Journal
SENSORS
Volume 16, Issue 11, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/s16111948
Keywords
StarDot cameras; PhenoCam network; pinyon and juniper; sagebrush steppe; semi-arid meadows; camera-based repeat digital photography
Funding
- Great Basin Landscape Conservation Cooperative through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [59-5370-3-001]
- ARS [ARS-0429922, 911935] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Plant phenology is recognized as important for ecological dynamics. There has been a recent advent of phenology and camera networks worldwide. The established PhenoCam Network has sites in the United States, including the western states. However, there is a paucity of published research from semi-arid regions. In this study, we demonstrate the utility of camera-based repeat digital imagery and use of R statistical phenopix package to quantify plant phenology and phenophases in four plant communities in the semi-arid cold desert region of the Great Basin. We developed an automated variable snow/night filter for removing ephemeral snow events, which allowed fitting of phenophases with a double logistic algorithm. We were able to detect low amplitude seasonal variation in pinyon and juniper canopies and sagebrush steppe, and characterize wet and mesic meadows in area-averaged analyses. We used individual pixel-based spatial analyses to separate sagebrush shrub canopy pixels from interspace by determining differences in phenophases of sagebrush relative to interspace. The ability to monitor plant phenology with camera-based images fills spatial and temporal gaps in remotely sensed data and field based surveys, allowing species level relationships between environmental variables and phenology to be developed on a fine time scale thus providing powerful new tools for land management.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available