Research on Texas savannas : fractional woody cover mapping, potential woody cover modelling, and woody plant encroachment analysis

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dc.contributor.advisorCrews, Kelley A.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberYoung, Kenneth R
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMiller, Jennifer A
dc.contributor.committeeMemberArima, Eugenio Y
dc.contributor.committeeMemberHuebner, Donald J
dc.creatorYang, Xuebin, Ph. D.
dc.creator.orcid0000-0002-4022-5576
dc.date.accessioned2018-08-28T17:04:37Z
dc.date.available2018-08-28T17:04:37Z
dc.date.created2017-12
dc.date.issued2017-12
dc.date.submittedDecember 2017
dc.date.updated2018-08-28T17:04:37Z
dc.description.abstractTested in Texas savannas of a wide rainfall gradient, this dissertation endeavors to (1) map fractional woody cover at Landsat scale, for close and continuous woody plant encroachment monitoring, (2) model the pattern of potential woody cover over the present rainfall gradient, for implication of the end-point of woody plant encroachment, (3) analyze the rate and effect factors of woody plant encroachment under the regional context, for pertinent savanna management strategy. Web-Enabled Landsat Data (WELD) was used to calibrate the Salford Systems’ Classification and Regression Trees (CART) against training data of fractional woody cover derived from 1m resolution digital orthophotos. The CART model output was verified against an independent test data. This study provides a way to accurately monitor woody plant encroachment across savanna ecosystems at a fine spatial scale, and sets up a protocol for landscape components mapping at sub-pixel level in other ecosystems. The pattern of potential woody cover was modelled over the wide rainfall gradient at Landsat scale (30m) and MODIS scale (500m) respectively. While a positive linear relationship between potential woody cover and mean annual precipitation (MAP) was revealed at Landsat scale, a prominent three-segment relationship was observed at MODIS scale. This discrepancy corroborates the scale dependency of the primary determinants of savanna woody plant density. According to the three-segment pattern at MODIS scale, Texas savannas are divided into arid savanna (MAP < 600mm), semi-arid savanna (600mm < MAP < 735mm), and mesic savanna (MAP > 735mm). Analysis of the encroachment of Ashe juniper at its early life stage (initial ~20 years) at local (hectare) scale suggests that water availability has a significant positive effect on the encroachment rate in semi-arid savanna, but not in mesic savanna. In addition, a quadratic relationship was revealed between the encroachment rate and woody plant density in mesic savanna. That is, the encroachment rate increases with woody plant density by a threshold density, then starts decreasing with woody plant density. These results demonstrate that regional context such as rainfall and biological traits of woody species is critical to understand the trend of woody plant encroachment.
dc.description.departmentGeography and the Environment
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifierdoi:10.15781/T20863Q6N
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/68170
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectTexas savannas
dc.subjectFractional woody cover
dc.subjectPotential woody cover
dc.subjectWoody plant encroachment
dc.subjectRate
dc.subjectAshe juniper
dc.subjectRainfall gradient
dc.subjectQuantile regression
dc.titleResearch on Texas savannas : fractional woody cover mapping, potential woody cover modelling, and woody plant encroachment analysis
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.materialtext
thesis.degree.departmentGeography and the Environment
thesis.degree.disciplineGeography
thesis.degree.grantorThe University of Texas at Austin
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy

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