2600 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 7, NO.
6, JUNE 2014
Continuous Fields From Imaging Spectrometer Data
for Ecosystem Parameter Mapping and Their Potential
for Animal Habitat Assessment in Alpine Regions
Mathias Kneubühler, Alexander Damm, Anna-Katharina Schweiger, Anita C. Risch, Martin Schütz, and
Michael E. Schaepman, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—Remote sensing offers an objective and efficient way to
monitor ecosystem properties including their spatial variability
across different land cover types. Especially, the representation of
gradients of biochemical and structural properties of ecosystems
using continuous fields (CF) approaches bears advantages com-
pared to discrete land cover classification schemes. This paper
presents a concept to synergistically generate CF maps of an alpine
ecosystem parameter, i.e., total surface water content, from imaging
spectrometer (IS) data. Further, the potential of linking such maps
to ecological patterns, i.e., the spatial distribution of large ungulates
is being assessed. In vegetated areas, total surface water content is
considered as a surrogate of plant physiological status. Water is,
besides temperature, light, or nutrients, an important limiting
growth factor determining biomass production and therefore
potential animal forage quantity in alpine grasslands. Resource
ecology interested in trophic interactions between large ungulates
and their forage requires spatial and temporal information on
ecosystem properties and processes. The study area is located in
the upper Trupchun Valley (Val Trupchun) in the Swiss National
Park (SNP). The valley is famous for its high densities of chamois
(Rupicapra rupicapra L.), ibex (Capra ibex L.), and red deer (Cervus
elaphus L.). CF maps of total surface water content were derived
from Airborne Prism EXperiment (APEX) IS data collected over
the SNP in June 2010 and 2011. Abundance maps of predominant
land cover classes were derived from linear spectral mixture analy-
sis (SMA). They were then combined with water content informa-
tion of the respective land cover originating from either empirically
or physically based approaches. The resulting CF maps depicted a
spatially continuous representation of relative total surface water
content. APEX IS data from two consecutive seasons revealed
differences in total surface water content in June 2010 and 2011,
predominantly related to an advanced phenological development in
spring 2011 and to considerable differences in snow cover between
the 2 years. Linking total surface water content of grasslands to
observed ungulates spatial distributions did not reveal any statisti-
cally significant patterns of habitat use. We conclude that water
availability in Val Trupchun may not be the dominant limiting
factor for potential forage quantity (biomass), or that ungulates
choose their grazing sites based on other criteria, i.e., high nutritious
Manuscript received August 14, 2013; revised April 15, 2014; accepted May
07, 2014. Date of publication May 28, 2014; date of current version August 01,
2014.
M. Kneubühler, A. Damm, and M. E. Schaepman are with the Department of
Geography, University of Zurich, Zürich 8057, Switzerland (e-mail: kneub@geo.
uzh.ch; alexander.damm@geo.uzh.ch; michael.schaepman@geo.uzh.ch).
A.-K. Schweiger is with the Research Department, Swiss National Park,
Zernez 7530, Switzerland (e-mail: anna.schweiger@nationalpark.ch).
A. C. Risch and M. Schütz are with the Community Ecology, Swiss Federal
Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf 8903,
Switzerland (e-mail: anita.risch@wsl.ch; martin.schuetz@wsl.ch).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSTARS.2014.2323574
1939-1404 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
quality (P, N). Nevertheless, multitemporal CF maps derived from
APEX IS data were found to provide spatially explicit and fine-
scaled information for analyses of an ecosystem’s total surface water
content. The combination of multitemporal CF maps of a wide
range of ecosystem parameters and more accurate and extensive
observations of animal habitat use will contribute to ongoing and
future vegetation-ungulates research in the SNP.
Index Terms—Airborne imaging spectroscopy, continuous field
mapping, ecosystem, land cover, vegetation, water content.
I. INTRODUCTION
R EMOTE sensing (RS) provides spatial and temporal data
to efficiently monitor the actual status of ecosystems, in
particular, habitat extent and condition [1]. The development of
spatially accurate and high-resolution RS techniques allows
mapping of ecological properties like terrain properties, exposi-
tion, land cover, and could, in turn, help explain ecological
processes. Environmental variables can be treated as data layers
and, in combination with respective models, can be used to define
an “envelope” of suitable conditions for specific plant or animal
species. Nowadays, RS consequently allows for habitat model-
ing and environmental impact assessment [2], [3]. While RS data
allow derivation of abiotic factors (e.g., elevation, exposition,
and terrain features) in high detail, it remains a demanding task to
obtain relevant information regarding the distribution of biotic
resources such as forage quality and quantity [4], [5]. Indeed,
imaging spectroscopy (IS) has been shown to increasingly
support monitoring abundance and distribution of plant species
[1], [6]. In recent years, IS has, in addition, proven to successfully
provide quantitative information on biochemical properties, i.e.,
plant nutrient contents [6]–[8], which then might be used for
assessing forage quality for consumers [9], [10] or investigating
ecosystem services [11], [12].
