Synopsis Many factors influence change on the landscape. Throughout history however, wildfire has been –and will always be–a primary source of broad landscape changes. After wildfire, a change in plant community composition and structure results. In a completely "natural" system, the early seral stage communities that establish themselves as pioneers after a fire are eventually replaced with the climax community vegetation previously removed by wildfire. However, in a system where native plants are in competition with exotic plant species, native vegetation communities are frequently extirpated in favor of the more aggressive exotic plants (i.e., weeds). As a result of these invasions, livestock and wildlife carrying capacities are reduced, nutrient cycling regimes are altered, and wildfire intervals are shortened (cf., cheatgrass effects).

With over four years of research focusing upon temporal landcover change, scientists at Idaho State University are poised to embark upon a new research opportunity. This three-year project will 1) develop and validate modeling tools for detecting and predicting invasive plant infestations using GIS, GPS, and remote sensing data (the geotechnologies), 2) adapt various indicators of rangeland health to evaluation with the geotechnologies, 3) use remote sensing to characterize aeolian transport of weed seeds, and 4) investigate the effects of land use/disturbance history on site invasibility by weeds.

The resulting GIS data and models will build upon the results from previous research in land cover change and wildfire effects and will relate these effects to rangeland ecosystems and livestock grazing. These data and information will be invaluable in assessing the sustainability of our natural resources and specifically, livestock grazing, within a fire-influenced ecosystem. These data --and the knowledge gained through our research-- will be made readily available to decision-makers, land managers, land stewards, and individual ranchers and farmers in the region using various community outreach tools including the Internet. These projects will also support graduate and undergraduate student education and faculty research projects, which will produce peer-reviewed professional publications. Further, this project addresses the enterprise mission of NASA's Office of Earth Science by developing and distributing GIS and remote sensing applications that "focus on understanding the priority issues that face public and private sector decision-makers."