A field experiment was conducted in 2001–2002 to investigate relationships between canopy spectral reflectance and leaf area index (LAI), aboveground biomass (ABM), and lint yield of irrigated cotton across four N fertilizer rates of 0, 56, 112, and 168 kg N ha−1. These N rates were used to generate a wide range of difference in canopy structure and lint yield. Measurements of canopy reflectanc...

In the southeastern United States, many forest managers are interested in restoring longleaf pine (Pinus palustrisMill.) to upland sites that currently support loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.). We quantified the effects of four canopy treatments (uncut Control; MedBA, harvest to 9 m2·ha−1; LowBA, harvest to 5 m2·ha−1; and Clearcut) and three cultural treatments (NT, no treatment; H, herbicide rel...

Canopy chlorophyll content (Chl) closely relates to plant photosynthetic capacity, nitrogen status and productivity. The goal of this study is to develop remote sensing techniques for accurate estimation of canopy Chl during the entire growing season without re-parameterization of algorithms for two contrasting crop species, maize and soybean. These two crops represent different biochemical mec...

Assessing biomass dynamics is highly critical for monitoring ecosystem balance and its response to climate change and anthropogenic activities. In this study, we introduced a direct link between Landsat vegetation spectral indices and ground/airborne LiDAR data; this integration was established to estimate the biomass dynamics over various years using multi-temporal Landsat satellite images. Ou...

Tall vegetation and complex terrain create difficult conditions for measuring and modeling net ecosystem– atmosphere exchanges of carbon, water vapor, and pollutants. The instability of canopy flow regimes over complex terrain is critical for understanding what factors are essential to control exchanges between different canopy flow regimes. In this paper, an analytical criterion of instability...

Managers of the nearly 0.5 million ha of public lands in North and South Dakota, USA rely heavily on manual measurements of canopy height in autumn to ensure conservation of grassland structure for wildlife and forage for livestock. However, more comprehensive assessment of vegetation structure could be achieved for mixed-grass prairie by integrating field survey, topographic position (summit, ...

Studies on vegetation changes of rangelands under grazed and non-grazedconditions are of great importance in the range management planning programs. To determinethe change process of vegetation, this study was performed in Inche Shorezar site of Golestanprovince for nine years (1997-2005). The vegetation parameters were measured every year inseveral fixed plots inside and adjacent of exclosures...

Models estimating surface energy fluxes over partial canopy cover with thermal remote sensing must account for significant differences between the radiometric temperatures and turbulent exchange rates associated with the soil and canopy components of the thermal pixel scene. Recent progress in separating soil and canopy temperatures from dual angle composite radiometric temperature measurements...

Many parameters, such as albedo, vegetation index and leaf area index (LAI) inversed from satellite images, often get saturated when the surface vegetation cover reaches a certain high level. In order to analyze the saturation phenomena in parameter inversion, we analyze the changing of canopy reflectance and backscattering with increasing of LAI through PROSAIL and MIMICS model respectively. T...

Infrared surface temperatures from satellite sensors have been used to infer evaporation and soil moisture distribution over large areas. However, surface energy partitioning to latent versus sensible heat changes with surface vegetation cover and water availability. We tested a hypothesis that the relationship between surface temperature and canopy density is sensitive to seasonal changes in c...