Decadal changes in a pacific estuary: A multi-source remote sensing approach for historical ecology

Abstract

In Pacific Coast salt marshes, only color and color IR aerial photography provide the spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution required to conduct long-term historic time series analysis of wetland change at the plant community level. We used historic aerial photographs with manual and automated image classification techniques to discern decadal-scale changes to salt marshes in Elkhorn Slough, California caused by off-farm sedimentation from 1971 to 2001. Change detection identified a process of plant succession that led to arroyo willow encroachment into pickleweed marsh. Changes observed were considered within the context of additional land use changes over a greater regional and time scale. Copyright © 2004 by V. H. Winston & Son, Inc. All rights reserved.