Hey conservation science fans,

• submitted this abstract for a talk I will be giving at the upcoming Smithsonian Institution GIS conference:

  Mapping South Asian dry dipterocarp forest using dual-season satellite imagery.
  Hugh Stimson, Melissa Songer & Peter Leimgruber
  National Zoological Park
  Conservation & Research Center

  Dry Dipterocarp Forest (DDF) is a highly seasonal Asian forest cover utilized by Eld’s Deer (Cervus eldi) and other threatened species of concern to Smithsonian conservation scientists. Few accurate maps of this habitat exist, making determination of the extent of wide-spread agricultural clearing difficult. Identifying DDF using remote sensing is challenging: spectrally it is similar to other forest types during the wet season and to agriculture or cleared areas during the dry season. We tested a different approach, exploiting DDF’s seasonal nature by comparing Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) values recorded over south Asia by the MODIS satellite sensor during the wet and dry seasons. Based on inter-season differences in leaf cover, we expect to separate DDF types from other forest, less seasonally dependant land cover types. Using higher resolution ASTER satellite data we performed an accuracy assessment of our final DDF map. We found that seasonal NDVI provides very good information for the delineation of DDF. Using these techniques we were able to accurately map DDF in over 80% of the area. Our maps proved to be significantly more accurate than existing maps of DDF.

• Just found out that the conifer water status detection paper I submitted way the hell back in March did in fact get rejected by Remote Sensing of Environment, but my co-author was moving to a new school at the time and forgot about it and so I never heard of it until now. Happily however, revisions have been made again and it is back in for it’s fourth turn through the review process. I feel good about this one.
• My freind and former colleague Jonathan Greenberg has just filed his completed Phd. dissertation. Turns out his middle name is “Asher”. To misqoute Red Green, “you have to a license to buy a gun, but they’ll sell any idiot a doctoral degree”. The component papers haven’t been published yet, but if you are interested in a sneak peek at the diss, it’s here: Monitoring Tropical and Montane Forest Dynamics and Structure Using Remote Sensing. I haven’t read it yet, so let me know what it’s about if you do. Especially the part with my name on it. Great titles though, and a cracking good intro.