Colorado River Delta Project: A compilation of vegetation indices, phenology assessment metrics, and estimates of evapotranspiration for circular bird plots in the Colorado River delta between 2000-2020 (ver. 1.0)
Dates
Publication Date
2022-04-05
Start Date
2010
End Date
2020
Citation
Nagler, P.L., Barreto-Muñoz, A., Didan, K., González, E., Shafroth, P.B., and Gómez-Sapiens, M., 2022, Colorado River Delta Project: A compilation of vegetation indices, phenology assessment metrics, and estimates of evapotranspiration for circular bird plots in the Colorado River delta between 2000-2020 (ver. 1.0): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9B8I8JK.
Summary
These data were compiled to understand the effects of riparian vegetation health on local abundance and species diversity of land birds. The primary objective of our study was to to determine the effects of riparian restoration on birds in the Colorado River delta. These tabular data represent vegetation indices and evapotranspiration (ET) data at varying spatial scales that correspond to avian use circles of 100 to 2000 meters. Three vegetation reflectance indices (VIs): NDVI, EVI, and EVI2 were obtained from Landsat imagery with a biweekly temporal frequency, and covering the entire period of bird surveys (2002-2020). The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and two-band EVI, named EVI2, [...]
Summary
These data were compiled to understand the effects of riparian vegetation health on local abundance and species diversity of land birds. The primary objective of our study was to to determine the effects of riparian restoration on birds in the Colorado River delta. These tabular data represent vegetation indices and evapotranspiration (ET) data at varying spatial scales that correspond to avian use circles of 100 to 2000 meters. Three vegetation reflectance indices (VIs): NDVI, EVI, and EVI2 were obtained from Landsat imagery with a biweekly temporal frequency, and covering the entire period of bird surveys (2002-2020). The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and two-band EVI, named EVI2, were produced as tabular data sets. ET was then produced using EVI and EVI2. Also, ET was calculated from EVI2 using an empirical equation (Nagler et al., 2013). Data acquisition and processing were performed at the University of Arizona VIP lab (vip.arizona.edu) using their large Linux cluster of computing and storage resources.
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Master_VI_ET_2000-2020_Metadata.xml Original FGDC Metadata
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Data_ColoradoRiverDelta_2000-2020.zip
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Purpose
The purpose of these vegetation index (NDVI, EVI, EVI2) and water use (ET) data was to determine bird-vegetation relationships at varying landcover scales. The Landsat data were collected to develop a temporal series (2000-2020) of vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI, EVI2) and water use (ET) raster data for each bird count station and spatial scale (100 m, 500 m, 1 km, 2 km radius). The vegetation index and water use data was collected in circular plots to compile avian use data ranging in size from 100 to 2000 meter diameters. The hypothesis was that the healthier and greener the riparian vegetation, the higher the bird usage. However, other factors are known to play an important role. These factors include distance to the nearest open water and vegetation species and structure diversity. These data were created to determine if agricultural plots adjacent to the riparian corridor and actively restored plots and unrestored natural riparian corridor areas had an impact on avian species richness and usage. These data can be used to provide strategies for restoration planning for landbirds as well as migratory songbirds that use the Colorado River delta as their primary flyway.
Rights
The author(s) of these data request that data users contact them regarding intended use and to assist with understanding limitations and interpretation. Unless otherwise stated, all data, metadata and related materials are considered to satisfy the quality standards relative to the purpose for which the data were collected. Although these data and associated metadata have been reviewed for accuracy and completeness and approved for release by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data for other purposes, nor on all computer systems, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty.
