Wetland hydroperiod classification in the western prairies using multitemporal synthetic aperture radar

Wetlands represent one of the world's most biodiverse and threatened ecosystem types and were diminished globally by about two‐thirds in the 20th century. There is continuing decline in wetland quantity and function due to infilling and other human activities. In addition, with climate change, warmer temperatures and changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration are reducing wetland surface and groundwater supplies, further altering wetland hydrology and vegetation. There is a need to automate inventory and monitoring of wetlands, and as a study system, we investigated the Shepard Slough wetlands complex, which includes numerous wetlands in urban, suburban, and agricultural zones in the prairie pothole region of southern Alberta, Canada. Here, wetlands are generally confined to depressions in the undulating terrain, challenging wetlands inventory and monitoring. This study applied threshold and frequency analysis routines for high‐resolution, single‐polarization (HH) RADARSAT‐2, synthetic aperture radar mapping. This enabled a growing season surface water extent hyroperiod‐based wetland classification, which can support water and wetland resource monitoring. This 3‐year study demonstrated synthetic aperture radar‐derived multitemporal open‐water masks provided an effective index of wetland permanence class, with overall accuracies of 89% to 95% compared with optical validation data, and RMSE between 0.2 and 0.7 m between model and field validation data. This allowed for characterizing the distribution and dynamics of 4 marsh wetlands hydroperiod classes, temporary, seasonal, semipermanent, and permanent, and mapping of the sequential vegetation bands that included emergent, obligate wetland, facultative wetland, and upland plant communities. Hydroperiod variation and surface water extent were found to be influenced by short‐term rainfall events in both wet and dry years. Seasonal hydroperiods in wetlands were particularly variable if there was a decrease in the temporary or semipermanent hydroperiod classes. In years with extreme rain events, the temporary wetlands especially increased relative to longer lasting wetlands (84% in 2015 with significant rainfall events, compared with 42% otherwise).     

Pollen-based reconstructions of Holocene vegetation and climatic change of Tibetan Plateau

A synthesis of Holocene pollen records from the Tibetan Plateau shows the history of vegetation and climatic changes during the Holocene. Palynological evidences from 24 cores/sections have been compiled and show that the vegetation shifted from subalpine/alpine conifer forest to subalpine/alpine evergreen sclerophyllous forest in the southeastern part of the plateau; from alpine steppe to alpine desert in the central, western and northern part; and from alpine meadow to alpine steppe in the eastern and southern plateau regions during the Holocene. These records show that increases in precipitation began about 9 ka from the southeast, and a wide ranging level of increased humidity developed over the entire of the plateau around 8-7 ka, followed by aridity from 6 ka and a continuous drying over the plateau after 4-3 ka. The changes in Holocene climates of the plateau can be interpreted qualitatively as a response to orbital forcing and its secondary effects on the Indian Monsoon which expanded northwards     

Rapid Lateglacial tree population dynamics and ecosystem changes in the eastern Baltic region

A growing body of evidence implies that the concept of 'treeless tundra' in eastern and northern Europe fails to explain the rapidity of Lateglacial and postglacial tree population dynamics of the region, yet the knowledge of the geographic locations and shifting of tree populations is fragmentary. Pollen, stomata and plant macrofossil stratigraphies from Lake Kurjanovas in the poorly studied eastern Baltic region provide improved knowledge of ranges of north‐eastern European trees during the Lateglacial and subsequent plant population responses to the abrupt climatic changes of the Lateglacial/Holocene transition. The results prove the Lateglacial presence of tree populations (Betula, Pinus and Picea) in the eastern Baltic region. Particularly relevant is the stomatal and plant macrofossil evidence showing the local presence of reproductive Picea populations during the Younger Dryas stadial at 12 900–11 700 cal. a BP, occurring along with Dryas octopetala and arctic herbs, indicating semi‐open vegetation. The spread of Pinus–Betula forest at ca. 14 400 cal. a BP, the rise of Picea at ca. 12 800 cal. a BP and the re‐establishment of Pinus–Betula forest at ca. 11 700 cal. a BP within a span of centuries further suggest strikingly rapid, climate‐driven ecosystem changes rather than gradual plant succession on a newly deglaciated land. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interpolating paleovegetation data with an artificial neural network approach

