On the Importance of High-Resolution Time Series of Optical Imagery for Quantifying the Effects of Snow Cover Duration on Alpine Plant Habitat

We investigated snow cover dynamics using time series of moderate (MODIS) to high (SPOT-4/5, Landsat-8) spatial resolution satellite imagery in a 3700 km2 region of the southwestern French Alps. Our study was carried out in the context of the SPOT (Take 5) Experiment initiated by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), with the aim of exploring the utility of high spatial and temporal resolution multispectral satellite imagery for snow cover mapping and applications in alpine ecology. Our three objectives were: (i) to validate remote sensing observations of first snow free day derived from the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) relative to ground-based measurements; (ii) to generate regional-scale maps of first snow free day and peak standing biomass derived from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI); and (iii) to examine the usefulness of these maps for habitat mapping of herbaceous vegetation communities above the tree line. Imagery showed strong agreement with ground-based measurements of snow melt-out date, although R2 was higher for SPOT and Landsat time series (0.92) than for MODIS (0.79). Uncertainty surrounding estimates of first snow free day was lower in the case of MODIS, however (±3 days as compared to ±9 days for SPOT and Landsat), emphasizing the importance of high temporal as well as high spatial resolution for capturing local differences in snow cover duration. The main floristic differences between plant communities were clearly visible in a two-dimensional habitat template defined by the first snow free day and NDVI at peak standing biomass, and these differences were accentuated when axes were derived from high spatial resolution imagery. Our work demonstrates the enhanced potential of high spatial and temporal resolution multispectral imagery for quantifying snow cover duration and plant phenology in temperate mountain regions, and opens new avenues to examine to what extent plant community diversity and functioning are controlled by snow cover duration.

[1]  S. Warren,et al.  A Model for the Spectral Albedo of Snow. II: Snow Containing Atmospheric Aerosols , 1980 .

[2]  C. Körner CO2 exchange in the alpine sedge Carex curvula as influenced by canopy structure, light and temperature , 1982, Oecologia.

[3]  P. Choler,et al.  Indicators of climate: Ecrins National Park participates in long-term monitoring to help determine the effects of climate change , 2016 .

[4]  M. Schulz,et al.  Consequences of climate change for runoff from Alpine regions , 2000, Annals of Glaciology.

[5]  Matthew Sturm,et al.  How alpine plant growth is linked to snow cover and climate variability , 2008 .

[6]  Sara Taskinen,et al.  smatr 3– an R package for estimation and inference about allometric lines , 2012 .

[7]  P. Choler,et al.  Niche differentiation and distribution of Carex curvula along a bioclimatic gradient in the southwestern Alps , 2002 .

[8]  Rik Leemans,et al.  Faculty Opinions recommendation of European phenological response to climate change matches the warming pattern. , 2006 .

[9]  A. Edwards,et al.  Simulating soil freeze/thaw cycles typical of winter alpine conditions: Implications for N and P availability , 2007 .

[10]  Jocelyn Chanussot,et al.  Improving MODIS Spatial Resolution for Snow Mapping Using Wavelet Fusion and ARSIS Concept , 2008, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[11]  M. Hantel,et al.  Sensitivity of Alpine snow cover to European temperature , 2007 .

[12]  G. Blöschl,et al.  Validation of MODIS snow cover images over Austria , 2006 .

[13]  W. Menzel,et al.  Discriminating clear sky from clouds with MODIS , 1998 .

[14]  John R. Dymond,et al.  Correction of the topographic effect in remote sensing , 1999, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[15]  Y. Durand,et al.  Reanalysis of 47 Years of Climate in the French Alps (1958–2005): Climatology and Trends for Snow Cover , 2009 .

[16]  S. Kotlarski,et al.  21st century climate change in the European Alps--a review. , 2014, The Science of the total environment.

[17]  Antoine Guisan,et al.  Tree line shifts in the Swiss Alps: Climate change or land abandonment? , 2007 .

[18]  M. F. Meier,et al.  Remote sensing of snow and ice. , 1980 .

