Premium
Estimation of aboveground biomass in conserved areas of Stipa tenacissima L. stands in the high steppes of western Algeria by mean of the Landsat 8 imagery‐based vegetation indices
Author(s) -
Benseghir Louaï,
KadiHanifi Halima,
Bachari Nour El Islam
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
african journal of ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.499
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1365-2028
pISSN - 0141-6707
DOI - 10.1111/aje.12623
Subject(s) - normalized difference vegetation index , biomass (ecology) , exclosure , steppe , perennial plant , vegetation (pathology) , environmental science , forestry , transect , grazing , hectare , agronomy , context (archaeology) , quadrat , ecology , geography , biology , leaf area index , agriculture , medicine , archaeology , pathology
Abstract The main aim of this paper was to evaluate the use of OLI spectral data as a tool to assess the steppe vegetation in a conservation context. The field sampling was conducted for two specific areas of treatment (a) an exclosure area and (b) a free grazing area. After testing several vegetation indices (VIs), the optimal results were obtained for the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)‐based aboveground biomass model with r 2 = 0.61 and r 2 = 0.72 for total and perennial biomass, respectively. No difference between observed and predicted total and perennial biomass was found ( p = 0.700 and p = 0.306, respectively). The comparison between the two treatments using the field sampling revealed a significant difference on total plant cover ( p = 0.016) and total biomass ( p = 0.005), with a plant cover of 50.6% and a biomass of 325.771 kg dry matter per hectare (kg DM ha −1 ) on average in grazed area and 66.9%, 1,407.869 kg DM ha −1 in exclosure. Finally, a concordance is noted between the results obtained by the NDVI‐based biomass model and the field sampling‐based biomass.