Global Forest Maps A Monarch Butterflies, Mexico story
Wildlife
Researchers from the University of Maryland and USGS have mapped changes in forests globally from 2000 to 2013. The maps displayed here are from that database and are paired with a corresponding Landsat image.
The study defined trees as all vegetation taller than 5 meters. In the forest change map, green indicates forest extent, and red is forest loss during the period 2000–2013. Any blue that appears is forest gained during that time period. Black is land that was non-forest during the time period.
The study used data from over 650,000 Landsat scenes and used 143 billion 30-meter Landsat pixels.
Location
Mar. 11, 2014, Landsat 8 (path/row 27/46) — Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
Global Forest Change map (Hansen and others, 2013).
Monarch Butterflies, Mexico Additional Imagery & Stories
Degraded Habitats
The monarch migration is an endangered phenomenon. Logging in the overwintering sites in Mexico reduces the area available for the monarchs. The Monar...
Lomas de Aparicio
These close-up images show a portion of the reserve. The red spots in the global forest map indicate forest loss. The area in the center of the image ...
Monarch Value
The good news about the monarchs is that they are a beloved bug. Kids in classrooms nationwide capture the caterpillars and watch them transform into ...
NDVI
Subtle changes in vegetation are sometimes difficult for us to see when just looking at the imagery. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)...
Pelon
These close-ups show another core zone area of the reserve called Pelon. Forest disturbance is most visible in the 2000 image. Later Landsat images re...