The Utilization of Historical Data and Geospatial Technology Advances at the Jornada Experimental Range to Support Western America Ranching Culture 英文参考文献.docVIP

Remote Sens. 2011, 3, 2089-2109; doi:10.3390/rs3092089 OPEN ACCESS Remote Sensing ISSN 2072-4292 /journal/remotesensing Article The Utilization of Historical Data and Geospatial Technology Advances at the Jornada Experimental Range to Support Western America Ranching Culture Albert Rango *, Kris Havstad and Rick Estell Jornada Experimental Range, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA; E-Mails: khavstad@ (K.H.); restell@ (R.E.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: alrango@; Received: 25 June 2011; in revised form: 24 August 2011 / Accepted: 5 September 2011 / Published: 20 September 2011 Abstract: By the early 1900s, concerns were expressed by ranchers, academicians, and federal scientists that widespread overgrazing and invasion of native grassland by woody shrubs were having severe negative impacts upon normal grazing practices in Western America. Ranchers wanted to reverse these trends and continue their way of life and were willing to work with scientists to achieve these goals. One response to this desire was establishment of the USDA Jornada Experimental Range (783 km2) in south central New Mexico by a Presidential Executive Order in 1912 for conducting rangeland investigations. This cooperative effort involved experiments to understand principles of proper management and the processes causing the woody shrub invasion as well as to identify treatments to eradicate shrubs. By the late 1940s, it was apparent that combining the historical ground-based data accumulated at Jornada Experimental Range with rapidly expanding post World War II technologies would yield a better understanding of the driving processes in these arid and semiarid ecosystems which could then lead to improved rangeland management practices. One specific technology was the use of aerial photography to interpret landscape resour