Information on prevalent land cover is typically required in
many RS approaches used to estimate either qualitative or
quantitative landscape properties. Land cover information is
mainly applied to optimize the parameterization of algorithms
or to incorporate a priori knowledge to constrain the retrieval of
landscape properties. Generally, RS concepts to map land cover
follow either discrete land cover classes or continuous fields
(CF). Since discrete land cover mapping represents landscapes as
a spatial mosaic of classified entities [13], [14], such classes
cannot reproduce the full range and variability of land surface
properties that often are necessary to adequately quantify and
manage landscape patterns and processes [14], [15]. In contrast,
KNEUBÜHLER et al.: CF FROM IMAGING SPECTROMETER DATA FOR ECOSYSTEM PARAMETER MAPPING
approximating land cover information in a continuous way using
the concept of CF allows representing gradients of biochemical
and structural ecosystem properties rather than classified entities
of them. Consequently, CF representations are increasingly
being preferred over discrete land cover classification
approaches [13], [16]–[18] and considered as a more realistic
approach to assess land surface properties compared to discrete
classes with “hard” boundaries.
Environmental scientists have applied species distribution
modeling (SDM) approaches to link species location information
with environmental data for quite some time [19]. SDM has also
been referred to as environmental, or species niche modeling,
habitat suitability modeling or predictive mapping [19]. Franklin
[19] defines predictive vegetation mapping as predicting the
geographic distribution of vegetation composition across a
landscape from mapped environmental variables.
Predictive vegetation mapping is founded in vegetation
gradient analysis and requires available maps of environmental
variables [19]. Kessel [20] originally described gradient model-
ing as a new approach to resource management in Glacier
National Park. This work together with studies by Hoffer [21]
and Strahler [22], where digital environmental data layers (e.g.,
topographic variables) were incorporated as ancillary data to
develop forest maps from Landsat data, are considered as first
examples of predictive vegetation mapping [19]. Gradient
modeling or predictive vegetation mapping establishes a rela-
tionship between environmental variables that are correlated
with environmental or resource gradients and species distribu-
tion patterns [19].
Franklin [19] states that predictive vegetation mapping is
directly and methodologically related to animal habitat modeling
to produce a predictive map of habitat suitability [19]. Environ-
mental factors that affect animals include vegetation composition
and structure. Vegetation type is often the primary variable
driving an animal habitat model because of its direct importance
for food [19].
Foraging strategies of consumers are the central processes
studied in resource ecology, the ecology of trophic interactions
between consumers and their resources [23]. Trophic interac-
tions between large ungulates and their primary food resource,
the vegetation, are of particular relevance because large ungu-
lates 1) spend most of their time feeding; 2) consume high
amounts of biomass; 3) have relatively accurate spatial memory;
4) are highly mobile and make choices when to feed whereon
various spatiotemporal scales; and 5) have a large impact on
quantitative and qualitative spatiotemporal pattern of vegetation
[4], [23], [24]. In contrast to a subset of African (e.g., [25]–[27])
and North American ecosystems (e.g., [28]–[30]) knowledge
about niche differentiation of ungulate communities in the
European Alps is still very limited. Although there have been
studies investigating either habitat choice [31], [32], diet choice
[33]–[35], or population dynamics [36]–[38] of ungulates in the
European Alps, a comprehensive picture is missing. In particular,
it remains unclear if and how competition or ecological facilita-
tion shapes ungulate communities and foraging strategies in
these ecosystems. Consequently, understanding the variability
or potential limitation of forage quality and quantity in space and
time is essential to explain habitat selection and the role of
2601
competition and facilitation in such multispecies ungulate
assemblages in the European Alps.
MacKey and Lindenmayer [39] mention the complexity of
factors that potentially influence patterns of animal distribution
and conclude on the need to examine spatially distributed
patterns and processes and the role of environmental constraints
and resource availability. Austin [40], [41] discusses three types
of ecological gradients (predictors), namely resource (nutrients,
water, and light), direct gradients (e.g., temperature and pH) and
indirect gradients (e.g., geology, topography, and climate).
Temperature, light, water, and mineral nutrients directly influ-
ence both animal physiology and the productivity and structure
of vegetation upon which animals depend for shelter, nutrients,
and food [39], [42]. The primary resource water exerts funda-
mental control on biological processes, since it influences the rate
of biochemical reactions, comprises a basic resource needed to
sustain physiological functions, and is indispensable for biolog-
ical growth [39]. Spatial and temporal patterns of movement
relate to an animal’s need for forage (among others), being
largely driven by primary environmental resources such as
available water [39], [43].
Gradient modeling or predictive parameter mapping as out-
lined above is the original concept behind a number of studies
based on RS data that aim to represent ecosystem properties in a
continuous way. A few ecological studies applied CF to assess
plant functional traits [17], [44], floristic gradients [45], forest
diversity [46], or peatland patterns [47]. One example of
CF-based products is the suite of annual land cover products
originating from the moderate resolution imaging spectrometer
(MODIS) providing global layers of vegetation CF (VCF) in a
500-m subpixel resolution. Considered land cover classes are
bare ground, herbaceous, and tree cover [48], with the latter
being further split into percentage abundances of evergreen,
deciduous, coniferous, and broadleaf cover. The MODIS VCF
characterization approach has then been used to produce 30 m
VCF layers of the United States [49], to develop a tree cover
validation data set in Zambia [50], or to complement an approach
to analyze fire incidences based on land cover types in South
America [51].
In this study, we applied an RS concept to continuously map
an ecosystem’s total surface water content, indicative for forage
quantity in vegetated areas, and assessed the suitability of these
maps to increase understanding on the habitat use of large
ungulates. Water content is an indicative proxy to characterize
potential forage quantity because plant growth or biomass
production, respectively, is strongly related to water availability
in ecosystems worldwide [52], [53]. Additionally, water avail-
ability also determines forage quality since both soil microbial
activity that mobilizes nutrients and nutrient uptake by the roots
are being reduced when water content in the soil is low [54], [55].
