Research

19 pages, 6687 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Climate and Management Practices Jointly Control Vegetation Phenology in Native and Introduced Prairie Pastures

by Yuting Zhou, Shengfang Ma, Pradeep Wagle and Prasanna H. Gowda

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(10), 2529; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15102529 - 11 May 2023

Viewed by 1747

Climate, human disturbances, and management practices jointly control the spatial and temporal patterns of land surface phenology. However, most studies solely focus on analyzing the climatic controls on the inter-annual variability and trends in vegetation phenology. Investigating the main and interacting effects of [...] Read more.

Climate, human disturbances, and management practices jointly control the spatial and temporal patterns of land surface phenology. However, most studies solely focus on analyzing the climatic controls on the inter-annual variability and trends in vegetation phenology. Investigating the main and interacting effects of management practices and climate might be crucial in determining vegetation phenology and productivity. This study examined the impacts of climate and management practices on vegetation phenology and productivity in adjacent native and introduced prairie pastures, which have detailed long-term management records, by combining climate, management, and satellite remote sensing data (e.g., Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Landsat). Modeled gross primary production (GPP) using vegetation photosynthesis model (VPM) was also included to investigate the dynamics of productivity. When comparing the impacts of the same management practices on different pastures, we used paired comparison, namely, comparing the native and introduced prairies side by side in the same year. The interactions of management practices and climate were investigated through comparing years with similar management but different climate (e.g., years with rainfall or not following baling events) in the same pasture. Results showed that air temperature (Ta) was an important factor in determining the start of the season (SOS) and the length of the season (LOS). Total rainfall (RF) during the annual growing season (AGS, derived from vegetation indices (VIs)) had the largest explanatory power (R² = 0.53) in explaining the variations in the seasonal sums of VIs. The variations in GPP were better explained by RF (R² = 0.43) than Ta (R² = 0.14). Using the thermal growing season (March–October) or AGS climate factors did not show large differences in determining the relationships between phenology, GPP, and climate factors. Drought shortened the LOS and decreased GPP. In terms of management practices, grazing generally reduced the VIs and burning induced early greening-up and enhanced vegetation growth. Drought plus other management practices (e.g., grazing or baling) greatly affected vegetation phenology and suppressed GPP. The negative impacts (i.e., removal of biomass) of grazing on vegetation was compensated by enhanced vegetation growth after good RF. This study demonstrated that the interactions of climate and management practices could be positive (burning plus baling in a good RF year) or negative (grazing/baling plus drought), and can significantly affect vegetation phenology and production. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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20 pages, 12016 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spectral Characteristics of the Dynamic World Land Cover Classification

by Christopher Small and Daniel Sousa

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(3), 575; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15030575 - 18 Jan 2023

Viewed by 3271

Abstract

The Dynamic World product is a discrete land cover classification of Sentinel 2 reflectance imagery that is global in extent, retrospective to 2015, and updated continuously in near real time. The classifier is trained on a stratified random sample of 20,000 hand-labeled 5 [...] Read more.

The Dynamic World product is a discrete land cover classification of Sentinel 2 reflectance imagery that is global in extent, retrospective to 2015, and updated continuously in near real time. The classifier is trained on a stratified random sample of 20,000 hand-labeled 5 × 5 km Sentinel 2 tiles spanning 14 biomes globally. Since the training data are based on visual interpretation of image composites by both expert and non-expert annotators, without explicit spectral properties specified in the class definitions, the spectral characteristics of the classes are not obvious. The objective of this study is to quantify the physical distinctions among the land cover classes by characterizing the spectral properties of the range of reflectance present within each of the Dynamic World classes over a variety of landscapes. This is achieved by comparing both the eight-class probability feature space (excluding snow) and the maximum probability class assignment (label) distributions to continuous land cover fraction estimates derived from a globally standardized spectral mixture model. Standardized substrate, vegetation, and dark (SVD) endmembers are used to unmix nine Sentinel 2 reflectance tiles from nine spectral diversity hotspots for comparison between the SVD land cover fraction continua and the Dynamic World class probability continua and class assignments. The variance partition for the class probability feature spaces indicates that eight of these nine hotspots are effectively five-dimensional to 95% of variance. Class probability feature spaces of the hotspots all show a tetrahedral form with probability continua spanning multiple classes. Comparison of SVD land cover fraction distributions with maximum probability class assignments (labels) and probability feature space distributions reveal a clear distinction between (1) physically and spectrally heterogeneous biomes characterized by continuous gradations in vegetation density, substrate albedo, and structural shadow fractions, and (2) more homogeneous biomes characterized by closed canopy vegetation (forest) or negligible vegetation cover (e.g., desert, water). Due to the ubiquity of spectrally heterogeneous biomes worldwide, the class probability feature space adds considerable value to the Dynamic World maximum probability class labels by offering users the opportunity to depict inherently gradational heterogeneous landscapes otherwise not generally offered with other discrete thematic classifications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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20 pages, 12825 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Sentinel 2 MSI Spectral Mixing Space

