Spatially explicit maps of habitat relationships have proven to be valuable tools for conservation and management applications including evaluating how and which species may be impacted by large scale climate change, ongoing fragmentation of habitat, and local land-use practices. Studies have turned to remote sensing datasets as a way to...
Fire regimes across the western United States have been altered due to past land management and changing land use. Mitigating increased risks of wildfire occurrence in landscapes such as central Oregon requires landscape level management from both governmental and private organizations. Non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners manage a relatively small...
Landscape heterogeneity is thought to differ among farm management types (i.e. organic and conventional), and this difference is hypothesized to result in variations in pest control by natural enemies. However, it is unclear if these variations in pest control are driven by landscape structure or by farm management practices themselves....
Quantitative assessments of post-fire effects are key to improving our understanding of ecosystem resilience. While remote sensing technology has allowed us to assess post-fire landscape effects, we are often limited by the lack of information related to pre-fire forest attributes. As a result, our ability to interpret fire effects in...
Historically fire has been the primary disturbance factor in the sagebrush-steppe. The settlement of the West by Euro-Americans, grazing by domestic livestock, and the concomitant spread of invasive species have altered the historical fire regime. Understanding the long-term vegetation structure and fuel succession of the various sagebrush-dominated communities of this...
Remote sensing techniques have long been useful in quantifying changes in ecosystems and the field of remote sensing is constantly evolving to better assess and describe changes, both spatially and temporally. In this thesis I explored the novel use of two remote sensing methods to quantify ecosystems; repeat photograph to...