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Investigation of Land Cover Within Wetland Complexes at Dixie Meadows, Churchill County, Nevada, from October 2015 to January 2022

Open-File Report 2024-1029
Prepared in cooperation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
By: , , and 
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20241029

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Abstract

The U.S. Geological Survey investigated land cover at subannual time steps within six wetland areas in Dixie Valley, Churchill County, Nevada, from October 2015 to January 2022. As requested by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we used aerial photography and satellite remote sensing data to map surface water and other land cover types within the wetland complexes. We identified five land cover classes using the green normalized difference vegetation index (gNDVI) and its inverse relationship to the normalized difference water index (NDWI) within three U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Imagery Program aerial images (acquired in 2015, 2017, and 2019) and 110 European Space Agency Sentinel-2 satellite images (acquired 2015–2022). The relative wetness of soil conditions within each land cover class is estimated by comparison to previously published observations of relative conductivity measured by 79 field-based sensors within the wetlands from 2019 to 2021. We mapped the areal coverage of the five land cover classes for approximately 385 acres (1,559,000 square meters [m²]) comprising six individual wetland complexes as well as a larger 1,298- acre (5,254,000-m2) area of interest inclusive of the wetland complexes and adjacent landscape. Land cover of open water (Class 5) primarily within ponds at one of the wetland complexes comprised 8,333 m2, on average, of the wetland complexes. Land cover of mixed shallow surface water, saturated soil, and vegetation (Class 4) comprised 111,723 m2 on average of the wetland complexes. Land cover of dense green vegetation canopy cover (Class 3) that often (46 percent of observations) had underlying surface water or saturated soil conditions comprised 592,522 m2 on average of the wetland complexes. The remaining areas of the wetland complexes not mapped as these three land cover types (Classes 2 and 1) had sparse vegetation or bare soil cover and commonly (greater than or equal to 67 percent of observations) had dry soil conditions. The investigation of land cover detailed in this report could inform future efforts to map land cover more precisely via higher resolution remote sensing or ground-based surveying or could be incorporated with other environmental monitoring data to characterize habitat and hydrology of the wetland complexes at Dixie Meadows.

Suggested Citation

Sankey, J.B., Bransky, N.D., and Caster, J.J., 2024, Investigation of land cover within wetland complexes at Dixie Meadows, Churchill County, Nevada, from October 2015 to January 2022: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2024–1029, 10 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20241029.

ISSN: 2331-1258 (online)

Study Area

Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgments
  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Material and Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion and Conclusion
  • References Cited
  • Appendix 1. Sentinel-2 Image Classification Maps for Dixie Meadows, Churchill County, Nevada
Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Investigation of land cover within wetland complexes at Dixie Meadows, Churchill County, Nevada, from October 2015 to January 2022
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 2024-1029
DOI 10.3133/ofr20241029
Year Published 2024
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) Southwest Biological Science Center
Description Report: vi, 10 p.; Data Release
Country United States
State Nevada
County Churchill County
Other Geospatial Dixie Meadows
Online Only (Y/N) Y
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details