Water scarcity is one of the factors limiting plant growth and development. More than onethird of the global terrestrial ecosystems is located in arid and semi-arid regions. The mostimportant limiting factor for plant growth is water shortage. Drought could significantlychange the natural vegetation cover. Rainfall reduction in Iraq, Turkey and Syria hasreduced vegetation cover so that dust sto...

Deforestation in the tropical Andes is affecting ecological conditions of streams, and determination of how much forest should be retained is a pressing task for conservation, restoration and management strategies. We calculated and analyzed eight benthic metrics (structural, compositional and water quality indices) and a physical-chemical composite index with gradients of vegetation cover to a...

this study was carried out to investigate the effective environmental factors in the distribution of vegetation in zirkouh rangelands of qaen. after delimitation of the study area, sampling of soil and vegetation were performed using randomized- systematic method. vegetation cover was recorded by using braun-blanquet combined abundance-cover scale in each sample. within each sample, one profile...

Vegetation structure and density affect the dynamics of snow accumulation and ablation. Vegetation also affects our ability to estimate snow-covered area accurately from satellite-based sensors. The objective of this case study is to demonstrate how the angular pattern of reflectance from vegetation over snow can provide information on forest cover density. Imagery from the Multi-angle Imaging ...

Many algorithms have been developed for the remote estimation of vegetation fraction in terms of combinations of spectral bands, derivatives of reflectance spectra, neural networks, inversion of radiative transfer models, and several multi-spectral statistical approaches. The most widespread type of algorithm used is the mathematical combination of visible and near-infrared reflectance, in the ...

Arctic ecosystems are characterized by a broad range of plant functional types that are highly heterogeneous at small (~1-2 m) spatial scales. Climatic changes can impact vegetation distribution directly, and also indirectly via impacts on disturbance regimes. Consequent changes in vegetation structure and function have implications for surface energy dynamics that may alter permafrost thermal ...

This study demonstrated the potential of using dual-wavelength airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data to classify land cover. Dual-wavelength LiDAR data were acquired from two airborne LiDAR systems that emitted pulses of light in near-infrared (NIR) and middle-infrared (MIR) lasers. The major features of the LiDAR data, such as surface height, echo width, and dual-wavelength amplitu...

Conservation efforts to increase duck production have led the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to restore grasslands with multi-species (3-5) mixtures of introduced cool season vegetation often termed dense nesting cover (DNC). The effectiveness of DNC to increase duck production has been variable, and maintenance of the cover type is expensive. In an effort to decrease the financial and...