Geospatial multiple logistic regression approach for habitat characterization of scarce plant population: A case study of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pittosporum eriocarpum</Emphasis> Royle (an endemic species of Uttarakhand,India)

Increasing concern for biodiversity conservation at species level resulted in the development of cost effective tools for getting information at larger scale. Modeling distribution of species using remote sensing and geographic information has already proved its potentials to get such information with less effort. Pittosporum eriocarpum Royle is an endemic and threatened tree species of Uttarakhand, yet till now its regional distribution is poorly known. This study using geospatial modelling tools indentified several localities of potential occurrence of this species in the Mussoorie hills and Doon valley, and also provides information on its habitat specificity. The main objective of the study is to predict the suitable habitats for endangered plant species in Himalayan region using logistic regression model where availability of sufficient data on species presenceabsence is a major limitation for larger areas.     

Biodiversity Information System for North East India

Abstract

Biodiversity is the variety and variability of flora and fauna in an ecosystem. Articulated into genes, species, and ecosystem, it provides the biological plasticity needed by life on the earth to adapt changes. As we approach towards the forthcoming century, the earth's diversity of life is increasingly at risk through a combination of mostly human induced factors leading to erosion of genetic resources, extinction of species and collapse of ecological systems. Insitu conservation, biotechnology tools for conservation and prospecting, species habitat relationship and following evolutionary process of speciation are some of the challenges. India being one of the mega biodiversity centers of the world is also known for its traditional knowledge of conservation. The varied regions of the country, with unique floristic and faunal richness, their vastness, endemism, heterogeneity and also inaccessibility of large areas have necessitated creation of authentic baseline database on biodiversity. With the advent of Internet based Geographic Information System technology an effort is being made to harness the power of these technologies to facilitate biodiversity conservation.

The information system organizes the data base generated under the project on “Biodiversity Characterization at landscape level using remote sensing and Geographic Information System in North East India” of the Department of Biotechnology and Department of Space, Government of India. The entire database is organized in object oriented relational database using Oracle as Backend and Visual Basic, ASP as front end. The web enabling part comes through uploading the entire spatial and non‐spatial data at a common platform using ArcSDE and ArcIMS The spatial characterization of landscape structures and its linkages with attribute information on the floristic composition, economic valuation, endemism are presented in Biodiversity Information System on a sharable environment. It is a step to evolve with new a mechanism to conserve biological diversity at local, regional and national level.     

Capturing the fugitive: Applying remote sensing to terrestrial animal distribution and diversity

Amongst many ongoing initiatives to preserve biodiversity, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment again shows the importance to slow down the loss of biological diversity. However, there is still a gap in the overview of global patterns of species distributions. This paper reviews how remote sensing has been used to assess terrestrial faunal diversity, with emphasis on proxies and methodologies, while exploring prospective challenges for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. We grouped and discussed papers dealing with the faunal taxa mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates into five classes of surrogates of animal diversity: (1) habitat suitability, (2) photosynthetic productivity, (3) multi-temporal patterns, (4) structural properties of habitat, and (5) forage quality. It is concluded that the most promising approach for the assessment, monitoring, prediction, and conservation of faunal diversity appears to be the synergy of remote sensing products and auxiliary data with ecological biodiversity models, and a subsequent validation of the results using traditional observation techniques.     

Development of National Database on Long-term Deforestation in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world. This study has utilized satellite remote sensing and GIS techniques to generate a nation-wide database on forests, forest types and land use/land cover of Sri Lanka. Spatial assessment of forest cover changes was carried out for the periods 1976–1985, 1985–1994, 1994–2005 and 2005–2014. The landscape fragmentation analysis has carried out to calculate the spatial and temporal patterns of forest. Land use/land cover map was prepared representing seven classes in 2014. The plantations occupy a large area (34.2%) followed by forests (33.4%) and agriculture (26.1%) in 2014. During the period of 1976–2014, the forest has been decreased by 5.5%. From 1976 to 1985 forest recorded a loss at an annual rate of 0.49%. This annual rate decreased to 0.01% during 2005–2014 indicates declining trend of deforestation and effective conservation measures. The study found deforestation hotspots in south east and northern most parts of the Sri Lanka. Total number of patches estimated has increased from 15193 in 1976 to 16136 in 2014. The study has found that main causes of deforestation in Sri Lanka were due to expansion of agriculture and plantations. The extent of change detected in the study through geospatial techniques has significance to the forest ecology and management of natural landscapes in Sri Lanka.     

