scholarly journals Long-term assessment of ecosystem services at ecological restoration sites using Landsat time series

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trinidad del Río-Mena ◽  
Louise Willemen ◽  
Anton Vrieling ◽  
Andy Snoeys ◽  
Andy Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
Landsat Satellite ◽  
The Impact

AbstractReversing ecological degradation through restoration activities is a key societal challenge of the upcoming decade. However, lack of evidence on the effectiveness of restoration interventions leads to inconsistent, delayed, or poorly informed statements of success, hindering the wise allocation of resources, representing a missed opportunity to learn from previous experiences. This study contributes to a better understanding of spatial and temporal dynamics of ecosystem services at ecological restoration sites. We developed a method using Landsat satellite images combined with a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) design, and applied this to an arid rural landscape, the Baviaanskloof in South Africa. Since 1990, various restoration projects have been implemented to halt and reverse degradation. We applied the BACI approach at pixel-level comparing the conditions of each intervened pixel (impact) with 20 similar control pixels. By evaluating the conditions before and after the intervention, we assessed the effectiveness of long-term restoration interventions distinguishing their impact from environmental temporal changes. The BACI approach was implemented with Landsat images that cover a 30-year period at a spatial resolution of 30 m. We evaluated the impact of three interventions (revegetation, livestock exclusion, and the combination of both) on three ecosystem services; forage provision, erosion prevention, and presence of iconic vegetation. We also evaluated whether terrain characteristics could partially explain the variation in impact of interventions. The resulting maps showed spatial patterns of positive and negative effects of interventions on ecosystem services. Intervention effectiveness differed between land cover vegetation clusters, terrain aspect, and soil parent material. Our method allows for spatially explicit quantification of the long-term restoration impact on ecosystem service supply, and for the detailed visualization of impact across an area. This pixel-level analysis is specifically suited for heterogeneous landscapes, where restoration impact not only varies between but also within restoration sites.

scholarly journals Long-term assessment of ecosystem services at ecological restoration sites using Landsat time series

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0243020
Author(s):  
Trinidad del Río-Mena ◽  
Louise Willemen ◽  
Anton Vrieling ◽  
Andy Snoeys ◽  
Andy Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
Landsat Satellite ◽  
The Impact

Reversing ecological degradation through restoration activities is a key societal challenge of the upcoming decade. However, lack of evidence on the effectiveness of restoration interventions leads to inconsistent, delayed, or poorly informed statements of success, hindering the wise allocation of resources, representing a missed opportunity to learn from previous experiences. This study contributes to a better understanding of spatial and temporal dynamics of ecosystem services at ecological restoration sites. We developed a method using Landsat satellite images combined with a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) design, and applied this to an arid rural landscape, the Baviaanskloof in South Africa. Since 1990, various restoration projects have been implemented to halt and reverse degradation. We applied the BACI approach at pixel-level comparing the conditions of each intervened pixel (impact) with 20 similar control pixels. By evaluating the conditions before and after the restoration intervention, we assessed the effectiveness of long-term restoration interventions distinguishing their impact from environmental temporal changes. The BACI approach was implemented with Landsat images that cover a 30-year period at a spatial resolution of 30 meter. We evaluated the impact of three interventions (revegetation, livestock exclusion, and the combination of both) on three ecosystem services; forage provision, erosion prevention, and presence of iconic vegetation. We also evaluated whether terrain characteristics could partially explain the variation in impact of interventions. The resulting maps showed spatial patterns of positive and negative effects of interventions on ecosystem services. Intervention effectiveness differed across vegetation conditions, terrain aspect, and soil parent material. Our method allows for spatially explicit quantification of the long-term restoration impact on ecosystem service supply, and for the detailed visualization of impact across an area. This pixel-level analysis is specifically suited for heterogeneous landscapes, where restoration impact not only varies between but also within restoration sites.

scholarly journals EVALUATING GLACIER DYNAMICS USING TEMPORAL REMOTE SENSING IMAGES: A CASE STUDY OF HUNZA VALLEY, NORTHERN PAKISTAN

2019 ◽  
Vol XLII-2/W13 ◽  
pp. 1781-1785
Author(s):  
M. Shafique ◽  
B. Faiz ◽  
A. Bacha
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Images ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Drainage Network ◽  
Northern Pakistan ◽  
Remote Sensing Images ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
Glacier Dynamics ◽  
Landsat Satellite ◽  
The Impact

