Team Location: North Central Climate Science Center, Fort Collins, Colorado
Enhanced vegetation index (EVI) image of Fraser Experimental Forest derived from Landsat 5 imagery. This image was taken in July 2010. Image Credit: Rocky Mountain Ecological Forecasting Team, NASA DEVELOP National Program.
Authors:
Tony Vorster, Project Lead (Colorado State University)
Renee Curry (Colorado State University)
Kelli Groy (Colorado State University)
Aaron Sidder (Colorado State University)
William Zawacki (Colorado State University)
Mentors/Advisers:
Paul Evangelista, Ph.D. (Colorado State University, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory)
Jeffrey Morisette, Ph.D. (U.S. Geological Survey, North Central Climate Science Center)
Past/Other Contributors:
Amy Birtwistle (Colorado State University)
Steve Chignell (Colorado State University)
Matt Luizza (Colorado State University)
Carl Reeder (Colorado State University)
Abstract:
The mountain pine beetle has infested more than 3.4 million acres of forest in Colorado since 1996 and continues to spread throughout the forests of western North America. Although current detection techniques, such as aerial surveys, have been effectively used in measuring smaller scale rates of spread, they cannot accurately determine the extent of landscape-scale forest overstory affected by beetle-caused mortality. Using a methodology developed by previous DEVELOP teams, this project identified the extent of lodgepole pine mortality in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. The spatial extent and severity of the outbreak were mapped using satellite imagery from the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor, spectral vegetation indices, image differencing techniques (pre- and post-infestation) and a boosted regression tree model. This approach allowed the team to accurately assess mortality across a forested landscape. This work was a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service, Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory of Colorado State University, and the North Central Climate Science Center. Results from this study will be used to enhance forest management efforts in mitigating hazards from standing dead trees and will provide a foundation for further research into the impacts of mountain pine beetle on wildlife habitat, hydrology and recreation.