More generally, water content maps may be directly used to
monitor plant water stress caused by droughts e.g., in agriculture
[6], [56]–[58], and to prevent wildfires in forestry [59]–[61].
Further, such maps might indirectly serve as surrogates for the
physiological status of plants and the vegetation, respectively
[58], [62], [63]. Photosynthetic activity [64], [65] and plant shoot
quantity (aboveground biomass) [65]–[68] and quality (nutrient
content) [67], [69], [70] have all been shown to be closely and
2602 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 7, NO. 6, JUNE 2014
Fig. 1. True color composite of a mosaicked APEX scene of upper Val Trupchun
acquired on June 24, 2010.
significantly related to water content. Thus, water content re-
presents a measurable parameter that can be used as a surrogate
for other plant-related factors that are more difficult to measure.
Such quantitative and qualitative vegetation characteristics are,
in addition, important factors in affecting trophic interactions
between vegetation as food resource and herbivores as the
primary consumers, particularly influencing foraging patterns
of the latter.
We used data of the Airborne Prism EXperiment (APEX)
imaging spectrometer [71], collected over the Central European
Alps region of the Swiss National Park (SNP), to map the total
surface water content of this environment. The specific objec-
tives of this study were 1) to define and apply a methodological
framework to assess the ecosystem’s total surface water content
on a per-pixel basis; 2) to generate CF maps of two consecutive
years to assess temporal variations of total surface water content
in the study area; and 3) to assess the potential of linking CF maps
to spatial patterns of habitat use of a multispecies ungulate
community.
Results of this study are considered to serve as a guideline on
how IS data, in combination with a method of subpixel assess-
ment of ecosystem properties can support research relying on
quantitative information of spatiotemporal dynamics. More spe-
cifically, IS allows the simultaneous acquisition of a large
number of spectrally continuous bands and therefore provides
a wealth of data for optimal land cover class specific assessment
of an ecosystem parameter (i.e., total surface water content). We
claim to look at several CF simultaneously by separating their
information content using spectral mixture analysis (SMA).
Attribution of abundances of multiple CF is only possible at
high quality with the advent of having high-dimensional data,
such as presented. The approach accounts for the complexity of
the landscape and incorporates subpixel information into a CF
approach. Therefore, it may be useful for habitat assessment to
monitor ecosystem responses to environmental change or to
TABLE I
APEX PERFORMANCE AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE VNIR AND
SWIR DETECTOR
represent gradients of ecosystem parameters at the landscape
level, e.g., related to the water cycle, carbon cycle (biomass,
NPP), or nutrient cycles (N, P, fiber content, etc.).
II. STUDY AREA AND DATA
A. Swiss National Park (SNP)
The SNP is located in the south-eastern part of Switzerland and
covers an area of . About are covered by
vegetation, with forests occupying , alpine grasslands
and subalpine grasslands [72], [73]. Elevation
ranges from 1350 to 3170 m above sea level (asl). Land cover in
the upper Trupchun Valley (Val Trupchun), our specific study
area (Fig. 1), is composed of alpine grassland communities
distributed over a large gradient of altitude, rocks, and bare soil,
snow fields depending on the season and open forest stands of
Swiss stone pine and larch (Pinus cembra L./Larix decidua Mill.)
up to roughly 2000 m asl.
The SNP is the largest protected area in Switzerland and the
country’s only national park. It offers a great potential to study
ecosystem processes in the absence of human intervention. The
Val Trupchun is famous for its exceptionally high densities of
chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra L.), ibex (Capra ibex L.) and red
deer (Cervus elaphus L.).
B. APEX IS Data
APEX IS data sets of two consecutive years were collected
over the upper Val Trupchun on June 24, 2010 and June 26, 2011.
These data sets were part of an attempt to cover large areas of the
SNP with APEX IS data on a recurring basis to assess ecosystem
processes over time. APEX measures the solar reflected radiance
in the wavelength range from roughly 380 to 2500 nm with up to
334 reconfigurable spectral bands in the visible/near infrared
(VNIR) and 198 spectral bands in the shortwave infrared (SWIR)
spectral region [71]. The pushbroom scanner’s 1000 spatial
across track pixels covered a field of view (FOV) of 28 (Table I).
The study site was imaged with two flight lines at a flight level
of 6500 m asl, resulting in across track pixel sizes ranging from
1.5 to 2.4 m, depending on actual terrain height. The pixel size
was resampled to 2 m. Individual flight lines of APEX IS data
were geometrically and radiometrically corrected using the
PARGE [74] and ATCOR-4 [75] standard approaches. The used
parametric geocoding approach reconstructs the scanning geom-
etry of each pixel considering various input data, i.e., boresight
information, flight positioning data, and terrain elevation data.