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Glaciers are the major source of water for drainage network. Northern Pakistan is hosting some of the largest and longest glaciers. Studies evaluating the temporal dynamics of glaciers in Pakistan shows contradictory results of retreat, stable of advancing behavior. Aim of the present study is to evaluate the temporal dynamics in three glaciers in northern Pakistan, using Landsat satellite images. The Landsat images for the years of 1977, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2009 and 2014 shows retreat in selected Hispar, Birpu and Bualtar glaciers. To evaluate the impact of weather indicators of the glaciers dynamics, the temporal glaciers inventories were compared with the rainfall and temperature for the corresponding years. This study should assist to understand the glaciers dynamics and future climate of the region.</p>

scholarly journals Assessing the Impacts of Land Use and land cover change on Pastoral Livestock Farming in South-Eastern Burkina Faso

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie A. KIMA ◽  
A. A OKHIMAMHE ◽  
Andre KIEMA
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Burkina Faso ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Fuel Wood ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
Poor Access ◽  
Livestock Farmers ◽  
Landsat Satellite ◽  
The Impact

<p class="1Body">Conversion of pastures to cropland is one of the most important issues facing livestock farming in Burkina Faso. This study examined the impact of land use/cover change on pastoral livestock farming in Boulgou province between 1980 and 2013. Landsat satellite images (1989, 2001 and 2013) and socio-economic data were analysed. The interpretation of the classified Landsat images revealed an increase in cropland from 20.5% in 1989 to 36.7% in 2013. This resulted mainly from the conversion of woody savannah and shrub and grass savannah to cropland. Pastoral livestock farmers reported that the major drivers of vegetation loss were drought (95.1 %), population growth (91.8%), cropland increase (91.4%), extraction of fuel wood (69.8%) and increase in livestock population (65.4). These changes affect livestock farming through reduction of pasture, poor access to water and reduction of livestock mobility routes according to the farmers. This calls for regional and national policies to protect grazing areas in Burkina Faso that are similar to policies being implemented for forest and other types of vegetation cover in other countries. For such pastoral policies to be successful, issues concerning the mobility of livestock farmers must be enshrined into such policies and this study is an example of information source for these policies.</p>

scholarly journals MONITORING CHANGES OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES SUPPLY AND DEMAND PATTERN IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN LIAONING URBAN AGGLOMERATIONS, CHINA USING LANDSAT IMAGES

2018 ◽  
Vol XLII-3 ◽  
pp. 765-770
Author(s):  
B. Li ◽  
F. Huang ◽  
S. Chang ◽  
H. Qi ◽  
H. Zhai
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Reference Value ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
Urban Agglomerations ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Indentifying the spatio-temporal patterns of ecosystem services supply and demand and the driving forces is of great significance to the regional ecological security and sustainable socio-economic development. Due to long term and high-intensity development, the ecological environment in central and southern Liaoning urban agglomerations has been greatly destroyed thereafter has restricted sustainable development in this region. Based on Landsat ETM and OLI images, land use of this urban agglomeration in 2005, 2010 and 2015 was extracted. The integrative index of multiple-ecosystem services (IMES) was used to quantify the supply (IMESs), demand (IMESd) and balance (IMESb) of multiple-ecosystem services, The spatial patterns of ecosystem services and its dynamics for the period of 2005&amp;ndash;2015 were revealed. The multiple regression and stepwise regression analysis were used to explore relationships between ecosystem services and socioeconomic factors. The results showed that the IMESs of the region increased by 2.93&amp;thinsp;%, whereas IMESd dropped 38&amp;thinsp;%. The undersupplied area was reduced to 2. The IMESs and IMESb were mainly negatively correlated with gross domestic product (GDP), population density, foreign investment and industrial output, while GDP per capita and the number of teachers had significant positive impacts on ecosystem services supply. The positive correlation between IMESd and GDP, population density and foreign investment were found. The ecosystem services models were established. Supply and balance of multiple-ecosystem services were positively correlated with population density, but the demand was the opposite. The results can provide some reference value for the coordinately economic and ecological development in the study area.

