Use of waveform lidar and hyperspectral sensors to assess selected spatial and structural patterns associated with recent and repeat disturbance and the abundance of sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) in a temperate mixed hardwood and conifer forest.

Authors

Jeanne E. Anderson, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
Mark J. Ducey, University of New HampshireFollow
Andrew J. Fast, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
Mary E. Martin, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
Lucie C. Lepine, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
Marie-Louise Smith, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Washington, DC
Thomas D. Lee, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
Ralph O. Dubayah, Goddard Space Flight Center
Michelle A. Hofton, University of Maryland - College Park
Peter Hyde, University of Maryland - College Park
Birgit E. Peterson, USGS Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science
J. Bryan Blair, Goddard Space Flight Center

Abstract

Abstract

Waveform lidar imagery was acquired on September 26, 1999 over the Bartlett Experimental Forest (BEF) in New Hampshire (USA) using NASA's Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS). This flight occurred 20 months after an ice storm damaged millions of hectares of forestland in northeastern North America. Lidar measurements of the amplitude and intensity of ground energy returns appeared to readily detect areas of moderate to severe ice storm damage associated with the worst damage. Southern through eastern aspects on side slopes were particularly susceptible to higher levels of damage, in large part overlapping tracts of forest that had suffered the highest levels of wind damage from the 1938 hurricane and containing the highest levels of sugar maple basal area and biomass. The levels of sugar maple abundance were determined through analysis of the 1997 Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) high resolution spectral imagery and inventory of USFS Northern Research Station field plots. We found a relationship between field measurements of stem volume losses and the LVIS metric of mean canopy height (r² = 0.66; root mean square errors = 5.7 m³/ha, p < 0.0001) in areas that had been subjected to moderate-to-severe ice storm damage, accurately documenting the short-term outcome of a single disturbance event.

Department

Natural Resources and the Environment

Publication Date

2011

Journal Title

Journal of Applied Remote Sensing

Publisher

SPIE

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1117/1.3554639

Document Type

Article

Recommended Citation

nderson, J.E., Ducey, M.J., Fast, A., Martin, M.E., Lepine, L., Smith, M.-L., Lee, T.D., Dubayah, R.O., Hofton, M.A., Hyde, P., Peterson, B.E., Blair, J.B. Use of waveform lidar and hyperspectral sensors to assess selected spatial and structural patterns associated with recent and repeat disturbance and the abundance of sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) in a temperate mixed hardwood and conifer forest. (2011) Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, 5 (1), art. no. 053504, . doi: 10.1117/1.3554639

Rights

© 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).