Dr. Christine Albano is a ecohydrologist at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada. Here is what Christine shared with us about the work she presented on Thursday afternoon at #AGU19:
Using the Landsat Archive to Assess Multi-Decadal Changes in Riparian Vegetation in Western U.S. Drylands
What are the major findings of this research?
After adjusting for the role of interannual variations in precipitation and evapotranspiration, approximately 25% of riparian vegetation in Nevada has significantly increased in vegetation vigor between 1985 and 2018 and approximately 15% has decreased.
Declining lake levels, changes in livestock grazing management, biocontrol of invasive riparian plants, and declining groundwater levels may be contributing to some of these observed changes.
In addition, we found that riparian areas in more complex upland terrain were more likely to exhibit increases in vegetation vigor than those in wide valley bottoms or flat terrain, which exhibited both large increases and large decreases in vegetation vigor over the study period.
Continue reading at NASA Landsat Science
Image via NASA Landsat Science