Digital ecological site mapping in the central California coastal range

Authors: Salley, Shawn; Toledo, David; WYCKOFF, CHRISTY - Non ARS Employee; SIERRA CORONA, RODRIGO - Non ARS Employee; BROWN, JOEL - New Mexico State University

Submitted to: Soil Science Society of America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/15/2020
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Ecological Sites (ESs) deliver a nationally consistent classification and information system for defining ecological land units for management applications in the United States. Similar to digital soil mapping, digital ecological site mapping uses machine learning algorithms, soil and ecological field observation, soil survey geographic databases, ecological site data, and a suite of remote sensing based spatial covariates to predict ESs classes and properties. This work tests a digital ecological site mapping approach on a 20,000 acre preserve on grasslands in the Central California Coastal range. Using conditioned-Latin hypercube sampling design with a sampling number optimization algorithm and a cost-constrained implementation, we identified 46 soil and vegetation sampling sites across the preserve’s coastal prairie and oak savanna landscapes. Soil and vegetation sampling helped refine environmental covariates to identify important soil properties to inform spatial ESs prediction.