National Map Showing Habitat Suitability for Tamarisk Invasion

The spread of invasive species is one of the most daunting environmental, economic, and human-health problems facing the United States and the World today. It is one of several grand challenge environmental problems being addressed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate through a national application partnership with the US Geological Survey. NASA and USGS are working together to develop a National Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) for the management and control of invasive species on Department of Interior and adjacent lands. The system provides a framework for using USGS's early detection and monitoring protocols and predictive models to process MODIS, ETM+, ASTER and commercial remote sensing data, to create on-demand, regional-scale assessments of invasive species likely habitats.

Recent work on the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) project has shown the importance of remotely-sensed time-series data in geostatistical models for mapping the distribution of Tamarisk and other invasive plant species. This video shows the habitat suitability for a Tamarisk invasion in the continental United States. Red indicates areas that are highly suitable and yellow indicates areas which are less suitable. Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada are the most highly suitable states. Utah and Arizona have the next greatest risk. California, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, Wyoming, and Florida also have a significant risk.