KNEUBÜHLER et al.: CF FROM IMAGING SPECTROMETER DATA FOR ECOSYSTEM PARAMETER MAPPING
TABLE II
COUNTS OF LARGE UNGULATE SPECIES GROUPS IN VAL TRUPCHUN IN SUMMER 2010
AND 2011
Noncovered areas were filled by data interpolation using bilinear
interpolated gaps. This interpolation method allows preserving
the original radiometry in mapped areas and only interpolates
data in data gaps. The final pixel size was resampled to 2 m and an
evaluation of the resulting geometric accuracy using 15 ground
control points revealed a total uncertainty of , which
corresponds to a total pixel shift of 1.3–1.9 pixels,
pixel. The atmospheric correction approach is based on a pre-
calculated look-up-table, modeled with the atmospheric radiative
transfer (RT) code MODTRAN5. The definition of an atmo-
sphere type and an aerosol model (in our case mid latitude
summer, and rural aerosol model) in addition with image based
estimates of atmospheric water vapor and visibility allows
selecting respective LUT entries to compensate atmospheric
effects in measured radiance data and to provide top-of-canopy
hemispherical conical reflectance factor (HCRF) data. An
evaluation of the radiometric performance using three in situ
measured surface reflectances of invariant targets revealed an
average RMSE of 15% considering the entire wavelength range
(data not shown). Subsequent analyses were performed on
mosaicked HCRF data (for terminology see [76]).
C. Spatial Distribution of Ungulates
The SNP’s research department monitored ungulate popula-
tion sizes and distributions within the park for decades using the
same method. On a day with good visibility, the SNP’s park
rangers simultaneously mapped the position of all ungulate
groups in Val Trupchun, always using the same observation
points that overview the entire area. We used animal data
collected in summer 2010 and 2011 (Table II) to analyze if
there were differences in total surface water content between the
grassland areas used by the animals from 1 year to the other.
III. METHODS
A. Continuous Field Mapping
The ecosystem parameter total surface water content was
mapped using the proposed CF approach. The CF maps combine
subpixel abundance estimates of predominant land cover classes
(both vegetated and nonvegetated) in the upper Trupchun Valley
(i.e., forest stands, grassland, and rock/soil and snow) and
quantitative ecosystem parameters, in this particular case, total
surface water content. Land cover abundances of user defined
endmembers of forest stands, grassland, rock/soil, and snow
were derived using constraint linear SMA [7], [77] over the full
set of available APEX bands, and requiring the abundances
within a pixel to sum to unity while still allowing abundances
to lie below 0 or above 1 [78]. The introduction of a shade
2603
endmember resulted in neglectable impact, most probably due to
a high solar zenith angle of 32 during both data acquisitions in
2010 and 2011, and was therefore abandoned. Due to the lack of
ground truth in our study, an analysis of the statistics of the
residual error image of the SMA provided the only possibility to
assess the quality of the resulting land cover abundance maps.
Based on discrete classes obtained from an additional maximum
likelihood classification of forest stands, grassland, rock/soil,
and snow, the class specific RMSE within the SMA error image
was assessed. The mean band-wise RMSE values were 1.18%
reflectance ( reflectance) for forest areas (dominant
abundance), 1.66% reflectance ( reflectance) for grass-
land areas (dominant abundance), 1.36% reflectance (
reflectance) for soil/rock areas (dominant abundance), and 2.03%
reflectance ( reflectance) for snow-covered areas,
respectively (2011 data). Water content estimates for the individ-
ual land cover types were retrieved from APEX IS data using
empirical and physically based approaches (see next section).
1) Water Content Estimation: The water content of the four
main land cover types present in Val Trupchun (forest, grassland,
rock/soil, and snow) was estimated using spectral indices
identified from literature, and a physical approach for the
grassland. The main emphasis in this study was to
demonstrate the potential of using continuous information
synergistically derived from an IS in ecosystem studies rather
than fundamentally improving the accuracy of parameter
derivation (i.e., water content) from such data itself.
Consequently, the choice of indices to estimate the water
content of some land cover types might not yet represent the
best possible solution, but was considered accurate for our
purpose. The identification of more robust approaches to
increase the accuracy would need further assessment.
The specific index to predict water content of snow-covered
areas was the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) [79].
NDSI was originally developed for the broad spectral bands of
LANDSAT TM as [80]
where TM2 and TM5 are LANDSAT TM bands 2
( μ ) and 5 ( μ ). Accordingly, respec-
tive APEX reflectance data were spectrally convolved to match
the LANDSAT broadband configuration (refer to [81] for a
description of the convolution) and the NDSI was afterwards
applied. For our purpose, we assumed that high NDSI values
indicate high snow cover, which is in turn related to high water
content. In literature, the mean error of subpixel snow cover
estimation of NDSI is reported to be less than 10% over the entire
range of 0.0–1.0 [79].
For forest stands, water content was related to the Normalized
Difference Infrared Index (NDII) [82], which was found to be
sensitive to changes in water content of plant canopies. NDII
comprises NIR and SWIR spectral information and is defined
as [83]
where and are the reflectances at 0.85 and μ ,
respectively. Wavelengths slightly differ in literature. However,
2604 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 7, NO. 6, JUNE 2014

in this study, APEX spectral bands closest to the indicated NDII

bands were used. NDII is reported to be linearly related to canopy
moisture with an [82], and linearly related to canopy
equivalent water thickness for a large range of land cover classes
with an [84].
The estimation of surface soil water content (and potentially
on rocks) was based on the Normalized Soil Moisture Index
(NSMI) [85] as

where and are the reflectances at 1.80 and

μ , respectively. In our case, APEX spectral bands
closest to the indicated NSMI bands were used. A high linear
correlation ( , ) between NSMI de-
rived surface soil moisture and field reference data of upper 5 cm
soil column is reported in literature [85].
