Satellite mapping helps study of grizzly bear habitat
By Kristina Bergen
SPARK Writer
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Student and Research Assistant Alysha Pape looks over a map of grizzly bear habitat in the Alberta foothills and Rocky Mountains with study leader, U of S Vice-President of Research Steven Franklin. |
Prior to western settlement, grizzly bears roamed freely between Alaska and Mexico and as far east as Winnipeg through what is known as the Yellowstone-to-Yukon corridor.
But drastically increased industrial and recreational activity in the area may push the grizzly population to extinction - a real possibility in our lifetime.
Now Steven Franklin, a remote sensing expert in the U of S Geography Department and newly appointed Vice-President of Research, is using satellite images to map grizzly bear habitat in Alberta, work that will contribute to the long-term conservation of diminishing grizzly populations and help predict consequences of future environment management practices.
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There are currently about 850 grizzlies in Alberta. One of the greatest threats to their survival is the destruction of their habitat.
For the past four years, Franklin has been analysing images from NASA's Landsat 7 satellite to create maps of bear habitat in the area around Jasper and Hinton, Alta., which is prime grizzly country and home to at least 100 of the bears.
This information will help researchers study how human activity and landscape changes affect grizzly populations, as well as where grizzlies choose to live and which areas they avoid.
"The ultimate goal of this research is to provide environmental resource managers with information that will help them make wise decisions," says Franklin, who maintains that it is possible for humans and grizzlies to co-exist.
The collaborative study will continue for another two years. It is funded by NSERC (the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council), Cardinal River Coals Ltd., and Weldwood Forest Industries of Canada Ltd.
Landsat 7, launched in April 1999, takes pictures with image pixels the size of a baseball diamond, capturing up to 250 scenes per day. Within 24 hours, images are electronically available for purchase through on-line Internet browsers and can be pasted together to create a map covering many thousands of square kilometres.
"With remote sensing satellite technology, we can look at a large area in a single moment," says Franklin. "It literally gives us the big picture."
By comparing imagery from different years, Franklin can analyse changes in the landscape that affect grizzly bear habitat such as new roads or road closures, mine construction, forest clear-cuts, seismic lines, habitat reclamation, and changes to vegetation growth in forests, wetlands and grasslands.
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Franklin says that combining satellite map research with data from radio-collared grizzlies tracked by global positioning satellites and DNA testing will give scientists a powerful new tool in promoting conservation efforts.
"When we bring all the information together - the satellite maps, the DNA results and the GPS readings - we can estimate the age, gender and number of bears in a region, and will also know which kinds of habitats bears prefer compared to those they avoid," says Franklin.
"As well, we will be able to develop prediction models that assess how bear mortality and reproductive rates may vary in response to human activities in a specific area," he says.
A failure in Landsat 7's scan line corrector (a device that compensates for the forward motion of the spacecraft) that occurred on May 31st has thrown a slight wrench into the project. NASA suspects a mechanical problem is causing individual images to overlap, leaving large gaps at the edges of each picture, and will not release images acquired during the past spring and summer. A possible solution is to use images from the Indian Remote Satellite, which takes clearer, higher resolution pictures than Landsat 7.
Alysha Pape, an undergraduate student who worked with Franklin at the University of Calgary, has followed him to the U of S in order to continue working on the project. As his research assistant, she is now searching the Internet for other satellite image sources of the area to ensure a continuous data record.
Pape, who intends to continue at the U of S in an M.Sc. program, says she hopes to contribute to the sustainable management of this critical wildlife resource by improving remote sensing methods of mapping habitat.
The SPARK (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge) Program is run by Research Communications, Office of the Vice-President Research.
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