Establishing Shrub Population Structure Using High-Spatial-Resolution Google Earth Imagery

Arid and semiarid grasslands around the world are heavily suffering from shrub encroachment. However, the shrub encroachment process is still poorly understood, especially when historical data field samples are insufficient. High-spatial-resolution (HSR) remotely sensed data provides the only large-scale historical record of grasslands. This study investigated the population structure of Caragana genus plants, a typical shrub in the temperate arid and semiarid grasslands of Inner Mongolia, China. Shrub individuals were identified from HSR images and the age of shrub individuals were estimated, then a caragana population age structure which can calculate mortality and regeneration was established with a negative exponential function.