Biophysical Remote Sensing and Terrestrial CO2 Exchange at Cape Bounty, Melville Island
Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2011-12-28 23:27:34.824 Cape Bounty, Melville Island is a partially vegetated High Arctic landscape with three main plant communities: polar semi-desert (47% of the study area), mesic tundra (31%) , and wet sedge meadows (7%). The objective of t...
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ftqueensuniv:oai:qspace.library.queensu.ca:1974/6953 2023-05-15T15:04:55+02:00 Biophysical Remote Sensing and Terrestrial CO2 Exchange at Cape Bounty, Melville Island Gregory, Fiona Marianne Treitz, Paul Scott, Neal Geography 2011-12-28 23:27:34.824 http://hdl.handle.net/1974/6953 eng eng Canadian theses http://hdl.handle.net/1974/6953 This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner. IKONOS Net Ecosystem Exchange Polar Desert Tundra Arctic Sedge Meadow NDVI Remote Sensing CO2 thesis 2011 ftqueensuniv 2020-12-29T09:06:20Z Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2011-12-28 23:27:34.824 Cape Bounty, Melville Island is a partially vegetated High Arctic landscape with three main plant communities: polar semi-desert (47% of the study area), mesic tundra (31%) , and wet sedge meadows (7%). The objective of this research was to relate biophysical measurements of soil, vegetation, and CO2 exchange rates in each vegetation type to high resolution satellite data from IKONOS-2, extending plot level measurements to a landscape scale. Field data was collected through six weeks of the 2008 growing season. Two IKONOS images were acquired, one on July 4th and the other on August 2nd. Two products were generated from the satellite data: a land-cover classification and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The three vegetation types were found to have distinct soil and vegetation characteristics. Only the wet sedge meadows were a net sink for CO2; soil respiration tended to exceed photosynthesis in the sparsely vegetated mesic tundra and polar semi-desert. Scaling up the plot measurements by vegetation type area suggested that Cape Bounty was a small net carbon source (0.34 ± 0.47 g C m-2 day-1) in the summer of 2008. NDVI was strongly correlated with percent vegetation cover, vegetation volume, soil moisture, and moderately with soil nitrogen, biomass, and leaf area index (LAI). Photosynthesis and respiration of CO2 both positively correlated with NDVI, most strongly when averaged over the season. NDVI increased over time in every vegetation type, but this change was not reflected in any significant measured changes in vegetation or CO2 flux rates. A simple spatial model was developed to estimate Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) at every pixel on the satellite images based on NDVI, temperature and incoming solar radiation. It was found that the rate of photosynthesis per unit NDVI was higher early in the growing season. The model estimated a mean flux to the atmosphere of 0.21 g C m-2 day-1 at the time of image acquisition on July 4th, and -0.07 g C m-2 day-1 (a net C sink) on August 2nd. The greatest uncertainty in the relationship between NDVI and CO2 flux was associated with the polar semi-desert class. M.Sc. Thesis Arctic polar desert Tundra Melville Island Queen's University, Ontario: QSpace Arctic Cape Bounty ENVELOPE(-109.542,-109.542,74.863,74.863) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Queen's University, Ontario: QSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftqueensuniv |
language |
English |
topic |
IKONOS Net Ecosystem Exchange Polar Desert Tundra Arctic Sedge Meadow NDVI Remote Sensing CO2 |
spellingShingle |
IKONOS Net Ecosystem Exchange Polar Desert Tundra Arctic Sedge Meadow NDVI Remote Sensing CO2 Gregory, Fiona Marianne Biophysical Remote Sensing and Terrestrial CO2 Exchange at Cape Bounty, Melville Island |
topic_facet |
IKONOS Net Ecosystem Exchange Polar Desert Tundra Arctic Sedge Meadow NDVI Remote Sensing CO2 |
description |
Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2011-12-28 23:27:34.824 Cape Bounty, Melville Island is a partially vegetated High Arctic landscape with three main plant communities: polar semi-desert (47% of the study area), mesic tundra (31%) , and wet sedge meadows (7%). The objective of this research was to relate biophysical measurements of soil, vegetation, and CO2 exchange rates in each vegetation type to high resolution satellite data from IKONOS-2, extending plot level measurements to a landscape scale. Field data was collected through six weeks of the 2008 growing season. Two IKONOS images were acquired, one on July 4th and the other on August 2nd. Two products were generated from the satellite data: a land-cover classification and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The three vegetation types were found to have distinct soil and vegetation characteristics. Only the wet sedge meadows were a net sink for CO2; soil respiration tended to exceed photosynthesis in the sparsely vegetated mesic tundra and polar semi-desert. Scaling up the plot measurements by vegetation type area suggested that Cape Bounty was a small net carbon source (0.34 ± 0.47 g C m-2 day-1) in the summer of 2008. NDVI was strongly correlated with percent vegetation cover, vegetation volume, soil moisture, and moderately with soil nitrogen, biomass, and leaf area index (LAI). Photosynthesis and respiration of CO2 both positively correlated with NDVI, most strongly when averaged over the season. NDVI increased over time in every vegetation type, but this change was not reflected in any significant measured changes in vegetation or CO2 flux rates. A simple spatial model was developed to estimate Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) at every pixel on the satellite images based on NDVI, temperature and incoming solar radiation. It was found that the rate of photosynthesis per unit NDVI was higher early in the growing season. The model estimated a mean flux to the atmosphere of 0.21 g C m-2 day-1 at the time of image acquisition on July 4th, and -0.07 g C m-2 day-1 (a net C sink) on August 2nd. The greatest uncertainty in the relationship between NDVI and CO2 flux was associated with the polar semi-desert class. M.Sc. |
author2 |
Treitz, Paul Scott, Neal Geography |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Gregory, Fiona Marianne |
author_facet |
Gregory, Fiona Marianne |
author_sort |
Gregory, Fiona Marianne |
title |
Biophysical Remote Sensing and Terrestrial CO2 Exchange at Cape Bounty, Melville Island |
title_short |
Biophysical Remote Sensing and Terrestrial CO2 Exchange at Cape Bounty, Melville Island |
title_full |
Biophysical Remote Sensing and Terrestrial CO2 Exchange at Cape Bounty, Melville Island |
title_fullStr |
Biophysical Remote Sensing and Terrestrial CO2 Exchange at Cape Bounty, Melville Island |
title_full_unstemmed |
Biophysical Remote Sensing and Terrestrial CO2 Exchange at Cape Bounty, Melville Island |
title_sort |
biophysical remote sensing and terrestrial co2 exchange at cape bounty, melville island |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1974/6953 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-109.542,-109.542,74.863,74.863) |
geographic |
Arctic Cape Bounty |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Cape Bounty |
genre |
Arctic polar desert Tundra Melville Island |
genre_facet |
Arctic polar desert Tundra Melville Island |
op_relation |
Canadian theses http://hdl.handle.net/1974/6953 |
op_rights |
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner. |
_version_ |
1766336663045275648 |