To drive an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM), land surface boundary conditions like albedo and morphological roughness, which depend on the vegetation type present, have to be prescribed. For the late Quaternary there are some data available, but they are still sparse. Here an artificial neural network approach to assimilate these paleovegetation data is investigated. In contrast to a biome model the relation between climatological parameters and vegetation type is not based on biological knowledge but estimated from the available vegetation data and the AGCM climatology at the corresponding locations. For a test application, a data set for the modern vegetation reduced to the amount of data available for the Holocene climate optimum (about 6000 years B.P.) is used. From this, the neural network is able to reconstruct the complete global vegetation with a kappa value of 0.56. The most pronounced errors occur in Australia and South America in areas corresponding to large data gaps.     

Rapid vegetation change during the early Holocene in the Faroe Islands detected in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

High‐resolution pollen, plant macrofossil and sedimentary analyses from early Holocene lacustrine sediments on the Faroe Islands have detected a significant vegetation perturbation suggesting a rapid change in climate between ca. 10 380 cal. yr BP and the Saksunarvatn ash (10 240±60 cal. yr BP). This episode may be synchronous with the decline in δ¹⁸O values in the Greenland ice‐cores. It also correlates with a short, cold event detected in marine cores from the North Atlantic that has been ascribed to a weakening of thermohaline circulation associated with the sudden drainage of Lake Agassiz into the northwest Atlantic, or, alternatively, a period with distinctly decreased solar forcing. The vegetation sequence begins at ca. 10 500 cal. yr BP with a succession from tundra to shrub‐tundra and increasing lake productivity. Rapid population increases of aquatic plants suggest high summer temperatures between 10 450 and 10 380 cal. yr BP. High pollen percentages, concentrations and influx of Betula, Juniperus and Salix together with macrofossil leaves indicate shrub growth around the site during the initial phases of vegetation colonisation. Unstable conditions followed ca. 10 380 cal. yr BP that changed both the upland vegetation and the aquatic plant communities. A decrease in percentage values of shrub pollen is recorded, with replacement of both aquatics and herbaceous plants by pioneer plant communities. An increase in total pollen accumulation rates not seen in the concentration data suggests increased sediment delivery. The catchment changes are consistent with less seasonal, moister conditions. Subsequent climatic amelioration reinitiated a warmth‐driven succession and catchment stabilisation, but retained high precipitation levels influencing the composition of the post‐event communities. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis, synthesis and modelling of high-resolution observations of salt-marsh eco-geomorphological patterns in the Venice lagoon

The present paper describes observations, analyses and models of salt-marsh channel network and vegetation patterns with the aim of contributing to the development of predictive models of ecological and morphological co-evolution. Existing and new observations are described, with particular emphasis on remote sensing and ancillary field surveys, which are shown to allow reliable, accurate and repeatable quantitative characterizations of landform and vegetation properties over the spatial scales of interest. The observed channel network morphological characters are then used as the basis and validation of models describing the emergence of channel network and vegetation spatial patterns. In particular, with reference to observations performed in the Venice Lagoon, the note describes: (i) new, 2-cm resolution, characterizations of channel network geometry obtained from “proximal sensing” photographic observations; (ii) the reliable quantitative maps of salt-marsh vegetation which may be retrieved from hyperspectral remote sensing data and field ancillary observations; (iii) a synthesis of recent and new analyses of the statistical properties of vegetation and landform spatial organization, that may be inferred from the maps so derived; (iv) recent and new conceptual and quantitative ecological and geomorphic models developed and validated by remote-sensing and field observations. A coherent observational and theoretical eco-morphodynamic framework is then proposed.     

Terrestrial and Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Mapping in Fire Island National Seashore Using High Spatial Resolution Remote Sensing Data

The vegetation communities and spatial patterns on the Fire Island National Seashore are dynamic as the result of interactions with driving forces such as sand deposition, storm-driven over wash, salt spray, surface water, as well as with human disturbances. We used high spatial resolution QuickBird-2 satellite remote sensing data to map both terrestrial and submerged aquatic vegetation communities of the National Seashore. We adopted a stratified classification and unsupervised classification approach for mapping terrestrial vegetation types. Our classification scheme included detailed terrestrial vegetation types identified by previous vegetation mapping efforts of the National Park Service and three generalized categories of high-density seagrass, low-density seagrass coverages, and unvegetated bottom to map the submerged aquatic vegetation habitats. We used underwater videography, GPS-guided field reference photography, and bathymetric data to support remote sensing image classification and information extraction. This study achieved approximately 82% and 75% overall classification accuracy for the terrestrial and submnerged aquatic vegetations, respectively, and provided an updated vegetation inventory and change analysis for the Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network of the National Park Service.     

