Using Satellites to Study Climate Change on Sub-Antarctic Islands
Susan Brandner
Institute for Conservation Biology
Susan Brandner is completing an
Honours degree and her project involves assessing the usefulness of different
satellite sensors for mapping the vegetation on sub-Antarctic Heard Island and
monitoring the changes in this vegetation in response to global climate change.
The sensors being compared are Hyperion, a hyperspectral resolution sensor with
low spatial resolution; SPOT, Landsat TM (both low spectral and low spatial
resolution), IKONOS and possibly Quickbird (both low spectral but very high
spatial resolution). The usefulness of each of these sensors will depend on
their ability to spectrally discriminate between the different vegetation
communities on Heard Island and the spatial scale at which they can do this. Due
to the patchy nature of the vegetation communities of Heard Island, it is
expected that the sensors with the higher spatial resolution will be more
accurate at discriminating between these communities, especially since the pure
spectral signatures of the dominant species do not vary to a great extent.
Susan tells us about herself: “I am currently completing my fourth year of a Bachelor of Science (Honours Advanced) majoring in both biological sciences and geosciences. I have strong interests in both fields and so it is a career ambition of mine to work using remote sensing and geographic information systems to solve biological/ecological problems. I have also recently completed a summer studentship (10 weeks in the summer of 2004/2005) with CSIRO Plant Industry at the Australian National Herbarium. I completed my own research project on the interactions between mycorrhizal fungi and a rare orchid hybrid under the supervision of Dr Tupac Otero and we are hoping to publish the findings in the near future.”