The canopy water content of grassland was retrieved by
applying an inversion of the combined one-dimension (1-D)
RT models PROSPECT [86] and SAILh [87]. The estimation of
vegetation variables using model inversion was based on a look-
up-table approach. The leaf level variables chlorophyll content,
dry matter content, and water content as well as the canopy
parameter LAI were kept free within prior defined ranges and
25 000 combinations were randomly sampled assuming uni-
form distributions within the defined parameter range. The
quasi-inversion minimizes a cost function, which corresponds
in our case to the relative RMSE between the measured and the
simulated surface reflectance signal, and considers the entire
wavelength range from 400 to 2500 nm. The canopy water Fig. 2. Generation of CF map of total surface water content.
content was finally calculated as product of the leaf level water
content from PROSPECT and the leaf area index estimate from
SAILh. In literature, an uncertainty of space based canopy respectively. The spectral indices maps were subsequently
water content estimates of various agricultural crops using multiplied with the corresponding land cover abundance
an LUT approach is reported as (15%) and maps. For grassland, the canopy water content map derived
[88]. A second study on canopy water content of from the physical model was multiplied with the grassland
pioneer vegetation and grassland derived from PROSAIL abundance values. The final integration of the individual
simulations and subsequent validation with in situ field spec- water content maps into a combined product resulted in a
trometer data reports uncertainties of (13.6%) map of CF values of total surface water content. This total
and for a homogeneous site and uncertainties of surface water content map represents water content values in
(14%) and for a heterogeneous site, relative units on a per-pixel basis.
respectively [89]. Given the consistency of reported uncer-
B. Animal Positions and Water Content
tainties, we assume similar accuracies in grassland canopy
water content in our study. To evaluate the spatial distributions of ungulates on grasslands
2) Generation of CF Maps of Total Surface Water in Val Trupchun and its relation to total surface water content, CF
Content: The combination of quantitative ecosystem para- values for total surface water content were extracted for every
meters (i.e., total surface water content) and land cover position of an ungulate group mapped in Val Trupchun in
abundance information is the key step to generate the summer 2010 and summer 2011. We investigated the differences
envisaged CF maps (Fig. 2). Essential steps that have to be in total surface water content between both years for all areas
applied before combining all input data are 1) to scale the water used by the single species (chamois, ibex, and red deer), by the
indices values to a common basis and 2) to adjust the SMA two subfamilies Caprinae Gray (chamois and ibex) and Cervinae
derived land cover abundances to be between 0 and 1. The maps Goldfuss (red deer), and by all three species. We also tested for
of spectral indices (i.e., NDSI, NDII, and NSMI) were linearly differences in total surface water content between areas used by
scaled to ranges between 0 and 1 [79], [82], [85], thus depicting ungulates (all three species combined) in 2010 and areas they
low to high water content of the respective indices. Land cover would have used if they were in the positions of 2011, and vice
abundances with values below 0 or above 1 (as a result of versa. Further, we investigated the differences in total surface
constraint linear SMA with per-pixel abundances summing to water content of areas used by the single species and the two
unity while allowing values below 0 or above 1) were set to 0 or 1, subfamilies when data from the 2 years were combined. We
KNEUBÜHLER et al.: CF FROM IMAGING SPECTROMETER DATA FOR ECOSYSTEM PARAMETER MAPPING 2605

Fig. 4. CF map of relative total surface water content for June 24, 2010.
Fig. 3. Subset of a valley slope in Val Trupchun, depicting a true color
representation (left), relative total surface water content based on discrete land
cover classes (middle) and relative total surface water content based on a CF
mapping approach including subpixel abundances of land cover classes (right).

applied the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test for all compar-

isons. For spatial data analysis, we used ArcGIS (version 10.0,
Environmental Systems Research Institute, Redlands, CA, US)
and for statistical analysis the freeware R (version 2.15.1, R
Development Core Team, Vienna, AT).

IV. RESULTS
A. CF Maps of Total Surface Water Content
The advantage of using a CF approach that includes subpixel
land cover abundances to map gradients of ecosystem parameters
instead of discrete classification approaches is exemplarily
shown in Fig. 3 for a subset of a steep valley slope in Val
Trupchun. A true color representation (APEX IS data of June 24,
2010) of an area composed of grasslands and soils of varying
cover density, as well as rock and snow patches is given in Fig. 3
(left). Relative total surface water content values derived from Fig. 5. CF map of relative total surface water content for June 26, 2011.
1) a mapping approach based on discrete land cover classes and
2) the CF approach as described in Section III-A are shown in
Fig. 3 (middle and right), respectively. The discrete approach total surface water content amounted to 0.170 for 2010 and to
(Fig. 3, middle) no longer incorporates the subpixel abundance 0.074 for 2011.
estimates of all present land cover classes but only the dominant The availability of multitemporal data sets allowed assessing
class. As a consequence, the respective total surface water spatial differences in derived total surface water content between
content map is subject to a blocky pattern of water content the two dates. Fig. 6 shows the percentage difference in relative
values and continuous gradients are no longer present over total surface water content between the two CF maps of 2010
distinct land cover borders. The CF map (Fig. 3, right), in (Fig. 4) and 2011 (Fig. 5). Roughly 66% of the study area
contrary, contains smooth gradients across land cover classes changed less than 5% in relative total surface water content
and therefore represents the actual situation more realistically. (blueish to reddish colors). Dark blue and dark red denote areas
CF maps of relative total surface water content of the upper Val with positive ( > ) and negative differences ( > ) between
Trupchun for June 24, 2010 and June 26, 2011, respectively (data both years. Large negative differences (red) were mainly found at
values between and high altitudes, whereas large positive differences (blue) were
) are shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The mean relative value of predominantly present below the tree line.