scholarly journals High similarity between EEG from subcutaneous and proximate scalp electrodes in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 1451-1460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigge Weisdorf ◽  
Sirin W. Gangstad ◽  
Jonas Duun-Henriksen ◽  
Karina S. S. Mosholt ◽  
Troels W. Kjær
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Real Life ◽  
High Similarity ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Scalp Eeg ◽  
Eeg Recordings ◽  
The Impact

Subcutaneous recording using electroencephalography (EEG) has the potential to enable ultra-long-term epilepsy monitoring in real-life conditions because it allows the patient increased mobility and discreteness. This study is the first to compare physiological and epileptiform EEG signals from subcutaneous and scalp EEG recordings in epilepsy patients. Four patients with probable or definite temporal lobe epilepsy were monitored with simultaneous scalp and subcutaneous EEG recordings. EEG recordings were compared by correlation and time-frequency analysis across an array of clinically relevant waveforms and patterns. We found high similarity between the subcutaneous EEG channels and nearby temporal scalp channels for most investigated electroencephalographic events. In particular, the temporal dynamics of one typical temporal lobe seizure in one patient were similar in scalp and subcutaneous recordings in regard to frequency distribution and morphology. Signal similarity is strongly related to the distance between the subcutaneous and scalp electrodes. On the basis of these limited data, we conclude that subcutaneous EEG recordings are very similar to scalp recordings in both time and time-frequency domains, if the distance between them is small. As many electroencephalographic events are local/regional, the positioning of the subcutaneous electrodes should be considered carefully to reflect the relevant clinical question. The impact of implantation depth of the subcutaneous electrode on recording quality should be investigated further. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study is the first publication comparing the detection of clinically relevant, pathological EEG features from a subcutaneous recording system designed for out-patient ultra-long-term use to gold standard scalp EEG recordings. Our study shows that subcutaneous channels are very similar to comparable scalp channels, but also point out some issues yet to be resolved.

scholarly journals Taking Students on a Journey to El Yunque

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven McGee ◽  
Jess K. Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Hurricane Impact ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
The Impact

As the developers of Journey to El Yunque, we have taken a different approach to the process of designing a science curriculum. Rather than start with a specific set of concepts or skills to target as learning outcomes, we started by identifying a specific community of practice to which we sought to connect students. Researchers in the El Yunque rainforest in Puerto Rico have been studying the impact of hurricanes on ecosystem dynamics and have been modeling what the long-term impact would be if changes to the global climate increase the frequency of severe hurricanes. Therefore, hurricane impact became the focal phenomenon for the unit. We modeled the process of investigating hurricane impact after the long-term ecological research practices of researchers in El Yunque. Students begin by investigating the long-term impact of hurricanes on the producers in El Yunque. Next students investigate the long-term impact of hurricanes on various consumers in the rainforest. Finally, students investigate how hurricanes impact the cycling of resources directly as well as indirectly through changes in organisms’ use of those resources in the rainforest. A central tension in the design process is how to coherently represent the spatial relationships between the components of the ecosystem and the temporal dynamics of the individual components. In this paper, we present the evolution of the program as we sought to balance that design tension and build an environment that connects students to the central phenomenon and practices of the community of researchers in El Yunque. 

scholarly journals Evaluating the impacts of environmental factors on soil moisture temporal dynamics at different time scales

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Chai ◽  
Tiejun Wang ◽  
Chongli Di
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Soil Moisture Dynamics ◽  
Temporal Variance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Moisture Dynamics ◽  
Different Time Scales

Abstract Soil moisture displays complex spatiotemporal patterns across scales, making it important to disentangle the impacts of environmental factors on soil moisture temporal dynamics at different time scales. This study evaluated the factors affecting soil moisture dynamics at different time scales using long-term soil moisture data obtained from Nebraska and Utah. The empirical mode decomposition method was employed to decompose soil moisture time series into different temporal components with several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and one residual component. Results showed that the percent variance contribution (PVC) of IMFs to the total soil moisture temporal variance tended to increase for the IMFs with longer time periods. It indicated that the long-term soil moisture variations in study regions were mainly determined by low-temporal frequency signals related to seasonal climate and vegetation variations. Besides, the PVCs at short- and medium-temporal ranges were positively correlated with climate dryness, while negatively at longer temporal ranges. Moreover, the results suggested that the impact of climate on soil moisture dynamics at different time scales might vary across different climate zones, while soil effect was comparatively less in both regions. It provides additional insights into understanding soil moisture temporal dynamics in regions with contrasting climatic conditions.

