Changes in Vegetation Structure after Long-term Grazing in Pinyon-Juniper Ecosystems: Integrating Imaging Spectroscopy and Field Studies

We used field studies and imaging spectroscopy to investigate the effect of grazing on vegetation cover in historically grazed and ungrazed high-mesa rangelands of the Grand Staircase?Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA. Airborne hyperspectral remote sensing data coupled with spectral mixture analysis uncovered subtle variations in the key biogeophysical properties of these rangelands: the fractional surface cover of photosynthetic vegetation (PV), nonphotosynthetic vegetation (NPV), and bare soil. The results show that a high-mesa area with long-term grazing management had significantly higher PV (26.3%), lower NPV (54.5%), and lower bare soil (17.2%) cover fractions in comparison to historically ungrazed high-mesa...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Ecosystems, Springer New York, grazing, hyperspectral remote sensing, imaging spectroscopy, All tags... land use, overgrazing, pinyon-juniper ecosystems, relict areas, woody encroachment, Fewer tags