Multispectral aerial monitoring of a patchy vegetation oasis composed of different vegetation classes. UAV-based study exploiting spectral reflectance indices

The study brings data on monitoring of spectral refectance signatures of different components of Antarctic terrestrial vegetation by using a high-resolution multispectral images. The aim of the study was to compare several spots of a vegetation oasis by mapping vegetation cover using an UAV approach. This study provides data on vegetation distribution within a long-term research plot (LTRP) located at the northern coast of James Ross Island (Antarctica). Apart from normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), 10 spectral reflectance indices (NDVI, NDVIRed-edge, RGBVI, NGRDI, ExG, TGI MSR, MSRRed-edge, Clgreen, ClRed-edge, GLI) were evaluated for different spots representing vegetation classes dominated by different Antarctic autotrophs. The UAV application and spectral reflectance indices proved their capability to detect and map small-area vegetated patches (with the smallest area of 10 cm2) dominated by different Antarctic autotrophs, and identify their classes (moss / lichens / biological soil crusts / microbiological mats / stream bottom microbiological mats). The methods used in our study revealed sufficiently high resolution of particular vegetation-covered surfaces and the spectral indices provided important indicators for environmental characteristics of the long-term research plot at the James Ross Island, Antarctica.