Seminário CEF/CEABN

Local: Sala PF 1.6 (Auditório Florestal) 

Tema: Remote Sensing monitoring of ecosystems along a Climatic Gradient

Orador: Maxim Shoshany

Maxim Shoshany is Head, Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory, Faculty of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Abstract: Climate predictions for the South-Eastern Mediterranean concern decrease of water resources by 40% till the end of this Century. This would yield sever implications regarding the functioning and structure of desert fringe ecosystems. Remote sensing studies of semi-arid to arid transition zones are important in two aspects: providing indicators for ecosystems change due to climate change, and exploring the “climatic gradient” hypothesis as an instrument for understanding ecosystems’ responses. The common denominator for these two aspects concern relationships between remote sensing signal variations (spectral, spatial, temporal) and spatial and temporal rainfall variations. This seminar will discuss few such mutual relationships between signal and rainfall variations. I will start with presenting a semi-arid to arid transition zone with typical Mediterranean complexity of habitat conditions and disturbance-recovery cycles.

Then I will describe and discuss the following examples:

- Vegetation cover changes in response to rainfall amounts and fluctuations utilizing a multiple regression type relationships between spectral reflectance and vegetation cover.

- Sub-pixel life forms mapping utilizing phenological-spectral unmixing.

- Herbaceous and shrubs' biomass mapping using optical and SAR sensors.

- Exploring ecosystems drying utilizing NDVI and Rainfall based Relative Water Use Efficiency parameter.

- Exploration of Desert thresholds based on vegetation cover and Life-forms compositions.