The maturity of remote sensing and ecosystem restoration science provides new opportunities to monitor and assess ecosystem indicators at finer resolutions and at suitable scales. A key link in joining these fields is creating a framework to apply these rich datasets to ecosystem restoration projects. Savanna woodland ecosystems have discontinuous tree cover that is an important, but potentially highly variable, structural component of these ecosystems. Woody cover in savannas is also well suited to being measured with remote sensing techniques. We extracted woody cover from a 66‐yr time series of aerial imagery covering 1718 ha of mesic savanna ecosystem in northern Australia, adjacent to the Ranger uranium mine and encompassing portions of Kakadu National Park. This ecosystem is proposed as a reference ecosystem that may be used to comparatively assess and monitor restoration trajectories of the mine site in the coming decades. The spatiotemporal patterns of change in woody cover were assessed at spatial extents similar to the mine site. We were able to construct a robust distribution of canopy cover values and associated spatial heterogeneity that can be used to set closure criteria, inform restoration trajectories, and guide monitoring activities for the restored mine site.

中文翻译：

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大规模测量稀树草原木本植物覆盖率，为生态系统恢复提供依据

遥感和生态系统恢复科学的成熟为以更高分辨率和适当规模监测和评估生态系统指标提供了新的机会。加入这些领域的关键环节是创建一个框架，将这些丰富的数据集应用于生态系统恢复项目。稀树草原林地生态系统具有不连续的树木覆盖物，这是这些生态系统的重要但潜在高度可变的结构组成部分。稀树草原的木质覆盖物也非常适合通过遥感技术进行测量。我们从66年前的一系列航空影像中提取了木质覆盖物，该影像覆盖了澳大利亚北部1718公顷的中型稀树草原生态系统，毗邻Ranger铀矿，涵盖了卡卡杜国家公园的部分区域。提议将该生态系统作为参考生态系统，可在未来几十年内用于比较评估和监测矿场的恢复轨迹。在类似于雷区的空间范围内评估了木质覆盖物变化的时空格局。我们能够构建冠层覆盖值和相关的空间异质性的稳健分布，这些分布可用于设置封闭标准，告知恢复轨迹并指导已恢复矿区的监测活动。