Characterization of shrub distribution using high spatial resolution remote sensing: Ecosystem implications for a former Chihuahuan Desert grassland

Patchiness is often considered a defining quality of ecosystems in arid and semiarid regions. The spatial distribution of vegetation patches and soil nutrients coupled with wind and water erosion as well as biotic processes are believed to have an influence on land degradation. A geostatistical measure of spatial “connectivity” is presented to directly measure the size of patches in the landscape from a raster data set. Connectivity is defined as the probability that adjacent pixels belong to the same type of patch. Connectivity allows the size distribution of erodible patches to be quantified from a remote sensing image or field measurement, or specified for the purposes of modeling.Applied to high-resolution remote sensing imagery in the Jornada del Muerto Basin in New Mexico, the spatial distribution of plants indicates the current state of grassland-to-shrubland transition in addition to processes of degradation in this former grassland. Shrub encroachment is clearly evident from decreased intershrub patch size in coppice dunes of 27.8 m relative to shrublands of 65.2 m and grassland spacing of 118.9 m. Shrub patches remain a consistent 2–4 m diameter regardless of the development of bush encroachment. A strong SW–NE duneland orientation correlates with the prevailing wind direction and suggests a strong aeolian control of surface geomorphology.With appropriate data sets and classification, potential applications of the connectivity method extend beyond vegetation dynamics, including mineralogy mapping, preserve planning, habitat fragmentation, pore spacing in surface hydrology, and microbial community dynamics.