by Christopher Small and Daniel Sousa

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(22), 5748; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14225748 - 14 Nov 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1682

Abstract

A composite spectral feature space is used to characterize the spectral mixing properties of Sentinel 2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI) spectra over a wide diversity of landscapes. Characterizing the linearity of spectral mixing and identifying bounding spectral endmembers allows the Substrate Vegetation Dark (SVD) [...] Read more.

A composite spectral feature space is used to characterize the spectral mixing properties of Sentinel 2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI) spectra over a wide diversity of landscapes. Characterizing the linearity of spectral mixing and identifying bounding spectral endmembers allows the Substrate Vegetation Dark (SVD) spectral mixture model previously developed for the Landsat and MODIS sensors to be extended to the Sentinel 2 MSI sensors. The utility of the SVD model is its ability to represent a wide variety of landscapes in terms of the areal abundance of their most spectrally and physically distinct components. Combining the benefits of location-specific spectral mixture models with standardized spectral indices, the physically based SVD model offers simplicity, consistency, inclusivity and applicability for a wide variety of land cover mapping applications. In this study, a set of 110 image tiles compiled from spectral diversity hotspots worldwide provide a basis for this characterization, and for identification of spectral endmembers that span the feature space. The resulting spectral mixing space of these 13,000,000,000 spectra is effectively 3D, with 99% of variance in 3 low order principal component dimensions. Four physically distinct spectral mixing continua are identified: Snow:Firn:Ice, Reef:Water, Evaporite:Water and Substrate:Vegetation:Dark (water or shadow). The first 3 continua exhibit complex nonlinearities, but the geographically dominant Substrate:Vegetation:Dark (SVD) continuum is conspicuous in the linearity of its spectral mixing. Bounding endmember spectra are identified for the SVD continuum. In a subset of 80 landscapes, excluding the 3 nonlinear mixing continua (reefs, evaporites, cryosphere), a 3 endmember (SVD) linear mixture model produces endmember fraction estimates that represent 99% of modeled spectra with <6% RMS misfit. Two sets of SVD endmembers are identified for the Sentinel 2 MSI sensors, allowing Sentinel 2 spectra to be unmixed globally and compared across time and space. In light of the apparent disparity between the 11D spectral feature space and the statistically 3D spectral mixing space, the relative contribution of 11 Sentinel 2 MSI spectral bands to the information content of this space is quantified using both parametric (Pearson Correlation) and nonparametric (Mutual Information) metrics. Comparison of linear (principal component) and nonlinear (Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection) projections of the SVD mixing space reveal both physically interpretable spectral mixing continua and geographically distinct spectral properties not resolved in the linear projection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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32 pages, 9932 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Joint Characterization of Sentinel-2 Reflectance: Insights from Manifold Learning

by Daniel Sousa and Christopher Small

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(22), 5688; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14225688 - 10 Nov 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1880

Abstract

Most applications of multispectral imaging are explicitly or implicitly dependent on the dimensionality and topology of the spectral mixing space. Mixing space characterization refers to the identification of salient properties of the set of pixel reflectance spectra comprising an image (or compilation of [...] Read more.

