Plant Health and Greenness of Different Income-level Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon Using Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS Surface Reflectance
Start Date
February 2018
End Date
February 2018
Abstract
Parks have the potential to play a role in conserving biodiversity as urbanization increases. Motivations for conserving biodiversity in urban areas may include protecting important populations and rare species, creating corridors, facilitating responses to environmental changes, connecting people with nature, providing ecosystem services, and fulfilling ethical responsibilities. The goal of this study is to quantify plant biodiversity patterns and functioning in different types of parks in Portland. A stratified random sampling design was used to select 15 urban parks within the city boundary for analysis based on size, location, and park type (i.e., passive natural, active recreational, and multi-use as described by Weems, 2016). Within each park, data was collected in five randomly selected 20 m2 plots for number of tree, sapling, shrub, and woody vine species and cover, as well as 1 m2 plots of herbaceous species and cover. Additional information was collected on the number of trees, general vicinity, landform, slope, and bare ground. The preliminary results of this study indicate a total of 178 species in 65 plant families, of which 76 (43%) are native, 56 (31%) are non-native, 37 (21%) are invasive, and 9 (5%) are of unknown native status. The study also compares species, cover (i.e. tree, sapling/shrub, vine, herbaceous), and functional groups among the three surveyed park types. This on-going research is supported by the Urban Water Innovation Network (UWIN), a nationwide consortium of universities and partners that seeks to address various challenges to water systems (UWIN National Science Foundation Grant Award #1444758).
Subjects
Habitat assessment, Plant ecology, GIS / modeling
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/25652
Plant Health and Greenness of Different Income-level Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon Using Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS Surface Reflectance
Parks have the potential to play a role in conserving biodiversity as urbanization increases. Motivations for conserving biodiversity in urban areas may include protecting important populations and rare species, creating corridors, facilitating responses to environmental changes, connecting people with nature, providing ecosystem services, and fulfilling ethical responsibilities. The goal of this study is to quantify plant biodiversity patterns and functioning in different types of parks in Portland. A stratified random sampling design was used to select 15 urban parks within the city boundary for analysis based on size, location, and park type (i.e., passive natural, active recreational, and multi-use as described by Weems, 2016). Within each park, data was collected in five randomly selected 20 m2 plots for number of tree, sapling, shrub, and woody vine species and cover, as well as 1 m2 plots of herbaceous species and cover. Additional information was collected on the number of trees, general vicinity, landform, slope, and bare ground. The preliminary results of this study indicate a total of 178 species in 65 plant families, of which 76 (43%) are native, 56 (31%) are non-native, 37 (21%) are invasive, and 9 (5%) are of unknown native status. The study also compares species, cover (i.e. tree, sapling/shrub, vine, herbaceous), and functional groups among the three surveyed park types. This on-going research is supported by the Urban Water Innovation Network (UWIN), a nationwide consortium of universities and partners that seeks to address various challenges to water systems (UWIN National Science Foundation Grant Award #1444758).
