Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data

Patrick Shawn Sawyer; Haroon Stephen

doi:doi:10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12

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Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data

Patrick Shawn Sawyer, Haroon Stephen

Published in Earth Sciences (Volume 3, Issue 6)

Received: 16 December 2014 Accepted: 29 December 2014 Published: 6 January 2015

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Abstract

This paper presents a time series study of an alpine ecosystem in the Big Pine Creek watershed in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain’s. Seventy five sample sites along a 2,500 meter elevation gradient are analyzed for trends in surface reflectance based on vegetative density using USGS data derived from Landsat imagery for the 1984 through 2013 time frame. Three vegetative indices, NDVI, SAVI, and MSAVI2 as well as the Tasseled Cap transformations for Brightness (TCB), greenness (TCG), and wetness (TCW) are explored. We found that over the time period of the study, significant increases in vegetation are occurring at densely vegetated sites at almost all elevations within the watershed while less change and even some significant declines in vegetation are seen in moderately and sparsely vegetated sites. Sparsely vegetated sites show distinct bifurcation in their response with the lower elevations seeing declines and the upper elevations seeing increases in vegetation. Several sites show significant declines in both the visible and near infrared regions suggesting there are compositional changes taking place consistent with climate induced range shifts. This study provides a useful insight into the ecological response of the Big Pine Creek watershed to recent climate change.

Published in	Earth Sciences (Volume 3, Issue 6)
DOI	10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12
Page(s)	137-146
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Landsat, Vegetation Indices, Elevation Gradient, Alpine Watershed, Climate Change, Time Series Mann-Kendall Trend Analysis

References

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APA Style

Patrick Shawn Sawyer, Haroon Stephen. (2015). Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data. Earth Sciences, 3(6), 137-146. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12

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ACS Style

Patrick Shawn Sawyer; Haroon Stephen. Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data. Earth Sci. 2015, 3(6), 137-146. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12

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AMA Style

Patrick Shawn Sawyer, Haroon Stephen. Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data. Earth Sci. 2015;3(6):137-146. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12

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@article{10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12,
  author = {Patrick Shawn Sawyer and Haroon Stephen},
  title = {Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data},
  journal = {Earth Sciences},
  volume = {3},
  number = {6},
  pages = {137-146},
  doi = {10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.earth.20140306.12},
  abstract = {This paper presents a time series study of an alpine ecosystem in the Big Pine Creek watershed in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain’s. Seventy five sample sites along a 2,500 meter elevation gradient are analyzed for trends in surface reflectance based on vegetative density using USGS data derived from Landsat imagery for the 1984 through 2013 time frame. Three vegetative indices, NDVI, SAVI, and MSAVI2 as well as the Tasseled Cap transformations for Brightness (TCB), greenness (TCG), and wetness (TCW) are explored. We found that over the time period of the study, significant increases in vegetation are occurring at densely vegetated sites at almost all elevations within the watershed while less change and even some significant declines in vegetation are seen in moderately and sparsely vegetated sites. Sparsely vegetated sites show distinct bifurcation in their response with the lower elevations seeing declines and the upper elevations seeing increases in vegetation. Several sites show significant declines in both the visible and near infrared regions suggesting there are compositional changes taking place consistent with climate induced range shifts. This study provides a useful insight into the ecological response of the Big Pine Creek watershed to recent climate change.},
 year = {2015}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data
AU  - Patrick Shawn Sawyer
AU  - Haroon Stephen
Y1  - 2015/01/06
PY  - 2015
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12
T2  - Earth Sciences
JF  - Earth Sciences
JO  - Earth Sciences
SP  - 137
EP  - 146
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2328-5982
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12
AB  - This paper presents a time series study of an alpine ecosystem in the Big Pine Creek watershed in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain’s. Seventy five sample sites along a 2,500 meter elevation gradient are analyzed for trends in surface reflectance based on vegetative density using USGS data derived from Landsat imagery for the 1984 through 2013 time frame. Three vegetative indices, NDVI, SAVI, and MSAVI2 as well as the Tasseled Cap transformations for Brightness (TCB), greenness (TCG), and wetness (TCW) are explored. We found that over the time period of the study, significant increases in vegetation are occurring at densely vegetated sites at almost all elevations within the watershed while less change and even some significant declines in vegetation are seen in moderately and sparsely vegetated sites. Sparsely vegetated sites show distinct bifurcation in their response with the lower elevations seeing declines and the upper elevations seeing increases in vegetation. Several sites show significant declines in both the visible and near infrared regions suggesting there are compositional changes taking place consistent with climate induced range shifts. This study provides a useful insight into the ecological response of the Big Pine Creek watershed to recent climate change.
VL  - 3
IS  - 6
ER  -

