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Publications

Below is a list of the most recent EROS peer-reviewed scientific papers, reports, fact sheets, and other publications. You can search all our publication holdings by type, topic, year, and order.

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Filter Total Items: 2442

Projection of corn production and stover-harvesting impacts on soil organic carbon dynamics in the U.S. Temperate Prairies

Terrestrial carbon sequestration potential is widely considered as a realistic option for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. However, this potential may be threatened by global changes including climate, land use, and management changes such as increased corn stover harvesting for rising production of cellulosic biofuel. Therefore, it is critical to investigate the dynamics of soil organic carbo
Authors
Yiping Wu, Shuguang Liu, Claudia J. Young, Devendra Dahal, Terry L. Sohl, Brian Davis

The challenges of remote monitoring of wetlands

Wetlands are highly productive and support a wide variety of ecosystem goods and services. Various forms of global change impose compelling needs for timely and reliable information on the status of wetlands worldwide, but several characteristics of wetlands make them challenging to monitor remotely: they lack a single, unifying land-cover feature; they tend to be highly dynamic and their energy s
Authors
Alisa L. Gallant

Mapping wetlands and surface water in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America: Chapter 16

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) is one of the most highly productive wetland regions in the world. Prairie Pothole wetlands serve as a primary feeding and breeding habitat for more than one-half of North America’s waterfowl population, as well as a variety of songbirds, waterbirds, shorebirds, and other wildlife. During the last century, extensive land conversions from grassland with wetlands to
Authors
Jennifer R. Rover, David M. Mushet

The leading mode of observed and CMIP5 ENSO-residual sea surface temperatures and associated changes in Indo-Pacific climate

SSTs in the western Pacific Ocean have tracked closely with CMIP5 simulations despite recent hiatus cooling in the eastern Pacific. This paper quantifies these similarities and associated circulation and precipitation variations using the first global 1900–2012 ENSO-residual empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) of 35 variables: observed SSTs; 28 CMIP5 SST simulations; Simple Ocean Data Assimilati
Authors
Christopher C. Funk, Hoell. Andrew

Temperature impacts on the water year 2014 drought in California

California is experiencing one of the worst droughts on record. Here we use a hydrological model and risk assessment framework to understand the influence of temperature on the water year (WY) 2014 drought in California and examine the probability that this drought would have been less severe if temperatures resembled the historical climatology. Our results indicate that temperature played an impo
Authors
Shraddhanand Shukla, Mohammad Safeeq, Amir AghaKouchak, Kaiyu Guan, Christopher C. Funk

Using Landsat imagery to detect, monitor, and project net landscape change

Detailed landscape information is a necessary component to bird habitat conservation planning. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has been providing information on the Earth’s surface for over 40 years via the continuous series of Landsat satellites. In addition to operating, processing, and disseminating satellite images, EROS is the home to na
Authors
Ryan R. Reker, Terry L. Sohl, Alisa L. Gallant

Spatially explicit estimation of aboveground boreal forest biomass in the Yukon River Basin, Alaska

Quantification of aboveground biomass (AGB) in Alaska’s boreal forest is essential to the accurate evaluation of terrestrial carbon stocks and dynamics in northern high-latitude ecosystems. Our goal was to map AGB at 30 m resolution for the boreal forest in the Yukon River Basin of Alaska using Landsat data and ground measurements. We acquired Landsat images to generate a 3-year (2008–2010) compos
Authors
Lei Ji, Bruce K. Wylie, Dana R. N. Brown, Birgit E. Peterson, Heather D. Alexander, Michelle C. Mack, Jennifer R. Rover, Mark P. Waldrop, Jack W. McFarland, Xuexia Chen, Neal J. Pastick

Landsat surface reflectance data

Landsat satellite data have been produced, archived, and distributed by the U.S. Geological Survey since 1972. Users rely on these data for historical study of land surface change and require consistent radiometric data processed to the highest science standards. In support of the guidelines established through the Global Climate Observing System, the U.S. Geological Survey has embarked on product
Authors

Ten ways remote sensing can contribute to conservation

In an effort to increase conservation effectiveness through the use of Earth observation technologies, a group of remote sensing scientists affiliated with government and academic institutions and conservation organizations identified 10 questions in conservation for which the potential to be answered would be greatly increased by use of remotely sensed data and analyses of those data. Our goals w
Authors
Robert A. Rose, Dirck Byler, J. Ron Eastman, Erica Fleishman, Gary Geller, Scott Goetz, Liane Guild, Healy Hamilton, Matt Hansen, Rachel Headley, Jennifer Hewson, Ned Horning, Beth A. Kaplin, Nadine Laporte, Allison K. Leidner, Peter Leimgruber, Jeffrey T. Morisette, John Musinsky, Lilian Pintea, Ana Prados, Volker C. Radeloff, Mary Rowen, Sassan Saatchi, Steve Schill, Karyn Tabor, Woody Turner, Anthony Vodacek, James Vogelmann, Martin Wegmann, David Wilkie, Cara Wilson

Forecasting sagebrush ecosystem components and greater sage-grouse habitat for 2050: learning from past climate patterns and Landsat imagery to predict the future

Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems constitute the largest single North American shrub ecosystem and provide vital ecological, hydrological, biological, agricultural, and recreational ecosystem services. Disturbances have altered and reduced this ecosystem historically, but climate change may ultimately represent the greatest future risk. Improved ways to quantify, monitor, and predict climate-d
Authors
Collin G. Homer, George Z. Xian, Cameron L. Aldridge, Debra K. Meyer, Thomas R. Loveland, Michael S. O'Donnell

Soil nutrient budgets following projected corn stover harvest for biofuel production in the conterminous United States

Increasing demand for food and biofuel feedstocks may substantially affect soil nutrient budgets, especially in the United States where there is great potential for corn (Zea mays L) stover as a biofuel feedstock. This study was designed to evaluate impacts of projected stover harvest scenarios on budgets of soil nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) currently and in the future across th
Authors
Zhengxi Tan, Shuguang Liu

Downscaling 250-m MODIS growing season NDVI based on multiple-date landsat images and data mining approaches

The satellite-derived growing season time-integrated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GSN) has been used as a proxy for vegetation biomass productivity. The 250-m GSN data estimated from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors have been used for terrestrial ecosystem modeling and monitoring. High temporal resolution with a wide range of wavelengths make the MODIS l
Authors
Yingxin Gu, Bruce K. Wylie