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.
“Mud Island”
• Poplar Island rises out of the Chesapeake Bay as it’s rebuilt by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers using dredged mud from the Baltimore Harbor which lies about 30
EarthSky Interview with Peter Claggett: Seeing Chesapeake Bay Changes with Landsat
Satellite images show big changes happening to Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the U.S., where freshwater meets the sea. Peter Claggett is a research geographer with the U.S. Geological
ESA Video Explores the Mississippi River Delta with Landsat
Source: ESA Online Videos • A recent European Space Agency (ESA) online video features a Landsat image from October 3, 2011 showing the Mississippi River Delta, where the largest river in
Detecting Detrimental Change in Coral Reefs
Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover’s Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs.
Explaining Beached Kelp
Have you ever walked along a California coast and wondered about all of the kelp washed-up on shore? In winter when storms are more frequent, giant kelp is regularly washed
Satellite Data Shows that Kirtland's Warblers Prefer Forests After Fire
Kirtland’s warblers are an endangered species of lightweight little birds with bright yellow-bellies that summer in North America and winter in the Bahamas. But be it their winter or their