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Author Information

Patrick Shawn Sawyer

School of Environmental and Public Affairs, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, United States
Haroon Stephen

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, United States

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APA Style

Patrick Shawn Sawyer, Haroon Stephen. (2015). Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data. Earth Sciences, 3(6), 137-146. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12

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ACS Style

Patrick Shawn Sawyer; Haroon Stephen. Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data. Earth Sci. 2015, 3(6), 137-146. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12

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AMA Style

Patrick Shawn Sawyer, Haroon Stephen. Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data. Earth Sci. 2015;3(6):137-146. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12,
  author = {Patrick Shawn Sawyer and Haroon Stephen},
  title = {Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data},
  journal = {Earth Sciences},
  volume = {3},
  number = {6},
  pages = {137-146},
  doi = {10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.earth.20140306.12},
  abstract = {This paper presents a time series study of an alpine ecosystem in the Big Pine Creek watershed in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain’s. Seventy five sample sites along a 2,500 meter elevation gradient are analyzed for trends in surface reflectance based on vegetative density using USGS data derived from Landsat imagery for the 1984 through 2013 time frame. Three vegetative indices, NDVI, SAVI, and MSAVI2 as well as the Tasseled Cap transformations for Brightness (TCB), greenness (TCG), and wetness (TCW) are explored. We found that over the time period of the study, significant increases in vegetation are occurring at densely vegetated sites at almost all elevations within the watershed while less change and even some significant declines in vegetation are seen in moderately and sparsely vegetated sites. Sparsely vegetated sites show distinct bifurcation in their response with the lower elevations seeing declines and the upper elevations seeing increases in vegetation. Several sites show significant declines in both the visible and near infrared regions suggesting there are compositional changes taking place consistent with climate induced range shifts. This study provides a useful insight into the ecological response of the Big Pine Creek watershed to recent climate change.},
 year = {2015}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Vegetative Response to Climate Change in the Big Pine Creek Watershed along a 2,500 Meter Elevation Gradient Using Landsat Data
AU  - Patrick Shawn Sawyer
AU  - Haroon Stephen
Y1  - 2015/01/06
PY  - 2015
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12
T2  - Earth Sciences
JF  - Earth Sciences
JO  - Earth Sciences
SP  - 137
EP  - 146
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2328-5982
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20140306.12
AB  - This paper presents a time series study of an alpine ecosystem in the Big Pine Creek watershed in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain’s. Seventy five sample sites along a 2,500 meter elevation gradient are analyzed for trends in surface reflectance based on vegetative density using USGS data derived from Landsat imagery for the 1984 through 2013 time frame. Three vegetative indices, NDVI, SAVI, and MSAVI2 as well as the Tasseled Cap transformations for Brightness (TCB), greenness (TCG), and wetness (TCW) are explored. We found that over the time period of the study, significant increases in vegetation are occurring at densely vegetated sites at almost all elevations within the watershed while less change and even some significant declines in vegetation are seen in moderately and sparsely vegetated sites. Sparsely vegetated sites show distinct bifurcation in their response with the lower elevations seeing declines and the upper elevations seeing increases in vegetation. Several sites show significant declines in both the visible and near infrared regions suggesting there are compositional changes taking place consistent with climate induced range shifts. This study provides a useful insight into the ecological response of the Big Pine Creek watershed to recent climate change.
VL  - 3
IS  - 6
ER  -

Copy | Download