Monitoring forest regrowth following large scale fire using satellite data: A case study of Yellowstone National Park, USA

Abstract

Monitoring forest regrowth following major fires is important for understanding controls on forest regeneration and succession and detecting change in postfire plant communities. In this study we examined the extent to which forest regrowth following the 1988 Yellowstone National Park fires can be characterized by optical remote sensing data, and the spatial patterns associated with regrowth. Using a near-annual time series of Landsat satellite imagery, several satellite-based metrics were compared with field-based data of burn extent and post-fire stand structure and function. While there was little correlation between lodgepole pine density and our satellite metrics, single year regressions produced results over 80% and trend analysis of multiyear sites were able to explain 60 to 70% of the variability found between the ground collected data and the satellite metrics.