Entry

Graduate

Presentation Date

4-27-2019

Hosting Institution

California State University, Fullerton

Location

Fullerton, California

Document Type

Presentation

Department

Natural Sciences

Supporting Program

UROC

Faculty Mentor

John Olson

Keywords

Species Distribution Models, Environmental DNA, Satellites, Remote Sensing, Fish, Species of Concern

Abstract

The lack of location data of threatened fish species can make the conservation of biodiversity difficult for land managers. This is especially true in remote places such as the North Slope of Alaska. Species Distribution Models (SDMs) are one way to predict fish distributions. To apply SDMs across landscapes we need environmental data characterizing the environmental spatial and temporal variation that could be related to species locations. As data cannot be effectively collected on the ground in the North Slope, remote sensing offers a way of characterizing the environment for these models. We characterized watershed environments using Earth Observations from a variety of platforms (i.e., measurements collected using aerial Synthetic Aperture Radar, MODIS, and LandSat satellites). Because river environments are controlled by up-stream conditions, we adapted a process of accumulating watershed environmental data for the contiguous US known as StreamCat (Hill et al. 2016) to the North Slope. The remote sensing data and the StreamCat process allowed us to measure spatial and temporal environmental variability for every stream segment across the entire North Slope. We saw several interesting patterns of inter-year & spatial trends. This includes noting that land surface temperature was warmer at lower latitudes and higher elevation than at higher latitudes. This approach helps us understand the arctic landscape and minimize the effects of oil and gas development on biodiversity across the North Slope.

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Additional Files

DoyleJessie_CSUResearchCompetition_190225JO.pdf (607 kB)
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