scholarly journals Cumulative Effects of Chemical Spills Using a Spatial Temporal Dynamics Analysis Algorithm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihaela Dimca-Panaitescu
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Cumulative Effects ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Environmental Properties ◽  
Chemical Spills ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Event Based ◽  
The Impact

The increasing number of accidents involving chemical spills demands development of not only feasible emergency strategies, but also a consistent framework to protect the environment and prevent accidents. This can be possible only by a sound understanding of the environmental impact of spills and their potential long-term effects. Furthermore, the impact assessment of chemical spills can not be done disregarding the spatial-temporal pattern of previous exposures reciprocally influenced by both chemical and environmental properties. In this context, the thesis proposes a general framework to quantify the cumulative effects of chemical spills at any given point of a certain area based on a “present” history of exposure coupled with chemical and environmental properties designated as relevant to predict possible pictures o f future exposure and estimate in advance potential alarming levels of pollution. To achieve this purpose, the following objectives are set up. The first objective is to develop a four-dimensional model to simulate a single-spill event based on certain assumptions about chemical and soil characteristics. The second objective is to develop an algorithm to assess the cumulative effects of chemical spills on a selected area using the model for a single-spill event while taking into account the effects of those spills of the spatial-temporal zone adjacent to the study area.

scholarly journals Assessing Impacts of Soil Management Measures on Ecosystem Services

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gudrun Schwilch ◽  
Tatenda Lemann ◽  
Örjan Berglund ◽  
Carlo Camarotto ◽  
Artemi Cerdà ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Soil Management ◽  
Management Measures ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Property Changes ◽  
The Impact

Only a few studies have quantified and measured ecosystem services (ES) specifically related to soil. To address this gap, we have developed and applied a methodology to assess changes in ecosystem services, based on measured or estimated soil property changes that were stimulated by soil management measures (e.g., mulching, terracing, no-till). We applied the ES assessment methodology in 16 case study sites across Europe representing a high diversity of soil threats and land use systems. Various prevention and remediation measures were trialled, and the changes in manageable soil and other natural capital properties were measured and quantified. An Excel tool facilitated data collection, calculation of changes in ecosystem services, and visualization of measured short-term changes and estimated long-term changes at plot level and for the wider area. With this methodology, we were able to successfully collect and compare data on the impact of land management on 15 different ecosystem services from 26 different measures. Overall, the results are positive in terms of the impacts of the trialled measures on ecosystem services, with 18 out of 26 measures having no decrease in any service at the plot level. Although methodological challenges remain, the ES assessment was shown to be a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of the trialled measures, and also served as an input to a stakeholder valuation of ecosystem services at local and sub-national levels.

scholarly journals The Assessment of Favourability and Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Pinus Mugo in the Romanian Carpathians Using GIS Technology and Landsat Images

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanda Roșca ◽  
Vasile Șimonca ◽  
Ștefan Bilașco ◽  
Iuliu Vescan ◽  
Ioan Fodorean ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Forest Tree ◽  
Pinus Mugo ◽  
Forest Species ◽  
Gis Technology ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
Ecological Requirements ◽  
Romanian Carpathians ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Landsat Satellite

Favourability classification for forest species represents a fundamental activity for deriving technological solutions in forestry, as specialists need detailed information about the ecological requirements of forest species from environmental factors: climate, pedological characteristics and morphometric characteristics of the study area. The purpose of the present study was the use of the qualitative data extracted from the ecological records of the Pinus mugo species and the generation of a complex geospatial database for the entire territory of Romania. The results were represented by a collection of thematic maps generated on favourability classes for the Romanian Carpathians, as well as for the major landform subunits which had been the basis for the statistical analysis of the results. The validation of the results was performed by comparing the results obtained through the application of the model which used the frequency points reported in the European Atlas of the Forest Tree Species from Europe, 2016. In order to identify the spatio-temporal dynamics, LANDSAT satellite images from 30 years were used, which enabled the identification of the expansion and the reduction in size of the Pinus mugo area at a zonal level, a process which is dependent on natural factors, like climatic variations, or anthropic factors (overgrazing or works of cleaning the montain pastures).

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