HR: 1340h
AN: B33D-1074    [Abstracts]
TI: Post-Fire Regeneration Assessment in Yosemite National Park
AU: * Syfert, M
EM: mindy_syfert@hotmail.com
AF: DEVELOP Program, NASA Ames Research Center Mail Stop 239-20, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AU: Rudy, J
EM: J_Rudy154@hotmail.com
AF: DEVELOP Program, NASA Ames Research Center Mail Stop 239-20, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AU: Anderson, L
EM: linds84@earthlink.net
AF: DEVELOP Program, NASA Ames Research Center Mail Stop 239-20, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AU: Cleve, C
EM: ctcleve@mail.arc.nasa.gov
AF: DEVELOP Program, NASA Ames Research Center Mail Stop 239-20, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AU: Jenkins, J
EM: jenkins3@u.washington.edu
AF: DEVELOP Program, NASA Ames Research Center Mail Stop 239-20, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AU: Schmidt, C
EM: cschmidt@mail.arc.nasa.gov
AF: DEVELOP Program, NASA Ames Research Center Mail Stop 239-20, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AU: Skiles, J W
EM: joseph.w.skiles@nasa.gov
AF: DEVELOP Program, NASA Ames Research Center Mail Stop 239-20, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AB: Assessing ecological change is increasingly important to Yosemite National Park (YNP) managers. The park experienced some of its largest fires in recent history, fires that significantly changed its ecosystems and landscapes. Change detection techniques were utilized in assessing post-fire regeneration in YNP for fires that occurred in 1988, 1990, and 1996. Change patterns were detected with a time-series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) images derived from Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery. The commonly known change detection method of image differencing was applied to the transformed images to create two-year interval change maps categorized by classes of increasing and decreasing standard deviations to distinguish significant changes. In addition, a less commonly known method, the RGB-NDVI and RGB-NDMI unsupervised classifications were implemented to create composite change maps from seven image dates. Fieldwork was conducted at the three study areas to document present forest stand characteristics. Remote sensing techniques in conjunction with fieldwork identified distinct patterns of regeneration in the post-fire areas. Some of the most distinctive patterns are primarily linked with Ceanothus, an early successional shrub species. This study will provide natural resource managers at Yosemite National Park with data to aid in long-term fire management plans.
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
DE: 0476 Plant ecology (1851)
DE: 0480 Remote sensing
DE: 0498 General or miscellaneous
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005