The influence of canopy closure on the detection of understory indicator plants in Kananaskis Country

Certain understory plants, termed indicator species, have narrow ranges of habitat preference, Remote detection of these plants could provide valuable information about many ecological attributes for the sites in which they occur This study analyzes the spectral separability of various understory components, including four indicator plants, commonly found in Kananaskis Country, Alberta and determines the influence of canopy closure on the detectability of these features using hyperspectral casi imagery. Simulated mixtures of understory components were created to determine their spectral separability. Linear mixture modelling techniques were used to detect sub-pixel proportions of overstory and understory components at 41 sites using 60 cm and 2 m casi imagery. Results show that mixture modelling can be successfully employed to separate understory and overstory forest components and that canopy closure plays a major role in detecting understory components.