Most applications of multispectral imaging are explicitly or implicitly dependent on the dimensionality and topology of the spectral mixing space. Mixing space characterization refers to the identification of salient properties of the set of pixel reflectance spectra comprising an image (or compilation of images). The underlying premise is that this set of spectra may be described as a low dimensional manifold embedded in a high dimensional vector space. Traditional mixing space characterization uses the linear dimensionality reduction offered by Principal Component Analysis to find projections of pixel spectra onto orthogonal linear subspaces, prioritized by variance. Here, we consider the potential for recent advances in nonlinear dimensionality reduction (specifically, manifold learning) to contribute additional useful information for multispectral mixing space characterization. We integrate linear and nonlinear methods through a novel approach called Joint Characterization (JC). JC is comprised of two components. First, spectral mixture analysis (SMA) linearly projects the high-dimensional reflectance vectors onto a 2D subspace comprising the primary mixing continuum of substrates, vegetation, and dark features (e.g., shadow and water). Second, manifold learning nonlinearly maps the high-dimensional reflectance vectors into a low-D embedding space while preserving manifold topology. The SMA output is physically interpretable in terms of material abundances. The manifold learning output is not generally physically interpretable, but more faithfully preserves high dimensional connectivity and clustering within the mixing space. Used together, the strengths of SMA may compensate for the limitations of manifold learning, and vice versa. Here, we illustrate JC through application to thematic compilations of 90 Sentinel-2 reflectance images selected from a diverse set of biomes and land cover categories. Specifically, we use globally standardized Substrate, Vegetation, and Dark (S, V, D) endmembers (EMs) for SMA, and Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) for manifold learning. The value of each (SVD and UMAP) model is illustrated, both separately and jointly. JC is shown to successfully characterize both continuous gradations (spectral mixing trends) and discrete clusters (land cover class distinctions) within the spectral mixing space of each land cover category. These features are not clearly identifiable from SVD fractions alone, and not physically interpretable from UMAP alone. Implications are discussed for the design of models which can reliably extract and explainably use high-dimensional spectral information in spatially mixed pixels—a principal challenge in optical remote sensing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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26 pages, 23434 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Accuracy Assessment of Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI) and Chlorophyll Carotenoid Index (CCI) Derived from GCOM-C/SGLI with In Situ Data

by Taiga Sasagawa, Tomoko Kawaguchi Akitsu, Reiko Ide, Kentaro Takagi, Satoru Takanashi, Tatsuro Nakaji and Kenlo Nishida Nasahara

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(21), 5352; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14215352 - 26 Oct 2022

Viewed by 2663

Abstract

The photochemical reflectance index (PRI) and the chlorophyll carotenoid index (CCI) are carotenoid-sensitive vegetation indices, which can monitor vegetation’s photosynthetic activities. One unique satellite named “Global Change Observation Mission-Climate (GCOM-C)” is equipped with a sensor, “Second Generation Global Imager (SGLI)”, which has the [...] Read more.

The photochemical reflectance index (PRI) and the chlorophyll carotenoid index (CCI) are carotenoid-sensitive vegetation indices, which can monitor vegetation’s photosynthetic activities. One unique satellite named “Global Change Observation Mission-Climate (GCOM-C)” is equipped with a sensor, “Second Generation Global Imager (SGLI)”, which has the potential to frequently and simultaneously observe PRI and CCI over a wide swath. However, the observation accuracy of PRI and CCI derived from GCOM-C/SGLI remains unclear in forests. Thus, we demonstrated their accuracy assessment by comparing them with in situ data. We collected in situ spectral irradiance data at four forest sites in Japan for three years. We statistically compared satellite PRI with in situ PRI, and satellite CCI with in situ CCI. From the obtained results, the satellite PRI showed poor agreement (the best:

r = 0.294

(

p < 0.05

)) and the satellite CCI showed good agreement (the best:

r = 0.911

(

p < 0.001

)). The greater agreement of satellite CCI is possibly because satellite CCI contained fewer outliers and satellite CCI was more resistant to small noise, compared to satellite PRI. Our results suggest that the satellite CCI is more suitable for practical use than the satellite PRI with the latest version (version 3) of GCOM-C/SGLI’s products. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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17 pages, 6372 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of NPV on the Spectral Parameters in the Yellow-Edge, Red-Edge and NIR Shoulder Wavelength Regions in Grasslands

by Dandan Xu, Yanqing Liu, Weixin Xu and Xulin Guo

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(13), 3031; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14133031 - 24 Jun 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1743

Abstract

Even though research has shown that the spectral parameters of yellow-edge, red-edge and NIR (near-infrared) shoulder wavelength regions are able to estimate green cover and leaf area index (LAI), a large amount of dead materials in grasslands challenges the accuracy of their estimation [...] Read more.

