Landsat’s Critical Role in Managing Ecosystems and Biodiversity
Our world is made of complex networks of living things and physical elements that constantly interact and affect each other. Such networks are known as “ecosystems.” Healthy and economically important ecosystems such as temperate forests, wetlands, grasslands, coastal zones, coral reefs, and rainforests all play roles in human life. For example, farm and rangeland ecosystems must be healthy to produce the grains and livestock on which we depend as a nation. Marine ecosystems depend on the health of land ecosystems, because coastal areas provide habitat needed to support the productivity and diversity of aquatic organisms. Landsat has brought valuable capabilities to ecosystem studies. Landsat instruments measure reflected light in visible and infrared wavelengths. Because plants reflect little visible light and a lot of infrared light when they are healthy, the measurement of both types of light simultaneously gives scientists a way to assess plant health and density over a landscape. Measurements are detailed enough while still covering a wide area that ecologists can expand their interpretations of local events and processes, such as an insect infestation in a specific forest, to a regional scale. This helps them to gauge the health of larger ecosystems. Because Landsat data are accurately mapped to reference points on the ground and adjusted for topographic relief, they can be integrated with other geographic data sets and models to explore more complex studies of ecosystems and biodiversity across space and time.
Landsat Pixel Walkers: Getting a Feel for Field Work
Field work conducted in northern Alaska is being used in concert with the Landsat satellite data record in an effort to better understand the impacts of climate change on the Arctic.
Landsat Aids Efforts to Restore Earth’s Wild Lands
Remote sensing measurements using Landsat can help assess the effectiveness of various restoration interventions.
Nearby Forest Loss Predicts Future Deforestation on Protected Lands
A new analysis of protected forests worldwide finds that protected forests are unlikely to be cut down when they are surrounded by intact forests.
California’s Iconic Blue Oak Woodlands Threatened by Hotter, More Frequent Droughts
California’s blue oak woodlands have decreased by more than 1,200 square kilometers.
Landsat Shows Plant Die-Offs in Southern California Driven by Climate Change
Landsat data stretching back 40 years show that vegetation loss is most stark in desert ecosystems already on edge of habitability.
Twenty Years of Bark Beetle Activity Tracked Across Colorado Forests
More than two decades worth of Landsat satellite imagery was used to quantify how beetle outbreaks have impacted high-elevations forests in Colorado, southern Wyoming, and northern New Mexico.
