High Resolution Mapping of Peatland Hydroperiod at a High-Latitude Swedish Mire

• Main Authors: Nathan Torbick, Andreas Persson, David Olefeldt, Steve Frolking, William Salas, Stephen Hagen, Patrick Crill, Changsheng Li
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.297.8559; http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/4/7/1974/pdf/

Abstract: Monitoring high latitude wetlands is required to understand feedbacks between terrestrial carbon pools and climate change. Hydrological variability is a key factor driving biogeochemical processes in these ecosystems and effective assessment tools are critical for accurate characterization of surface hydrology, soil moisture, and water table fluctuations. Operational satellite platforms provide opportunities to systematically monitor hydrological variability in high latitude wetlands. The objective of this research application was to integrate high temporal frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and high spatial resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) observations to assess hydroperiod at a mire in northern Sweden. Geostatistical and polarimetric (PLR) techniques were applied to determine spatial structure of the wetland and imagery at respective scales (0.5 m to 25 m). Variogram, spatial regression, and decomposition approaches characterized the sensitivity of the two platforms (SAR and LiDAR) to wetland hydrogeomorphology, scattering