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There’s more to California wildflowers than the human eye, experts say.
NASA’s Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory released its findings on Monday surrounding the “first-ever” study of Golden State flower cycles, which could serve as a potential new tool for farmers and natural resource managers.
The study employs JPL imaging spectrometers that map hundreds of acres of nature reserves with hundreds of wavelengths of light, capturing flowers that have blossomed and matured over several months.
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According to JPL research scientist David Schimel, the experiment marked the “first study” as the first time an instrument was deployed to steadily track vegetation throughout the growing season.
People walk in the wild flowers blooming at the Carisoplain National Monument, near Santa Margarita, California, following an unusually wet winter on April 13, 2023.
Imaging spectrometers allow for large-scale analysis in contrast to ground boot observation and time-lapse photography methods, which are commonly used but are not good enough to capture wider changes.
“One challenge is that flowers can be considerably shorter than the leaves and other parts of the plant,” says Yoseline Angel, a scientist at the University of Maryland – Principal Park and a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “They may only last a few weeks.”
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Therefore, scientists analyzed the most spectacular quality of flower flowers, the vibrant colours.
For example, in a six-month 2022 Aviation Vegetation Survey on two Santa Barbara County reserves, scientists were able to observe two native shrub species and identify different flowering stages and spectral differences between crowded flowers, leaves and background covers.
Experts said the study paved the way for more air- and space-based research in flowering plants, which make up about 90% of all plant species on land, according to NASA.
Eli Carp visits with his family from Thousand Oaks, California, walking through a field of blooming poppies near Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in Lancaster, California on Monday, April 10, 2023 (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Data and technology also allow farmers and natural resource managers (insects and other pollinators) who rely on these flowering plants to produce products such as fruits, nuts, cotton, and medicines.
The Wildflower study was part of the Surface Biology and Geological High Frequency Time Series (Shift) campaign by Nature Conservancy, UCSB, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena.
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