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Author(s):
B. Gutierrez-Teira, Charles H. Luce, David E. Nagel
Year Published:

Cataloging Information

Topic(s):
Fire Effects
Ecological - Second Order
Vegetation
Water
Ecosystem(s):
Riparian woodland/shrubland

NRFSN number: 11402
FRAMES RCS number: 2397
Record updated:

Temperature is one of the most important factors governing stream ecological processes and biota. Solar radiation is a major heat input to stream, and may be a dominant factor controlling stream temperatures. The amount of solar radiation that enters a stream is regulated by the riparian zone, especially in small streams, thus major impacts on stream temperature will be caused by changes in vegetation near streams (Johnson and Jones, 2000; Johnson, 2004), changes that can be evaluated by the presence or absence of vegetation, but also by the different species found along the banks. Shade along a stream can be estimated from the ground with Spherical densiometers or hemispherical canopy photos. However, attempts to evaluate or model stream temperature patterns and impairment over river basins require estimates of shade over extensive areas. Satellite imagery provides one of the most practical means to provide such estimates. Satellite imagery is not only useful for handling large extents, but also is a technique that has been proven to effectively classify forest vegetation covers. We evaluated the utility of remote sensing to estimate stream shading and stream temperature using hemispherical photographs and stream temperature measurements in the Boise River Basin in Idaho.

Citation

Gutierrez-Teira, B; Luce, Charles H.; Nagel, David E. 2004. Effects of vegetation cover upon stream temperatures and radiation: perspectives for future extrapolation to large areas, poster. Advancing the fundamental sciences: a conference for Forest Service physical scientists; 2004 October 18-22; San Diego, CA.

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