[19]  Salit Kark,et al.  Predicting mountain plant richness and rarity from space using satellite‐derived vegetation indices , 2007 .

[20]  Robert J. Gurney,et al.  Simulating wind-affected snow accumulations at catchment to basin scales , 2013 .

[21]  Ali S. Hadi,et al.  Finding Groups in Data: An Introduction to Chster Analysis , 1991 .

[22]  N. DiGirolamo,et al.  MODIS snow-cover products , 2002 .

[23]  P. Teillet,et al.  On the Slope-Aspect Correction of Multispectral Scanner Data , 1982 .

[24]  W. D. Billings Arctic and Alpine Vegetations: Similarities, Differences, and Susceptibility to Disturbance , 1973 .

[25]  C. Körner,et al.  Topographically controlled thermal‐habitat differentiation buffers alpine plant diversity against climate warming , 2011 .

[26]  Michele Meroni,et al.  Remote sensing-based estimation of gross primary production in a subalpine grassland , 2012 .

[27]  P. Choler Consistent Shifts in Alpine Plant Traits along a Mesotopographical Gradient , 2005 .

[28]  Sonja Wipf,et al.  Winter climate change in alpine tundra: plant responses to changes in snow depth and snowmelt timing , 2009 .

[29]  Caspar A. Mücher,et al.  A new European Landscape Classification (LANMAP): A transparent, flexible and user-oriented methodology to distinguish landscapes , 2010 .

[30]  P. Choler,et al.  Working toward integrated models of alpine plant distribution , 2013, Alpine Botany.

[31]  Timothy R. Seastedt,et al.  TOPOGRAPHIC PATTERNS OF ABOVE‐ AND BELOWGROUND PRODUCTION AND NITROGEN CYCLING IN ALPINE TUNDRA , 1998 .

[32]  K. Moffett,et al.  Remote Sens , 2015 .

[33]  N. Molotch,et al.  Estimating the distribution of snow water equivalent using remotely sensed snow cover data and a spatially distributed snowmelt model: A multi-resolution, multi-sensor comparison , 2008 .

[34]  M. Beniston Is snow in the Alps receding or disappearing? , 2012 .

[35]  S. Warren,et al.  A Model for the Spectral Albedo of Snow. I: Pure Snow , 1980 .

[36]  Michele Brunetti,et al.  HISTALP—historical instrumental climatological surface time series of the Greater Alpine Region , 2007 .

[37]  E. Martin,et al.  The detailed snowpack scheme Crocus and its implementation in SURFEX v7.2 , 2012 .

[38]  W. Bowman,et al.  The Landscape Continuum: A Model for High-Elevation Ecosystems , 2004 .

[39]  R Core Team,et al.  R: A language and environment for statistical computing. , 2014 .

[40]  M Beniston,et al.  Shifting mountain snow patterns in a changing climate from remote sensing retrieval. , 2014, The Science of the total environment.

[41]  Xiangming Xiao,et al.  Modeling gross primary production of alpine ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau using MODIS images and climate data , 2007 .

[42]  Samuel Morin,et al.  Combining snowpack modeling and terrestrial laser scanner observations improves the simulation of small scale snow dynamics , 2016 .

[43]  Y. Arnaud,et al.  Linking glacier annual mass balance and glacier albedo retrieved from MODIS data , 2012 .

[44]  Y. Arnaud,et al.  Subpixel monitoring of the seasonal snow cover with MODIS at 250 m spatial resolution in the Southern Alps of New Zealand: Methodology and accuracy assessment , 2009 .

[45]  D. Hall,et al.  Accuracy assessment of the MODIS snow products , 2007 .

[46]  Thomas H. Painter,et al.  MULTISPECTRAL AND HYPERSPECTRAL REMOTE SENSING OF ALPINE SNOW PROPERTIES , 2004 .

[47]  Jens Kattge,et al.  The emergence and promise of functional biogeography , 2014, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[48]  C. Wessman,et al.  Long-term studies of snow-vegetation interactions , 1993 .

[49]  Thomas Grünewald,et al.  Dynamics of snow ablation in a small Alpine catchment observed by repeated terrestrial laser scans , 2012 .

