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Semivariograms from a forest transect gap model compared with remotely sensed data
Author(s) -
Weishampel John F.,
Urban Dean L.,
Shugart Herman H.,
Smith Jackson B. Jr.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of vegetation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1654-1103
pISSN - 1100-9233
DOI - 10.2307/3235808
Subject(s) - transect , variogram , chronosequence , biomass (ecology) , environmental science , canopy , spatial variability , geostatistics , physical geography , forestry , remote sensing , geography , kriging , ecology , soil science , mathematics , biology , statistics , soil water
. A spatially linked version of a forest gap model, ZELIG, parameterized for the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon, was used to generate structural properties (i.e. biomass, leaf area, and maximum tree height) of young (80 yr), mature (140 yr), and old‐growth (450 yr) Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas fir) forests. Semivariograms were produced at 10 and 30 m resolution to describe the spatio‐temporal patterns of variation of the simulated structural features along a 5 km transect of contiguous 10 m x 10 m grid cells. These semivariograms from the simulations were compared with semivariograms from matrices of pixel digital values obtained from aerial videography of similarly aged stands. Although autocorrelative spatial patterning was absent from both the remotely sensed imagery (except at < 20 m for the 450 yr stand) and the model output, the pixel‐to‐pixel and plot‐to‐plot variances exhibited similar patterns across the chronosequence at both resolutions. This suggests that gap models are able to capture temporal aspects of landscape dynamics associated with canopy texture of Pacific Northwest forests.