2606 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 7, NO. 6, JUNE 2014
Fig. 6. Difference map (%) of relative total surface water content between values
of June 24, 2010 and June 26, 2011, respectively.
Fig. 7. Boxplots for the relative total surface water content of areas used by
(a) three ungulate species (chamois, ibex, red deer), (b) two ungulate subfamilies
(Caprinae, Cervinae) in Val Trupchun in summer 2010 (i.e., 10) and summer
2011 (i.e., 11), respectively. Horizontal bars represent the median, box heights the
interquartile range, and whiskers span interquartile range. Outliers ( >
interquartile range) are not shown. Different letters above the whiskers indicate
significant differences ( < ) between the groups.
B. Linking the Spatial Distribution of Ungulates to CF Maps
No significant yearly differences in total surface water content
were found for grassland areas used by the three species
[Kruskal-Wallis , , > >
, Fig. 7(a)] or the two subfamilies [Kruskal-Wallis
, , > , Fig. 7(b)].
The yearly difference in total surface water content was signifi-
cant for areas used by all three species (Kruskal-Wallis
, , < , Fig. 8:
compare “2010” and “2011”). Considering areas used by all
ungulate species in 2010 and potentially used if they were in the
same positions as in 2011, no significant differences were
obvious (Kruskal-Wallis , ,
> , Fig. 7 compare “2010” with “2010_2011”).
The same applies to areas used by all ungulate species in 2011
and potentially used if they were in the same positions as in 2010
Fig. 8. Boxplots for the relative total surface water content of areas used by the
three ungulate species (chamois, ibex, red deer) combined in Val Trupchun in
summer 2010 and summer 2011. Next to the boxplots for the years (2010, 2011),
the boxplots for the water content of the areas the ungulates would have used if
they were in the same positions as in the other year are shown (2010_2011: water
content of 2010 if the animals were in the 2011 positions, 2011_2010: water
content of 2011 if the animals were in the 2010 positions). Horizontal bars
represent the median, box heights the interquartile range, and whiskers span
interquartile range. Outliers > interquartile range) are not shown. Differ-
ent letters above the whiskers indicate significant differences ( < ) between
the groups.
Fig. 9. Boxplots for the relative total surface water content of areas used by
(a) three ungulate species (chamois, ibex, red deer) and (b) two ungulate
subfamilies (Caprinae, Cervinae) in Val Trupchun in summer 2010 and 2011
combined. Horizontal bars represent the median, box heights the interquartile
range, and whiskers span interquartile range. Outliers ( > interquartile
range) are not shown. Different letters above the whiskers indicate significant
differences ( < ) between the groups.
(Kruskal-Wallis , , >
, Fig. 8: compare “2011” with “2011_2010”). When we
combined the total surface water content data from 2010 to 2011,
we neither found differences between the areas used by the
three species [Kruskal-Wallis , ,
> , Fig. 9(a)], nor between the areas used by two
subfamilies [Kruskal-Wallis , ,
, Fig. 9(b)].
V. DISCUSSION
The concept of using CF allows a realistic representation of
ecosystem parameters including their gradients and overcomes
limitations of common mapping approaches based on a discre-
tization of land surface properties in classes [16]–[18]. A meth-
odological framework was presented to synergistically derive
continuous relative information of total surface water content
in an alpine ecosystem dominated by forest stands, grassland,
soil/rock, and snow patches from IS data. In vegetated areas, total
surface water content was considered as a surrogate of plant
KNEUBÜHLER et al.: CF FROM IMAGING SPECTROMETER DATA FOR ECOSYSTEM PARAMETER MAPPING
TABLE III
PHENOLOGICAL INDICATORS RECORDED IN VAL TRUPCHUN FOR THE YEARS 2010
AND 2011
physiological status. It therefore serves as a proxy to determine
potential forage quantity of grasslands, and its predictive power
to trace movement patterns of large ungulates was assessed.
