OOS 26 - Airborne Remote Sensing for 21st Century Ecology

Thursday, August 11, 2016: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
315, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
Organizer:
Kyla M. Dahlin, Michigan State University
Co-organizers:
Keely L. Roth, University of California Davis; Shawn P. Serbin, Brookhaven National Laboratory; and Leah A. Wasser, NEON, Inc.
Moderator:
Kyla M. Dahlin, Michigan State University
Airborne remote sensing methods are advancing terrestrial ecological research by enabling the rapid, non-destructive, and ‘wall to wall’ mapping of key plant biochemical properties, physiological traits, metabolic function, and biodiversity. These types of data products directly support efforts to map and monitor ecosystem health, air quality, animal habitat, wildfire impacts, and the urban-wildland interface at very high spatial and spectral resolutions and through time. At scales ranging from individual leaves to entire regions, hyperspectral and lidar data provide unique insights into ecosystem structure and function, including plant community composition and structure, the origins of biodiversity, point-source pollution, ecosystem health, and human impacts. Historically, the analysis of airborne data has been limited to a small number of research groups with access to specific instrumentation. Data were thus only available for a few geographic locations, and over short time frames. In recent years, however, a significant increase in publicly available datasets has occurred. These include the opening up of the Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) archive held by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the G-LiGHT platform at NASA Goddard, free access to the Earth Observing 1 satellite (EO-1) which contains the Hyperion hyperspectral sensor, and the National Ecological Observatory Network’s (NEON) Airborne Observation Platform (AOP). Moreover, future satellite missions including the German Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) and NASA’s next generation Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) will further increase data availability. At the same time, instrumentation costs, size, and weights have steadily dropped in recent years enabling relatively low cost deployments of hyperspectral sensors from towers, balloons, and unmanned aerial systems (UASs). This session will present specific ways in which piloted airborne remote sensing platforms, primarily collecting hyperspectral and LiDAR data, have been used to support ecological research. It will highlight a breadth of applications that explore important and challenging ecological research questions across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Finally, it will facilitate a dynamic and engaging conversation between field ecologists, remote sensing scientists, and environmental practitioners about both current airborne remote sensing applications and the future of these data to support ecology. With this session, we hope to broaden interest in new airborne remote sensing applications as well as illustrate how far the field has come since its first use in ecology over three decades ago.
8:00 AM
 Exploring drivers of spectral variation at landscape scale: Structure, composition and function
Keely L. Roth, University of California Davis; Margarita Huesca, University of California Davis; Angeles Casas, University of California Davis; Susan L. Ustin, University of California Davis
8:20 AM
 Integrated assessment of biodiversity and productivity using airborne imaging spectrometry
John A. Gamon, University of Alberta; Ran Wang, University of Alberta
8:40 AM
 Mapping vegetation of the Sacramento Delta with AVIRIS-ng
Susan Ustin, Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote Sensing; Shruti Khanna, University of California, Davis; Joaquim Bellvert, University of California Davis; Kristen D. Shapiro, University of California, Davis
9:00 AM
 Beyond mapping: Using ecosystem traits derived from imaging spectroscopy to understand ecosystem function
Aditya Singh, University of Wisconsin - Madison; John J. Couture, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Philip A. Townsend, University of Wisconsin-Madison
9:20 AM
 NEON remote sensing data products - what's available and supporting community use
Leah A. Wasser, NEON, Inc.; David Hulslander, NEON; Tristan Goulden, NEON; Cody Flagg, NEON
9:40 AM
9:50 AM
 An airborne perspective on forest edge effects and patterns of native forests and pine plantations in the southeastern U.S
Matthew E. Fagan, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Douglas C. Morton, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Bruce Cook, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Jeff G. Masek, NASA; Feng Zhao, University of Maryland, College Park; Chengquan Huang, University of Maryland, College Park; Ross F. Nelson, NASA
10:10 AM
 Using imaging spectroscopy to assess geomorphically driven gradients in canopy traits within a tropical terrace landscape
K. Dana Chadwick, Stanford University; Gregory P. Asner, Carnegie Institution for Science
10:30 AM
 Changes in forest structure from fires on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula measured using airborne lidar
Michael Alonzo, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Bruce Cook, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Douglas C. Morton, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Hans-Erik Andersen, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station; Chad Babcock, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington
10:50 AM
 Towards remotely sensed forest dynamics to understand forest change and its consequences for the atmosphere
Scott C. Stark, Michigan State University; Marcos Longo, Embrapa Informática Agropecuária; Scott R. Saleska, University of Arizona; Abigail L. S. Swann, University of Washington; David D. Breshears, University of Arizona; Juan Camilo Villegas, University of Arizona / Universidad de Antioquia; Jin Wu, Brookhaven National Laboratory; Juliana Schietti, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA)