Abstract
Abstract. The physical and climatic features of a relatively small volcanic island such as Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) cause increased difficulties to vegetation monitoring by means of moderate resolution satellite data. The use of multispectral very high resolution WorldView-2 (WV2) imagery provides promising perspectives for vegetation mapping in such a heterogeneous landscape. In order to assess its potential to estimate the cover fraction of dominant plant species in endemic Macaronesian laurel forests and heathlands, a hierarchical Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) was performed within a study area where different patches from mature forest, to degraded forest and pine plantations can be found. First, a selection of pure pixels in the WV2 image for fern, Morella faya Ait., Laurus novocanariensis and the introduced species Pinus radiata were used to build a spectral library for each species. Last species Erica arborea L. was characterized in field by means of an ASD FieldSpec spectroradiometer, due to the rarity of pure pixels in this case, and to the simultaneous presence of two spectral subclasses depending on its flowering onset; WV2-adjusted spectral signatures from field reflectances were estimated by empirical calibration. Preliminary results showed a good separation of degraded from mature native forests and from plantations, although pine cover fraction is, in general, underestimated. The second MESMA cycle was useful to tell between most similar species, like in case of M. faya and L. novocanariensis.
Highlights
INTRODUCTIONIn Tenerife (Canary Islands) native monteverde forests are subtropical ecosystems as part of the Macaronesian region, at present a hotspot of biodiversity
In Tenerife (Canary Islands) native monteverde forests are subtropical ecosystems as part of the Macaronesian region, at present a hotspot of biodiversity. They comprise endemic laurel forests and heathlands, where Morella faya (Ait.) Wilbur usually constitutes the tree cover of Myrico fayae-Ericetum arboreae communities in association with Erica arborea L. and other plant species. Both species are present in laurel forest Ixantho-Laurion azoricae, a more complex ecosystem, where several different tree species, like Laurus novocanariensis (Rivas-Martínez et al, 2002) are abundant
Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) is a modification of simple Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) – where each pixel spectrum is modeled as a sum of weighted “pure spectra” or endmembers corresponding to their different proportions within the pixel (Adams et al, 1993; Roberts et al, 1993; Settle and Drake, 1993) – that allows a per-pixel variation of the number and types of endmembers
Summary
In Tenerife (Canary Islands) native monteverde forests are subtropical ecosystems as part of the Macaronesian region, at present a hotspot of biodiversity They comprise endemic laurel forests and heathlands, where Morella faya (Ait.) Wilbur usually constitutes the tree cover of Myrico fayae-Ericetum arboreae communities in association with Erica arborea L. and other plant species (del Arco Aguilar, 2010). Both species are present in laurel forest Ixantho-Laurion azoricae, a more complex ecosystem, where several different tree species, like Laurus novocanariensis (Rivas-Martínez et al, 2002) are abundant. Consecutive MESMA cycles will allow us to better discriminate between species with highest degree of similarity
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