A. CF of Total Surface Water Content
Multitemporal CF maps of total surface water content revealed
changes in water content over time. The presented difference
map (Fig. 6) shows small-scale, subtle changes of max. 5%
mainly in grasslands and, on the other hand, large variations in
total surface water content between June 24, 2010 and June 26,
2011 for forested and high elevation areas. For snow-covered
areas, large differences in total surface water content between the
2 years are associated with the presence or absence of snow
patches in respective areas. Although IS data were acquired on
almost identical days of the year (DOY, i.e., June 24 and June 26)
in two consecutive years, considerably less snow was present
in the high altitudes in 2011 compared to 2010 (dark red areas in
Fig. 6). Further, Fig. 6 depicts large positive differences (blue) in
total surface water content for forest-covered areas. These dif-
ferences can be associated with interannual phenological differ-
ences in tree development, mainly visible in the development
stages of larch (Larix decidua Mill.). Indeed, phenological
indicators recorded in Val Trupchun on a regular basis confirm
an earlier onset of needle development in both, larch and pine
in 2011 (Table III). Further, meteorological data from the
MeteoSwiss weather station Buffalora (1980 m asl). i.e., growing
degree days with temperatures above 5 C (GDD5) [90], daily
total sunshine duration, and daily total precipitation for the
period between January to June also suggest differences in the
phenological development in both years. GDD5 amounted to
116.5 in 2010 (starting on DOY 114) and to 159.4 in 2011
(starting on DOY 97) from January until the respective dates of
APEX data acquisition. The number of days with more than 6
hours of direct sunlight from the first GDD5 to the date of APEX
data collection amounted to 19 days (185 h) in 2010 and to 41
days (395 h) in 2011. Total precipitation between January 01 and
the date of APEX data acquisition accumulated to 259 mm in
2010 and to 292 mm in 2011. The higher number of GDD5,
higher amounts of direct irradiance, and the increased availabili-
ty of water all suggest that climatic conditions allowed advanced
phenological development in spring 2011 compared to 2010.
The early onset of the vegetation period in 2011 was probably
also a main factor influencing the development of the vegetation
later in the season, when an earlier bloom of shrubs (e.g., Rowan
Berry, Sorbus aucuparia Michx.), herbs (e.g., Coltsfoot,
2607
Tussilago farfara L.), and grasses (e.g., Dactylis glomerata
L.) could be observed (Table III).
Besides snow cover and phenological development of trees
also shadow effects as a result of different illumination condi-
tions during IS data acquisition might determine differences in
total surface water content values between the 2 years. Indeed, IS
data were acquired between 09:30 and 10:00 UTC in 2010 and
between 12:30 and 13:00 UTC in 2011, causing differences in
sun position of sun zenith and sun azimuth
within 1 day, and sun zenith and sun azimuth between
both data acquisitions. The content of high spatial resolution RS
data, including the shadow effect, is known to gain increasing
importance in data analysis [91]–[93] and needs further assess-
ment when deriving ecosystem parameters.
Maps of total surface water content shown in this study are
given in relative units. This is caused by the absence of reference
data of absolute water content, which hinders to relate the current
relative values to absolute surface water content values. The
relative characterization of total surface water content, however,
is considered to be sufficient for this first exploration on the
applicability of the presented CF concept to represent ecosystem
properties synergistically derived from IS data. Further, only a
visual validation of the results was possible to ensure that
the algorithm did not lead to potentially unrealistic results.
A quantitative validation requires extensive efforts considering
the water content of all predominant land cover types including a
quantitative assessment of their respective abundances. In future
work, where maps are intended to be assimilated in e.g., process
models, absolute quantifications, and validations are required.
B. Relation Between CF Maps and Animal Distribution
This study also assessed the suitability of CF maps of ecosys-
tem parameters—in our case total surface water content—to
understand animal distribution and grassland habitat use in the
SNP. The underlying assumption was that forage quantity or
biomass production of grassland can be characterized by the
growth limiting factor water. Our results indicate that the spatial
distributions of ungulates in summer 2010 and 2011 were not
related to the total surface water content of the grassland areas as
represented in the respective CF maps. Distinct spatial patterns of
habitat use by single species (chamois, ibex, and red deer) and
total surface water content in grassland could neither be found
within a summer nor between the two summers. The same holds
true for ungulate subfamilies (Caprinae and Cervinae). Analysis
of both single species and subfamilies data for summer 2010 and
2011 in combination did not reveal specific patterns in habitat
use, either. Only the comparison of ungulate positions of all three
species were related to significant differences in total surface
water content of used grassland patches between 2010 and 2011.
A hypothetical combination of summer 2011 animals positions
and 2010 total surface water content data (and vice versa)
revealed, however, that the same total surface water content
(predominantly contained in forage) could have been achieved
given the animals had visited the same areas in both years. Given
the limited number of observations, these findings could indicate
that 1) water availability of the grasslands in Val Trupchun is not
a dominant limiting factor for potential forage quantity (biomass)
2608 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 7, NO. 6, JUNE 2014
compared to e.g., temperature, light, and nutrients, or that and
2) ungulates choose their grazing sites based on other criteria.
Several studies on plant-herbivore interactions in the SNP have
shown competition on forage of highest nutritious quality [73],
[94]. With phosphorus (P) being the limiting nutrient in these
grasslands, red deer prefer the most P-rich parts for grazing,
leading to grazing patterns closely related to patterns of soil-P
[94]. Grazing adapted vegetation was found to depict a positive
relationship between soil-P and the P concentration in leaf tissues
[95]. Consequently, herbivores repeatedly visit specific grazing
sites of high nutrients quality rather than forage quantity. This may
explain why we could not find differences in grazing patterns
between the two summers. Besides, the issue of species competi-
tion on popular grazing sites [73] needs further investigation.