Even though research has shown that the spectral parameters of yellow-edge, red-edge and NIR (near-infrared) shoulder wavelength regions are able to estimate green cover and leaf area index (LAI), a large amount of dead materials in grasslands challenges the accuracy of their estimation using hyperspectral remote sensing. However, the exact impact of dead vegetation cover on these spectral parameters remains unclear. Therefore, we evaluated the influences of dead materials on the spectral parameters in the wavelength regions of yellow-edge, red-edge and NIR shoulder by comparing normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVI) including the common red valley at 670 nm and NDVI using the red valley extracted by a new statistical method. This method, based on the concept of segmented linear regression, was developed to extract the spectral parameters and calculate NDVI automatically from the hyper-spectra. To fully understand the impact of dead cover on the spectral parameters (i.e., consider full coverage combinations of green vegetation, dead materials and bare soil), both in situ measured and simulated hyper-spectra were analyzed. The impact of dead cover on LAI estimation by those spectral parameters and NDVI were also evaluated. The results show that: (i) without considering the influence of bare soil, dead materials decreases the slope of red-edge, the slope of NIR shoulder and NDVI, while dead materials increases the slope of yellow-edge; (ii) the spectral characteristics of red valley disappear when dead cover exceeds 67%; (iii) large amount of dead materials also result in a blue shift of the red-edge position; (iv) accurate extraction of the red valley position enhances LAI estimation and reduces the influences of dead materials using hyperspectral NDVI; (v) the accuracy of LAI estimation using the slope of yellow-edge, the slope of red-edge, red-edge position and NDVI significantly drops when dead cover exceeds 72.3–74.5% (variation among indices). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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16 pages, 2509 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Predicting Dynamics of the Potential Breeding Habitat of Larus saundersi by MaxEnt Model under Changing Land-Use Conditions in Wetland Nature Reserve of Liaohe Estuary, China

by Yu Chang, Chang Chang, Yuxiang Li, Miao Liu, Jiujun Lv and Yuanman Hu

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(3), 552; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14030552 - 24 Jan 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3114

Abstract

Identifying waterfowl habitat suitability under changing environments, especially land-use change, is crucial to make waterfowl habitat conservation planning. We took Wetland Nature Reserve of Liaohe Estuary, the largest breeding area of Saunders’s Gulls (Larus saundersi) in the world, as our study [...] Read more.

Identifying waterfowl habitat suitability under changing environments, especially land-use change, is crucial to make waterfowl habitat conservation planning. We took Wetland Nature Reserve of Liaohe Estuary, the largest breeding area of Saunders’s Gulls (Larus saundersi) in the world, as our study area, generated land-use-type maps through interpretation of satellite images from four different years (1988, 2000, 2009, 2017), and predicted the potential breeding habitat of Saunders’s Gulls by MaxEnt model based on the land-use map, along with other environmental variables (NDVI, distance to roads and artificial facilities, distance to rivers and water bodies, DEM and distance to shoreline) for the four years, respectively. The models were evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC). We analyzed the changes of the breeding habitat from 1988 to 2017 and utilized RDA to explore the relationships among the changes of suitable habitat of Larus saundersi and the dynamics of land uses. Our results showed that the most suitable habitat decreased by 1286.46 ha during 1988-2009 and increased by 363.51 ha from 2009 to 2017. The suitable habitat decreased by 582.48 ha from 1988 to 2009 and then increased to 1848.96 ha in 2017, while the unsuitable habitat increased by 2793.87 ha during 1988–2009 and then decreased by 178.83 ha from 2009 to 2017. We also found that land use, distance to the coastline, distance to artificial facilities, distance to rivers, distance to roads, and NDVI had certain degrees of impact on the Larus saundersi distribution. The contribution of land use ranged from 16.4% to 40.3%, distance to coastline from 34.7% to 48.0%, distance to artificial facilities from 5.9% to 11.1%, distance to rivers from 5.5% to 11.0%, distance to roads from 3.9% to 12.5%, and NDVI from 0.3% to 6.3%. The change in suitable habitat of Larus saundersi has a positive relationship with the change of seepweed marsh. Human-induced changes in seepweed marsh and coastline position are the main factors influencing the potential breeding habitat of Saunders’s Gulls. We suggest strict conservation of seepweed marsh and implementation of habitat management practices to better protect Saunders’ Gull’s breeding habitat. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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29 pages, 7988 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Combining SAR and Optical Earth Observation with Hydraulic Simulation for Flood Mapping and Impact Assessment

by Emmanouil Psomiadis, Michalis Diakakis and Konstantinos X. Soulis

Remote Sens. 2020, 12(23), 3980; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12233980 - 04 Dec 2020

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4815

Abstract

Timely mapping, measuring and impact assessment of flood events are crucial for the coordination of flood relief efforts and the elaboration of flood management and risk mitigation plans. However, this task is often challenging and time consuming with traditional land-based techniques. In this [...] Read more.

