Evidence of Hydroperiod Shortening in a Preserved System of Temporary Ponds.docVIP

1439 Remote Sens. 2010, 2, 1439-1462; doi:10.3390/rs2061439 OPEN ACCESS Remote Sensing ISSN 2072-4292 /journal/remotesensing Article Evidence of Hydroperiod Shortening in a Preserved System of Temporary Ponds Carola Gómez-Rodríguez 1,*, Javier Bustamante 1,2 and Carmen Díaz-Paniagua 1 1 Department of Wetland Ecology, Estación Biológica de Do?ana (CSIC), Américo Vespucio s-n, 41092- Sevilla, Spain; E-Mail: jbustamante@ebd.csic.es (J.B.); poli@ebd.csic.es (C.D.-P.) 2 Remote Sensing and GIS Lab (LAST-EBD), Estación Biológica de Do?ana (CSIC), Américo Vespucio s-n, 41092- Sevilla, Spain * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: carola@ebd.csic.es; Tel.: +34-954-466-700; Fax: +34-954-621-125. Received: 8 April 2010; in revised form: 17 May 2010 / Accepted: 21 May 2010 / Published: 1 June 2010 Abstract: Based on field data simultaneous with Landsat overpasses from six different dates, we developed a robust linear model to predict subpixel fractions of water cover. The model was applied to a time series of 174 Landsat TM and ETM+ images to reconstruct the flooding regime of a system of small temporary ponds and to study their spatio-temporal changes in a 23-year period. We tried to differentiate natural fluctuations from trends in hydrologic variables (i.e., hydroperiod shortening) that may threaten the preservation of the system. Although medium-resolution remote sensing data have rarely been applied to the monitoring of small-sized wetlands, this study evidences its utility to understand the hydrology of temporary ponds at a local scale. We show that the temporary ponds in Do?ana National Park constitute a large and heterogeneous system with high intra and inter-annual variability. We also evidence that the conservation value of this ecosystem is threatened by the observed tendency to shorter annual hydroperiods in recent years, probably due to aquifer exploitati