Since the multitemporal CF maps derived from APEX IS data
were found to realistically represent fine-scaled spatiotemporal
pattern of ecosystem parameters, it appears promising to contin-
ue our analyses of animal distribution patterns in the SNP. We
plan to further develop CF maps from IS data for plant biomass,
adapt the methodology to other traits, e.g., plant tissue N-content,
and acquire ungulate position data on a monthly basis. CF maps
of biomass and N-content will enable to characterize the ecosys-
tem in a more detailed way and to test whether grassland areas of
high total surface water content do offer high forage quantity and
quality. Monthly ungulate positioning data will provide a more
robust comparison between the IS data and the spatial distribu-
tion of animals.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this study, we applied a concept of CF maps synergistically
derived from IS data to describe ecosystem properties including
their gradients across different land cover types. The continuous
representation of total surface water content in a high mountain
environment bears the potential for improved assessment and
understanding of spatiotemporal dynamics using change-vector
analysis. The detailed information contained in CF maps can serve
as a spatially explicit input for habitat assessment in ecology.
Today, the quality of IS data and the methods for subsequent
parameter retrieval do no longer set the limits of vegetation-
ungulates research on plant ecology, but rather on the scarcity
of accurate and extensive data on animal habitat use. IS data
contain a wealth of spectral information and allow retrieving a
variety of biochemical and structural vegetation properties. Such
vegetation characteristics can be combined in CF maps to repre-
sent a wide range of ecosystem parameters, e.g., related to the
water cycle, carbon (biomass, NPP), or nutrients cycles (N, P,
etc.). Longer-term multitemporal studies and spatially and tem-
porally improved animal positioning data will help to evaluate the
robustness of correlations between ecosystem parameters repre-
sented by CF maps and animal distribution patterns in the SNP.
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Mathias Kneubühler received the M.S. degree in
geography and the Ph.D. degree (Dr. sc. nat.) in
remote sensing with emphasis on spectral assessment
of crop phenology, both from the University of Zürich,
Zürich, Switzerland, in 1996 and 2002, respectively.
He is currently the Head of the Spectroscopy
Laboratory of the Remote Sensing Laboratories
(RSL), University of Zurich. His research interests
include spectro-directional data analysis and spectral
assessment of phenological processes in vegetated
ecosystems.
Alexander Damm received the Diploma (M.Sc.) and
Ph.D. degrees in geography from the Humboldt
University, Berlin, Germany, in 2004 and 2008,
respectively.
From December 2008 to 2012, he was as a Post-
doctoral Researcher and since 2012, he has been a
Lecturer with the Remote Sensing Laboratories, Uni-
versity of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. He acted as the
responsible Project Manager for the largest APEX
(Airborne Prism Experiment) exploitation program
aiming at supporting advanced product development
using spectroscopy-based approaches. Currently, he is responsible for the Swiss
Earth Observatory Network (SEON), a competence center to monitor status and
functioning of ecosystems in a changing environment. His research interests
include Earth observation, with particular focus on biosphere-atmosphere inter-
actions and ecosystem functioning using imaging spectroscopy.
Anna-Katharina Schweiger received the B.Sc. de-
gree in biodiversity and ecology from the University
of Graz, Graz, Austria, in 2007, and the M.Sc. degree
in wildlife ecology from the University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria, in
2010. Currently, she is pursuing the Ph.D. degree in
grassland ecology at the Remote Sensing Laborato-
ries, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
She works in close collaboration with the Plant-
Herbivore Interactions Group, Swiss Federal Institute
for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL,
Birmensdorf, Switzerland, and with the Swiss National Park, Zernez,
Switzerland, where she holds a position with the Research and Geoinformation
Department. Her research interest is on the analysis of animal tracking data with
remote sensing techniques.
Anita C. Risch received the M.Sc. degree in biology
from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
(ETHZ), Zurich, Switzerland, in 1999, the M.Sc.
degree in forest ecology from Michigan Technologi-
cal University (MTU), Houghton, MI, USA, in 2000,
and the Ph.D. degree in ecology, from ETHZ, in 2004.
From 2004 to 2006, she spent her Postdoctoral
time with Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
In 2006, she became the Head of the Animal Ecology
Research Group, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest,
Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf,
Switzerland. Since 2008, she has been a Graduate Faculty and Adjunct Associate
Professor at MTU and completed her habilitation at ETHZ in 2010. She currently
leads the Plant-Animal-Interaction Research Group at WSL. Her research inter-
ests include how vertebrate and invertebrate animals affect above- and below-
ground ecosystem processes.
Martin Schütz received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees
in biology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Tech-
nology (ETHZ), Zurich, Switzerland, in 1983 and
1988, respectively.
Since 1994, he was the Leader of several research
groups with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest,
Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf,
Switzerland, and became the Senior Scientist in 2006.
Since 2008, he has been the Adjunct Professor with
Michigan Technological University (MTU), Houghton,
MI, USA, and a Member of the Board of Science of
the Swiss National Park. His research interests include assessing vegetation
dynamics and interactions between plants and animals.
Michael E. Schaepman (M’05–SM’07) received the
M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in geography from the
University of Zuürich (UZH), Zuürich, Switzerland,
in 1993 and 1998, respectively.
In 1999, he spent his Postdoctoral time with the
Optical Sciences Center, The University of Arizona,
Tucson, AZ, USA. In 2000, he was appointed as a
Project Manager of the European Space Agency
Airborne Prism Experiment Spectrometer. In 2003,
he accepted the position of Full Chair of Geoinforma-
tion Science and Remote Sensing, Wageningen Uni-
versity, Wageningen, The Netherlands. In 2009, he was appointed as the Full
Chair of Remote Sensing, UZH, where he is currently heading the Remote
Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography. His research interests include
computational Earth sciences using remote sensing and physical models, with
particular focus on the land–atmosphere interface using imaging spectroscopy.