空间信息全球惟一编码GeoID模型初探

为了解决由于不同数据模型中同一空间实体的编码不惟一而导致数据共享困难以及标识的静态性和无空间位置等问题,本文提出了基于全球剖分格网的空间信息全球惟一编码模型(GeoID),并设计了该编码模型的系统架构,试图实现全球连续的、多层次空间信息的惟一标识。通过对遥感影像中的空间实体进行了编码探讨,结果表明空间信息全球惟一编码模型将大大加快信息的查询与检索速度。     

The Relationship of Urban Expansion,Landscape Patterns and Ecological Processes in Denizli,Turkey

Perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage and attrition in ecosystems take place due to urbanization. In this study, where and when temporal and spatial heterogeneity occurs is tried to be explained by taking human intervention in landscape pattern and processes in and around the city of Denizli into account and how this heterogeneity affects habitat conditions within the scope of landscape ecology. Landscape pattern metrics were estimated in order to reveal the change in habitats and present the properties of the landscape. 30 pattern indicators on class and pattern levels, which are important to show human–environment interaction, were analyzed in order to indicate the features of the landscape such as area, side, shape and dispersion. To this end, LANDSAT TM/7–ETM/8-OLI satellite images of 1987 and 2013 were classified for laying the foundations of the analysis. Analyses showed that between 1987 and 2013, complicated shape features, increase in edge habitats, de-growth in core areas and eventually fragmentation in landscape have been dominant. Heterogenic structure in landscape has increased. This points not to the self-functioning of the landscape, but to the domination of human intervention over the landscape. Particularly, due to urban growth and sprawl, fragmentation, isolation and habitat loss in croplands have increased. This study sets forth the usefulness of remote sensing, GIS and landscape metrics in understanding how urban dynamics and ecosystems change in developing urban politics.     

Landscape characterization of Sariska National Park (India) and its surroundings

Landscape characterization gives an overall information on the status of Land Use and Land Cover(LULC),changes in its composition and the impact of natural and human influences operating at different spatial and temporal scales.This information can be used to monitor changes in natural forest resources and protected areas,delineate potential conservation areas and can serve in effective management of ecologically fragile landscapes.In the present study,geo-spatial tools were used to characterize the landscape of Sariska National Park and its surroundings.Satellite data was used to prepare LULC maps for 1989 and 2000,change detection analysis and computation of landscape metrics.Climatic data,field records and modeling tools were used to map the po-tential spread of two invasive species,Prosopis juliflora and Adhatoda vasica.The results show that the forest area increased from 1989 to 2000,indicating better management practices.Landscape metrics(PAFRAC,PLADJ and AI)also support this argument.Improvements in the degraded forest can further enhance this effect.The entire reserve however is suitable for the invasion of P.juliflora and A.vasica but is more pronounced in Boswellia serrata and Anogeissus pendula-Acacia catechu(open)forests.A detailed landscape characterization map can help forest managers to make important policy decisions concerning issues such as in-vasive species.     

Assessment of carbon in woody plants and soil across a vineyard-woodland landscape

Background

Quantification of ecosystem services, such as carbon (C) storage, can demonstrate the benefits of managing for both production and habitat conservation in agricultural landscapes. In this study, we evaluated C stocks and woody plant diversity across vineyard blocks and adjoining woodland ecosystems (wildlands) for an organic vineyard in northern California. Carbon was measured in soil from 44 one m deep pits, and in aboveground woody biomass from 93 vegetation plots. These data were combined with physical landscape variables to model C stocks using a geographic information system and multivariate linear regression.

Results

Field data showed wildlands to be heterogeneous in both C stocks and woody tree diversity, reflecting the mosaic of several different vegetation types, and storing on average 36.8 Mg C/ha in aboveground woody biomass and 89.3 Mg C/ha in soil. Not surprisingly, vineyard blocks showed less variation in above- and belowground C, with an average of 3.0 and 84.1 Mg C/ha, respectively.

