Author(s)

P. S. Sawyer & H. Stephen

Abstract

This paper presents a time series study of an alpine ecosystem in the Big Pine Creek watershed in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain’s. Raw Landsat data covering the years 1984 through 2011 is converted to observed surface reflectance and analysed for trends. Analysis of environmental data indicates a definite warming trend while observed surface reflectance shows a general decline for the study area over this time period. While declining reflectance in the visible bands suggests an increase in surface vegetative cover, the fact that the IR band also shows declines suggests a potential change in vegetative composition towards species with less structural complexity. This study provides a useful insight into the ecological response of the Big Pine Creek watershed. Keywords: Landsat, remote sensing, alpine watershed, climate change, time series Mann-Kendall trend analysis.

Keywords

Keywords: Landsat, remote sensing, alpine watershed, climate change, time series Mann-Kendall trend analysis.