Timely mapping, measuring and impact assessment of flood events are crucial for the coordination of flood relief efforts and the elaboration of flood management and risk mitigation plans. However, this task is often challenging and time consuming with traditional land-based techniques. In this study, Sentinel-1 radar and Landsat images were utilized in collaboration with hydraulic modelling to obtain flood characteristics and land use/cover (LULC), and to assess flood impact in agricultural areas. Furthermore, indirect estimation of the recurrence interval of a flood event in a poorly gauged catchment was attempted by combining remote sensing (RS) and hydraulic modelling. To this end, a major flood event that occurred in Sperchios river catchment, in Central Greece, which is characterized by extensive farming activity was used as a case study. The synergistic usage of multitemporal RS products and hydraulic modelling has allowed the estimation of flood characteristics, such as extent, inundation depth, peak discharge, recurrence interval and inundation duration, providing valuable information for flood impact estimation and the future examination of flood hazard in poorly gauged basins. The capabilities of the ESA Sentinel-1 mission, which provides improved spatial and temporal analysis, allowing thus the mapping of the extent and temporal dynamics of flood events more accurately and independently from the weather conditions, were also highlighted. Both radar and optical data processing methods, i.e., thresholding, image differencing and water index calculation, provided similar and satisfactory results. Conclusively, multitemporal RS data and hydraulic modelling, with the selected techniques, can provide timely and useful flood observations during and right after flood disasters, applicable in a large part of the world where instrumental hydrological data are scarce and when an apace survey of the condition and information about temporal dynamics in the influenced region is crucial. However, future missions that will reduce further revisiting times will be valuable in this endeavor. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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21 pages, 8855 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modeling the Effects of Global and Diffuse Radiation on Terrestrial Gross Primary Productivity in China Based on a Two-Leaf Light Use Efficiency Model

by Yanlian Zhou, Xiaocui Wu, Weimin Ju, Leiming Zhang, Zhi Chen, Wei He, Yibo Liu and Yang Shen

Remote Sens. 2020, 12(20), 3355; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12203355 - 14 Oct 2020

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2957

Abstract

Solar radiation significantly affects terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP). However, the relationship between GPP and solar radiation is nonlinear because it is affected by diffuse radiation. Solar radiation has undergone a shift from darker to brighter values over the past 30 years in [...] Read more.

Solar radiation significantly affects terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP). However, the relationship between GPP and solar radiation is nonlinear because it is affected by diffuse radiation. Solar radiation has undergone a shift from darker to brighter values over the past 30 years in China. However, the effects on GPP of variation in solar radiation because of changes in diffuse radiation are unclear. In this study, national global radiation in conjunction with other meteorological data and remotely sensed data were used as input into a two-leaf light use efficiency model (TL-LUE) that simulated GPP separately for sunlit and shaded leaves for the period from 1981 to 2012. The results showed that the nationwide annual global radiation experienced a significant reduction (2.18 MJ m⁻² y⁻¹; p < 0.05) from 1981 to 2012, decreasing by 1.3% over this 32-year interval. However, the nationwide annual diffuse radiation increased significantly (p < 0.05). The reduction in global radiation from 1981 to 2012 decreased the average annual GPP of terrestrial ecosystems in China by 0.09 Pg C y⁻¹, whereas the gain in diffuse radiation from 1981 to 2012 increased the average annual GPP in China by about 50%. Therefore, the increase in canopy light use efficiency under higher diffuse radiation only partially offsets the loss of GPP caused by lower global radiation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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21 pages, 4418 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Use of UAS Multispectral Imagery at Different Physiological Stages for Yield Prediction and Input Resource Optimization in Corn

by Razieh Barzin, Rohit Pathak, Hossein Lotfi, Jac Varco and Ganesh C. Bora

Remote Sens. 2020, 12(15), 2392; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12152392 - 26 Jul 2020

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 4715

Abstract

Changes in spatial and temporal variability in yield estimation are detectable through plant biophysical characteristics observed at different phenological development stages of corn. A multispectral red-edge sensor mounted on an Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) can provide spatial and temporal information with high resolution. [...] Read more.

