Investigation on the water stress in alpine vegetation using Hyperspectral sensors

The effect of global warming may be seen even on the top of the Mt. Daisetsuzan National Park (DNP) in Japan´s northernmost island of Hokkaido where communities of alpine plants having been greatly suffered from the expansion of alien species. Alpine of the Mt. Daisetsu is in protected zone of the DNP and has no direct human influence. So far, this happening might indicate the negative effects of global scale climate changes in high mountainous ecosystem. Seriousness of that phenomenon is that it is completely changing the local vegetation. Due to the global warming, increased temperature causes rapid melting of the snow coverage at DNP and soil is quickly losing its moisture. In this study, alpine meadow vegetation in DNP was photographed with aid of the hyper-spectral sensors mounted on the airplane. Simultaneously, ground observations were also made. Hyperspectral sensors are having 60 bands with wavelength from 400 to 1000 nm, and resolution of 10 nm. Ground observations were made using the Field Spec devices for spectral measurement, GPS for mapping. Plant species, coverage, and soil moisture were investigated.