Mapping seabird nesting habitats in Franz Josef Land, Russian High Arctic, using digital Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery
Supervised classification of digital Landsat satellite images was used to locate seabird nesting habitats in the Russian High Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land, a region where the avifauna is poorly known and ecologically vulnerable. Major seabird nesting colonies are readily identifiable in La...
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Language: | English |
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Norwegian Polar Institute
1998
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Online Access: | https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2260 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v17i1.6604 |
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ftjpolarres:oai:journals.openacademia.net:article/2260 2023-05-15T14:28:52+02:00 Mapping seabird nesting habitats in Franz Josef Land, Russian High Arctic, using digital Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery Williams, Meredith Dowdeswell, Julian A. 1998-01-06 application/pdf https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2260 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v17i1.6604 eng eng Norwegian Polar Institute https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2260/5511 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2260 doi:10.3402/polar.v17i1.6604 Copyright (c) 2018 Polar Research Polar Research; Vol. 17 No. 1 (1998); 15-30 1751-8369 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 1998 ftjpolarres https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v17i1.6604 2021-11-11T19:12:21Z Supervised classification of digital Landsat satellite images was used to locate seabird nesting habitats in the Russian High Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land, a region where the avifauna is poorly known and ecologically vulnerable. Major seabird nesting colonies are readily identifiable in Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery of the region due primarily to the distinctive spectral signature of vegetation on ornithogenically altered soils below bird cliffs. Supervised image classification was used to pinpoint areas displaying spectral characteristics typical of documented seabird nesting habitats. A total of 101 seabird nesting colony locations identified in Russian and Western literature from 1898 to 1996 was used as training sites to develop spectral signatures from a summer TM image mosaic for use in a supervised maximum likelihood classification. The classified image was thresholded and compared to a map of documented nesting locations. Of the 101 field-documented nesting sites, 96 were clearly identified in the classified image. An inventory was produced of all undocumented seabird habitats suggested by the classification, totalling over 300 sites. The methodology used may be applicable to other arctic regions and is intended as a first step when planning ecological protection zones in remote and inaccessible arctic regions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Archipelago Arctic Franz Josef Land Polar Research Polar Research (E-Journal) Arctic Franz Josef Land ENVELOPE(55.000,55.000,81.000,81.000) Polar Research 17 1 15 30 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Polar Research (E-Journal) |
op_collection_id |
ftjpolarres |
language |
English |
description |
Supervised classification of digital Landsat satellite images was used to locate seabird nesting habitats in the Russian High Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land, a region where the avifauna is poorly known and ecologically vulnerable. Major seabird nesting colonies are readily identifiable in Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery of the region due primarily to the distinctive spectral signature of vegetation on ornithogenically altered soils below bird cliffs. Supervised image classification was used to pinpoint areas displaying spectral characteristics typical of documented seabird nesting habitats. A total of 101 seabird nesting colony locations identified in Russian and Western literature from 1898 to 1996 was used as training sites to develop spectral signatures from a summer TM image mosaic for use in a supervised maximum likelihood classification. The classified image was thresholded and compared to a map of documented nesting locations. Of the 101 field-documented nesting sites, 96 were clearly identified in the classified image. An inventory was produced of all undocumented seabird habitats suggested by the classification, totalling over 300 sites. The methodology used may be applicable to other arctic regions and is intended as a first step when planning ecological protection zones in remote and inaccessible arctic regions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Williams, Meredith Dowdeswell, Julian A. |
spellingShingle |
Williams, Meredith Dowdeswell, Julian A. Mapping seabird nesting habitats in Franz Josef Land, Russian High Arctic, using digital Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery |
author_facet |
Williams, Meredith Dowdeswell, Julian A. |
author_sort |
Williams, Meredith |
title |
Mapping seabird nesting habitats in Franz Josef Land, Russian High Arctic, using digital Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery |
title_short |
Mapping seabird nesting habitats in Franz Josef Land, Russian High Arctic, using digital Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery |
title_full |
Mapping seabird nesting habitats in Franz Josef Land, Russian High Arctic, using digital Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery |
title_fullStr |
Mapping seabird nesting habitats in Franz Josef Land, Russian High Arctic, using digital Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mapping seabird nesting habitats in Franz Josef Land, Russian High Arctic, using digital Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery |
title_sort |
mapping seabird nesting habitats in franz josef land, russian high arctic, using digital landsat thematic mapper imagery |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
1998 |
url |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2260 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v17i1.6604 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(55.000,55.000,81.000,81.000) |
geographic |
Arctic Franz Josef Land |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Franz Josef Land |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Franz Josef Land Polar Research |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Franz Josef Land Polar Research |
op_source |
Polar Research; Vol. 17 No. 1 (1998); 15-30 1751-8369 |
op_relation |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2260/5511 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2260 doi:10.3402/polar.v17i1.6604 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2018 Polar Research |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v17i1.6604 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
15 |
op_container_end_page |
30 |
_version_ |
1766303011513040896 |