Composition and distribution of phytoplankton with size fraction results at southwestern east/japan sea

Abundance and distribution of phytoplankton in seawater at southwestern East/Japan Sea near Gampo were investigated by HPLC analysis of photosynthetic pigments during summer of 1999. Detected photosynthetic pigments were chlorophyll a, b, c₁₊₂ (Chl a, Chl b, Chl c₁₊₂), fucoxanthin (Fuco), prasinoxanthin (Pras), zeaxanthin (Zea), 19’-butanoyloxyfucoxanthin (But-fuco) and beta-carotene (β-Car). Major carotenoid was fucoxanthin (bacillariophyte) and minor carotenoids were Pras (prasinophyte), Zea (cyanophyte) and But-fuco (chrysophyte). Chl a concentrations were in the range of 0.16-8.3/land subsurface chlorophyll maxima were observed at 0-10m at inshore and 30–50 m at offshore. Thermocline and nutricline tilted to the offshore direction showed a mild upwelling condition. Results from size-fraction showed that contribution from nano+picoplankton at Chl a maximum layer was increased from 18% at inshore to 69% at offshore on average. The maximum contribution from nano+picoplankton was found as 87% at St. E4. It was noteworthy that contribution from nano+picoplanktonic crysophytes and green algae to total biomass of phytoplankton was significant at offshore. Satellite images of sea surface temperature indicated that an extensive area of the East/Japan Sea showed lower temperature (<18 °C) but the enhanced Chl a patch was confined to a narrow coastal region in summer, 1999. Exceptionally high flux of low saline water from the Korea/Tsushima Strait seemed to make upwelling weak in summer of 1999 in the study area. Results of comparisons among Chl a from SeaWIFs, HPLC and fluorometric analysis showed that presence of Chl b cause underestimation of Chl a about 30% by fluorometric analysis but overestimation by satellite data about 30-75% compared to HPLC data.     

东、黄海典型海区分粒级浮游植物叶绿素a的周日波动及影响因子

本文分析了东、黄海典型海区3个测站在2000~2003年间4个航次的叶绿素a周日变动特征,结果表明由于地理环境、水文特征以及季节差异,各海区叶绿素a表现出各自不同的变动特点.在东海陆架区,日变化上表层各粒级主要以半日周期为主,受黑潮入侵程度不同而略有变化;长江口由于受到潮汐的影响,各粒级的日变化同潮汐的涨落相对应,主要为半日周期;黄海中部海区叶绿素a尤其是NANO级浮游植物在周日变化上以全日周期为主,受黄海冷水团强弱不同而不同.本文进一步应用渐近回归初步分析了多种环境因子对叶绿素a周日变化的影响.     

Hydrodynamic modeling of flushing time in a small estuary of North Bay, Florida, USA

Freshwater fraction method is popular for cost-effective estimations of estuarine flushing time in response to freshwater inputs. However, due to the spatial variations of salinity, it is usually expensive to directly estimate the long-term freshwater fraction in the estuary from field observations. This paper presents the application of the 3D hydrodynamic model to estimate the distributions of salinity and thus the freshwater fractions for flushing time estimation. For a case study in a small estuary of the North Bay in Florida, USA, the hydrodynamic model was calibrated and verified using available field observations. Freshwater fractions in the estuary were determined by integrating freshwater fractions in model grids for the calculation of flushing time. The flushing time in the North Bay is calculated by the volume of freshwater fraction divided by the freshwater inflow, which is about 2.2 days under averaged flow conditions. Based on model simulations for a time series of freshwater inputs over a 2-year period, a power regression equation has been derived from model simulations to correlate estuarine flushing time to freshwater inputs. For freshwater input varying from 12 m³/s to 50 m³/s, flushing time in this small estuary of North Bay changes from 3.7 days to 1.8 days. In supporting estuarine management, the model can be used to examine the effects of upstream freshwater withdraw on estuarine salinity and flushing time.