channels is unclear because we lack quantitative models and theory for rapid changes resulting from thawing permafrost. The presence of permafrost modulates water flow and the stability of soil‐mantled slopes, implying there should be a signature of permafrost processes, including warming‐driven disturbance, in channel network extent. To inform understanding of hillslope‐channel dynamics under changing climates, we examined soil‐mantled hillslopes within a ∼300 km2 area of the Seward Peninsula, western Alaska, where discontinuous permafrost is particularly susceptible to thaw and rapid landscape change. In this study we pair high‐resolution topographic and satellite data to multi‐annual observations of InSAR‐derived surface displacement over a five‐year period to quantify spatial variations in topographic change across an upland landscape. We find that neither basin slope nor the presence of knickzones controls the magnitude of recent surface displacements within the study basin, as may be expected under conceptual models of temperate hillslope evolution. Rather, the highest displacement magnitudes tended to occur at the broad hillslope‐channel transition zone. In this study area this zone is occupied by water tracks which are zero‐order ecogeomorphic features that concentrate surface and subsurface flow paths. Our results suggest that water tracks, which appear to occupy hillslope positions between saturation and incision thresholds, are vulnerable to warming‐induced subsidence and incision. We hypothesize that gullying within water tracks to outpace infilling by hillslope processes, resulting in growth of the channel network under future warming.

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Section: Background: Hillslope‐channel Interactions In Permafrost Lan...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Hillslope‐Channel Transitions and the Role of Water Tracks in a Changing Permafrost Landscape

Del Vecchio,

Zwieback,

Rowland

et al. 2023

JGR Earth Surface

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“…The accuracy of these methods continues to improve with advances in image analytical techniques that provide information on surface water presence and area at a subpixel level (Halabisky et al., 2018). Unmanned aerial systems (i.e., drones) can also provide high‐resolution spatial and temporal data, particularly for specific regions (e.g., Levy & Johnson, 2021). Despite these promising advances, the temporal grain remains coarse for most remotely sensed data sets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature Loggers Capture Intraregional Variation of Inundation Timing for Intermittent Ponds

Gendreau

Buxton

Moore

et al. 2021

Water Resources Research

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Specific components of hydroperiod, such as inundation timing or stability, influence species density and richness (Florencio et al., 2020;Kneitel, 2014) and may play a key role in determining reproductive success of aquatic organisms such as amphibians (Paton & Crouch III, 2002).The wide-ranging effects of hydroperiod on individual organisms, populations, and ecological communities necessitate tools to enable fine-scale measurement and monitoring of the timing, frequency, and duration of hydroperiod events in temporary lentic waters. Such tools will play an important role in predicting how hydroperiods may change in response to future water use and climate scenarios-and how organisms that rely on these habitats will fare. Satellite remote sensing tools such as Synthetic Aperture Radar (Bourgeau-

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“…Fuel moisture is a critical variable for wildland fire management but is costly and inefficient to sample with traditional methods. Drone-based techniques using spectral reflectance values are being developed [25,81] to estimate moisture levels at a fine spatial scale, but the use of active sensors such as lidar sensors can present advantages over the use of passive sensors. Specifically, lidar sensors can penetrate through small gaps in forest cover to derive measurements for fine-scale terrain mapping.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Forest Litter Fuel Moisture Content with Terrestrial Laser Scanning

et al. 2023

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Electromagnetic radiation at 1550 nm is highly absorbed by water and offers a novel way to collect fuel moisture data, along with 3D structures of wildland fuels/vegetation, using lidar. Two terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) units (FARO s350 (phase shift, PS) and RIEGL vz-2000 (time of flight, TOF)) were assessed in a series of laboratory experiments to determine if lidar can be used to estimate the moisture content of dead forest litter. Samples consisted of two control materials, the angle and position of which could be manipulated (pine boards and cheesecloth), and four single-species forest litter types (Douglas-fir needles, ponderosa pine needles, longleaf pine needles, and southern red oak leaves). Sixteen sample trays of each material were soaked overnight, then allowed to air dry with scanning taking place at 1 h, 2 h, 4 h, 8 h, 12 h, and then in 12 h increments until the samples reached equilibrium moisture content with the ambient relative humidity. The samples were then oven-dried for a final scanning and weighing. The spectral reflectance values of each material were also recorded over the same drying intervals using a field spectrometer. There was a strong correlation between the intensity and standard deviation of intensity per sample tray and the moisture content of the dead leaf litter. A multiple linear regression model with a break at 100% gravimetric moisture content produced the best model with R2 values as high as 0.97. This strong relationship was observed with both the TOF and PS lidar units. At fuel moisture contents greater than 100% gravimetric water content, the correlation between the pulse intensity values recorded by both scanners and the fuel moisture content was the strongest. The relationship deteriorated with distance, with the TOF scanner maintaining a stronger relationship at distance than the PS scanner. Our results demonstrate that lidar can be used to detect and quantify fuel moisture across a range of forest litter types. Based on our findings, lidar may be used to quantify fuel moisture levels in near real-time and could be used to create spatial maps of wildland fuel moisture content.

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Remote Soil Moisture Measurement from Drone-Borne Reflectance Spectroscopy: Applications to Hydroperiod Measurement in Desert Playas

Cited by 9 publications

References 39 publications

Hillslope‐Channel Transitions and the Role of Water Tracks in a Changing Permafrost Landscape

Hillslope‐Channel Transitions and the Role of Water Tracks in a Changing Permafrost Landscape

Temperature Loggers Capture Intraregional Variation of Inundation Timing for Intermittent Ponds

Quantifying Forest Litter Fuel Moisture Content with Terrestrial Laser Scanning

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