Josh Enterkine^1*, Ahmad Hojatimalekshah², Monica Vermillion³, Thomas Van Der Weide¹, Sergio A. Arispe⁴, William J. Price⁵, April Hulet⁶, Nancy F. Glenn¹.

¹ Boise State University Department of Geosciences, Boise ID

² Boise State University Department of Computer Sciences, Boise ID

³ USDA US Forest Service, Forest Health Protection Region 4, Boise ID

⁴ Oregon State University Extension Service-Malheur County, Oregon State University, Ontario, OR

⁵ Oregon State University Extension Service-Baker & Union Counties, Oregon State University, Baker City, OR

⁶ Brigham Young University, Plant & Wildlife Sciences, Provo, UT

*joshenterkine@boisestate.edu, 1910 W. University Dr., Boise, ID, 83725-1535

Rangelands and semi-arid ecosystems are subject to increasing changes in ecologic makeup from a collection of factors. In much of the northern Great Basin of the western United States, rangelands invaded by exotic annual grasses such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum ) and medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae ) are experiencing an increasingly short fire cycle, which is compounding and persistent. Improving and expanding ground-based field methods for measuring above-ground biomass (AGB) may enable more sample collections across a landscape and over succession regimes, and better harmonize with other remote sensing techniques. Developments and increased adoption of uncrewed aerial vehicles and instrumentation for vegetation monitoring are enabling greater understanding of vegetation in many ecosystems. Research towards understanding the relationship of traditional field measurements with newer aerial platforms in rangeland environments is growing rapidly, and there is increasing interest in exploring the potential use both to quantify AGB and fine fuel load at pasture and landscape scales. Our study here uses relatively inexpensive handheld photography with custom sampling frames to collect and automatically reconstruct 3D-models of the vegetation within 0.2 m²quadrats (n = 288). Next, we examine the relationship between volumetric estimates of vegetation to compare with biomass. We found that volumes calculated with 0.5 cm voxel sizes (0.125 cm³) most closely represented the range of biomass weights. We further develop methods to classify ground points, finding a 2% reduction in predictive ability compared to using the true ground surface. Overall, our reconstruction workflow had an R² of 0.42, further emphasizing the importance of high-resolution imagery and reconstruction techniques. Ultimately, we conclude that more work is needed of increasing extents (such as from UAS) to better understand and constrain uncertainties in volumetric estimations of biomass in ecosystems with high amounts of invasive annual grasses and fine fuel litter.