Changes in spatial and temporal variability in yield estimation are detectable through plant biophysical characteristics observed at different phenological development stages of corn. A multispectral red-edge sensor mounted on an Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) can provide spatial and temporal information with high resolution. Spectral analysis of UAS acquired spatiotemporal images can be used to develop a statistical model to predict yield based on different phenological stages. Identifying critical vegetation indices (VIs) and significant spectral information could lead to increased yield prediction accuracy. The objective of this study was to develop a yield prediction model at specific phenological stages using spectral data obtained from a corn field. The available spectral bands (red, blue, green, near infrared (NIR), and red-edge) were used to analyze 26 different VIs. The spectral information was collected from a cornfield at Mississippi State University using a MicaSense multispectral red-edge sensor, mounted on a UAS. In this research, a new empirical method used to reduce the effects of bare soil pixels in acquired images was introduced. The experimental design was a randomized complete block that consisted of 16 blocks with 12 rows of corn planted in each block. Four treatments of nitrogen (N) including 0, 90, 180, and 270 kg/ha were applied randomly. Random forest was utilized as a feature selection method to choose the best combination of variables for different stages. Multiple linear regression and gradient boosting decision trees were used to develop yield prediction models for each specific phenological stage by utilizing the most effective variables at each stage. At the V3 (3 leaves with visible leaf collar) and V4-5 (4-5 leaves with visible leaf collar) stages, the Optimized Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (OSAVI) and Simplified Canopy Chlorophyll Content Index (SCCCI) were the single dominant variables in the yield predicting models, respectively. A combination of the Green Atmospherically Resistant Index (GARI), Normalized Difference Red-Edge (NDRE), and green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI) at V6-7, SCCCI, and Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) at V10,11, and SCCCI, Green Leaf Index (GLI), and Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index (VARI_green) at tasseling stage (VT) were the best indices for predicting grain yield of corn. The prediction models at V10 and VT had the greatest accuracy with a coefficient of determination of 0.90 and 0.93, respectively. Moreover, the SCCCI as a combined index seemed to be the most proper index for predicting yield at most of the phenological stages. As corn development progressed, the models predicted final grain yield more accurately. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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18 pages, 2290 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Response of Tallgrass Prairie to Management in the U.S. Southern Great Plains: Site Descriptions, Management Practices, and Eddy Covariance Instrumentation for a Long-Term Experiment

by Pradeep Wagle, Prasanna H. Gowda, Brian K. Northup, Patrick J. Starks and James P. S. Neel

Remote Sens. 2019, 11(17), 1988; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11171988 - 23 Aug 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3821

Abstract

Understanding the consequences of different management practices on vegetation phenology, forage production and quality, plant and microbial species composition, greenhouse gas emissions, and water budgets in tallgrass prairie systems is vital to identify best management practices. As part of the Southern Plains Long-Term [...] Read more.

Understanding the consequences of different management practices on vegetation phenology, forage production and quality, plant and microbial species composition, greenhouse gas emissions, and water budgets in tallgrass prairie systems is vital to identify best management practices. As part of the Southern Plains Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (SP-LTAR) grassland study, a long-term integrated Grassland-LivestOck Burning Experiment (iGLOBE) has been established with a cluster of six eddy covariance (EC) systems on differently managed (i.e., different burning and grazing regimes) native tallgrass prairie systems located in different landscape positions. The purpose of this paper is to describe this long-term experiment, report preliminary results on the responses of differently managed tallgrass prairies under variable climates using satellite remote sensing and EC data, and present future research directions. In general, vegetation greened-up and peaked early, and produced greater forage yields in burned years. However, drought impacts were greater in burned sites due to reductions in soil water availability by burning. The impact of grazing on vegetation phenology was confounded by several factors (e.g., cattle size, stocking rate, precipitation). Moreover, prairie systems located in different landscapes responded differently, especially in dry years due to differences in water availability. The strong correspondence between vegetation phenology and eddy fluxes was evidenced by strong linear relationships of a greenness index (i.e., enhanced vegetation index) with evapotranspiration and gross primary production. Results indicate that impacts of climate and management practices on vegetation phenology may profoundly impact carbon and water budgets of tallgrass prairie. Interacting effects of multiple management practices and inter-annual climatic variability on the responses of tallgrass prairie highlight the necessity of establishing an innovative and comprehensive long-term experiment to address inconsistent responses of tallgrass prairie to different intensities, frequencies, timing, and duration of management practices, and to identify best management practices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Section Biogeosciences Remote Sensing)

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