Landsat’s 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.
USGS Video: Landsat in Action—Studying Phenology with Patrick Hostert
Patrick Hostert from the University of Berlin discusses the value of Landsat’s long archive to studying phenology.
NASA Mapping Hurricane Damage to Everglades and Puerto Rico Forests
Last spring, NASA researchers flew over the Everglades and Puerto Rico to measure how mangroves and rainforests grow and evolve over time, then hurricanes Irma and Maria struck.
Does a Bear Smile in the Woods? Citizen Scientists and Satellites Find Out
NASA satellites are helping Wisconsin develop a clearer picture of its diverse and abundant fauna.
Satellite-based Program to More Accurately Identify Land Cover
A new program uses Landsat satellite data to automatically categorize what’s on the ground more accurately than other land cover products.
Open Digital Mapping For Assessing Carbon Storage in Tropical Peatlands
Tropical peatland can be mapped accurately using freely-available remote sensing data and open source software.
Thousands of Citizen-Scientists Help Researchers Map Kelp Forests
Kelp forests are beautiful but fragile habitats for a wide array of plant and animal species.