NCCN Story Map: Landscape Disturbance in the Pacific Northwest National Parks
NCCN, Sardi E, Antonova N , Copass C, Galloway H. 2024. NCCN Story Map: Landscape Disturbance in the Pacific Northwest National Parks. National Park Service. NCCN
Over time, landslides, floods, fires, and other disturbances slowly reshape protected landscapes inside national parks. These disturbances can be subtle or dramatic, but they are a fundamental element of many ecosystems. Studying landscape disturbances in national parks, where direct human-caused disturbance is minimal, provides a unique opportunity to determine a "normal" disturbance pattern—and how that pattern may be changing over time. As part of Vital Signs Monitoring, the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) of the National Park Service (NPS) developed a protocol for monitoring landscape disturbances using Landsat satellite imagery. Several categories of natural landscape disturbance that occurred at Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic National Parks and surrounding areas were mapped from 1987 to 2017: Avalanches, Fires, Landslides and Debris Flows, Defoliation, Riparian Changes, and Blowdowns. Only disturbances larger than 0.8 ha (2 ac) were mapped. This Story Map describes the different natural disturbances found in the Pacific Northwest national parks and provides information on the location, extent, and changes in these disturbance for over the 30 years studied. The NCCN Landscape Change protocol, publications, and all other associated links can be found in the project reference: https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2097545 The geospatial dataset, NCCN landscape change monitoring polygons in and around Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks for 1987-2017, is located here: https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/229437
- Type
- Generic Multimedia
- Authors
- NCCN; Sardi, Elizabeth; Antonova, Natasha; Copass, Catharine; Galloway, Hazel
- Date of Issue
- 2024-03-15
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- MORA , NOCA , OLYM
- Keywords
- avalanche, blowdown, change detection, climate change, debris flow, defoliation, disease, disturbance, ecosystems, fires, flooding, imagery, Landsat, landscape change, landslide, LandTrendr, mass movement, MORA, Mount Rainier National Park, NCCN, NOCA, North Cascades National Park, North Coast and Cascades Network, OLYM, Olympic National Park, Pacific Northwest, pathogen, physical processes, riparian change, satellite, storms, wind, windthrow
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Air and Climate | Weather and Climate | Weather and Climate , Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Infestations and Disease | Insect Pests , Ecological Framework: Landscapes | Landscape Dynamics | Land Cover and Use , Ecological Framework: Landscapes | Extreme Disturbance Events | Extreme Disturbance Events
See also
- NCCN Monitoring Landscape Change
- NCCN landscape change monitoring polygons in and around Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks for 1987-2017