[50]  M. Bavay,et al.  Understanding snow-transport processes shaping the mountain snow-cover , 2010 .

[51]  G. Liston,et al.  Introduction of Snow and Geomorphic Disturbance Variables into Predictive Models of Alpine Plant Distribution in the Western Swiss Alps , 2009 .

[52]  A. Kokhanovsky,et al.  Intercomparison of retrieval algorithms for the specific surface area of snow from near-infrared satellite data in mountainous terrain, and comparison with the output of a semi-distributed snowpack model , 2013 .

[53]  H. Messel,et al.  CHAPTER 3 – THE PHYSICAL PROCESSES , 1970 .

[54]  Andrew G. Klein,et al.  Validation of daily MODIS snow cover maps of the Upper Rio Grande River Basin for the 2000–2001 snow year , 2003 .

[55]  Alexander Prokop,et al.  Simulation of wind-induced snow transport and sublimation in alpine terrain using a fully coupled snowpack/atmosphere model , 2014 .

[56]  Gérard Dedieu,et al.  A Multi-Temporal and Multi-Spectral Method to Estimate Aerosol Optical Thickness over Land, for the Atmospheric Correction of FormoSat-2, LandSat, VENμS and Sentinel-2 Images , 2015, Remote. Sens..

[57]  Lluís Brotons,et al.  Land‐use changes as major drivers of mountain pine (Pinus uncinata Ram.) expansion in the Pyrenees , 2010 .

[58]  Stefan Wunderle,et al.  Alpine Grassland Phenology as Seen in AVHRR, VEGETATION, and MODIS NDVI Time Series - a Comparison with In Situ Measurements , 2008, Sensors.

[59]  J. Dedieu,et al.  Modelling snow cover duration improves predictions of functional and taxonomic diversity for alpine plant communities. , 2015, Annals of botany.

[60]  Claudia Notarnicola,et al.  Remote Sensing Snow Cover Maps from Modis Images at 250 M Resolution, Part 1: Algorithm Description , 2022 .

[61]  J. Dymond,et al.  Correcting satellite imagery for the variance of reflectance and illumination with topography , 2003 .

[62]  David Riaño,et al.  Assessment of different topographic corrections in Landsat-TM data for mapping vegetation types (2003) , 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[63]  J. Dedieu,et al.  Validation of and comparison between a semidistributed rainfall–runoff hydrological model (PREVAH) and a spatially distributed snow‐evolution model (SnowModel) for snow cover prediction in mountain ecosystems , 2015 .

[64]  L. Hinzman,et al.  Observations: Changes in Snow, Ice and Frozen Ground , 2007 .

[65]  Ross D. Brown,et al.  Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover Variability and Change, 1915-97. , 2000 .

[66]  J. Dozier Spectral Signature of Alpine Snow Cover from the Landsat Thematic Mapper , 1989 .

[67]  J. López‐Moreno,et al.  Will snow‐abundant winters still exist in the Swiss Alps in an enhanced greenhouse climate? , 2011 .

[68]  H. Löwe,et al.  Simulations of future snow cover and discharge in Alpine headwater catchments , 2009 .

[69]  Olivier Hagolle,et al.  SPOT-4 (Take 5): Simulation of Sentinel-2 Time Series on 45 Large Sites , 2015, Remote. Sens..

[70]  Stefan Wunderle,et al.  A satellite-based snow cover climatology (1985–2011) for the European Alps derived from AVHRR data , 2013 .

[71]  Olivier Hagolle,et al.  Impact of climate and land cover changes on snow cover in a small Pyrenean catchment , 2015 .

[72]  Jan Dick,et al.  Recent Plant Diversity Changes on Europe’s Mountain Summits , 2012, Science.

[73]  Pierre Etchevers,et al.  Reanalysis of 44 Yr of Climate in the French Alps (1958-2002): Methodology, Model Validation, Climatology, and Trends for Air Temperature and Precipitation , 2009 .

[74]  T. Barnett,et al.  Potential impacts of a warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions , 2005, Nature.