181-3 Bridging Land and Sky: STELLA as a Tool of Plant Stress Analysis and Increasing Spatial Resolution of Satellite Spectroscopy Measurements

Session: Community Engaged Research for Environmental Sustainability and Community Resilience (Posters)

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Landsat provides invaluable data in the analysis of climate impacts on various ecosystems, but local measurement of plant health, via ground-based spectroscopy, can further aid plant conservation efforts. NASA’s STELLA (Science and Technology Education for Land/Life Assessment) device monitors plant health through measuring relative reflectance levels across twelve bands in the Visible and Near-Infrared spectrum. The Climate Adaptation and Resilience Monitoring Alliance (CARMA) utilizes STELLA to demonstrate how extreme ecosystem shifts, such as drought and over-grazing, affect at-risk environments.  

Prior to developing a research portfolio of applications for use, CARMA practiced data collection and analysis to become familiar with the capabilities and sensitivity of STELLA, and selected field locations to begin local and longitudinal measurements.  

Three distinct areas of research will be pursued as applications for STELLA use. (1) CARMA is studying the effects of drought in arid climate zones. With STELLA, CARMA is monitoring the native plant gardens within The Denver Audubon Kingery Nature Center (a primary stakeholder for CARMA). Continuous monitoring efforts are essential at this facility to conserve bird habitats and maintain natural migratory patterns. (2) CARMA is observing the benefits of overgrazing management in agricultural and wildlife settings. With STELLA, CARMA is documenting the ecological health of Rafter W. Ranch (a primary stakeholder for CARMA), following conservational ranching techniques, such as the management of cattle grazing patterns. As it pertains to wildlife settings, in Rocky Moutain National Park, the overgrazing from an abundant elk population continues to take significant tolls on the health of local riparian vegetation. Within Yellowstone National Park, a similar ecosystem imbalance was managed through the reintroduction of grey wolves, which created a trophic cascade and enabled the recovery of riparian vegetation. Through comparative analysis between aspen trees in both parks, CARMA can detail the impacts of overgrazing management through the reintroduction of key species on vegetational health. (3) CARMA will study how adaptations facilitate plant resilience. STELLA can monitor how specific adaptations enable plants to persist through extreme environmental stressors. Within Yellowstone’s geothermic wetlands, the grass, Dichanthelium lanuginosum can live with intense heat exposure due to the symbiotic relationship between it and the fungi, Curvularia. CARMA will compare the drought tolerance of D. lanuginosum with similar wetland plants to document the benefits of D. lanuginosum’s adaptation.  

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-7963

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