Conclusions

This research demonstrates that vineyards managed with practices that conserve some fraction of adjoining wildlands yield benefits for increasing overall C stocks and species and habitat diversity in integrated agricultural landscapes. For such complex landscapes, high resolution spatial modeling is challenging and requires accurate characterization of the landscape by vegetation type, physical structure, sufficient sampling, and allometric equations that relate tree species to each landscape. Geographic information systems and remote sensing techniques are useful for integrating the above variables into an analysis platform to estimate C stocks in these working landscapes, thereby helping land managers qualify for greenhouse gas mitigation credits. Carbon policy in California, however, shows a lack of focus on C stocks compared to emissions, and on agriculture compared to other sectors. Correcting these policy shortcomings could create incentives for ecosystem service provision, including C storage, as well as encourage better farm stewardship and habitat conservation.

     

江西省生态环境区划与评述

运用景观生态学的原理和方法,依据景观空间的异质性和景观内部的相似性,在遥感影像和数字高程模型分析的基础上,结合生态环境主要因子聚类分析结果,对江西省生态环境进行区划和评述,其目的在于为江西省制定生态经济建设宏观规划和国民经济发展提供决策依据.     

石羊河流域中游景观生态格局变化及驱动分析

以石羊河流域中游为研究区,首先利用多时相、多源遥感图像提取土地利用/土地覆盖信息,根据转移矩阵,定量研究了景观类型的变化趋势、变化面积、变化率及具体的转换类型;提取能够反映景观格局特征的相关指数,分析景观生态格局及景观异质性;最后,对其景观格局变化的驱动因素进行分析。通过本次研究可以增强对石羊河流域中游生态环境的科学认识,对促进该流域的综合治理具有一定的科学和实际意义。     

新疆地区鸟类和哺乳动物丰富度与环境因子的空间格局与关系

干旱区生态系统极易受到气候及土地利用变化的影响,其生物多样性格局及其形成机制是重要的生态学问题。基于新疆地区鸟类及哺乳动物物种多样性数据,结合气候、地形和长时间序列的植被遥感参数产品FAPAR数据等,主要在不同的土地利用类型及海拔带上采用单因子相关分析方法探讨了物种丰富度格局的形成机制。总体来说,不同生境类型中,植被遥感参数因子(DHI、NDVI等)与两种类群物种丰富度分布的相关性强于与气候因子(温度、降水)的相关性。具体而言,植被遥感参数因子中,基于FAPAR的生境指数因子与丰富度的相关性大于基于植被指数的因子(DHI_cumNDVI_cumEVI_cum);气候因子中,在草地生境或者较低的海拔上,年均降水因子对于丰富度分布的解释力强于年均温度因子。这表明在新疆地区,影响鸟类与哺乳类动物物种丰富度分布的主导理论是生境异质性假说与环境稳定性假说,其解释力在多种生境内均强于生产力与环境热量。     

Characterizing bi-temporal patterns of land surface temperature using landscape metrics based on sub-pixel classifications from Landsat TM/ETM+

Landscape patterns in a region have different sizes, shapes and spatial arrangements, which contribute to the spatial heterogeneity of the landscape and are linked to the distinct behavior of thermal environments. There is a lack of research generating landscape metrics from discretized percent impervious surface area data (ISA), which can be used as an indicator of urban spatial structure and level of development, and quantitatively characterizing the spatial patterns of landscapes and land surface temperatures (LST). In this study, linear spectral mixture analysis (LSMA) is used to derive sub-pixel ISA. Continuous fractional cover thresholds are used to discretize percent ISA into different categories related to urban land cover patterns. Landscape metrics are calculated based on different ISA categories and used to quantify urban landscape patterns and LST configurations. The characteristics of LST and percent ISA are quantified by landscape metrics such as indices of patch density, aggregation, connectedness, shape and shape complexity. The urban thermal intensity is also analyzed based on percent ISA. The results indicate that landscape metrics are sensitive to the variation of pixel values of fractional ISA, and the integration of LST, LSMA. Landscape metrics provide a quantitative method for describing the spatial distribution and seasonal variation in urban thermal patterns in response to associated urban land cover patterns.     

Very high resolution Earth Observation features for testing the direct and indirect effects of landscape structure on local habitat quality

Modelling the empirical relationships between habitat quality and species distribution patterns is the first step to understanding human impacts on biodiversity. It is important to build on this understanding to develop a broader conceptual appreciation of the influence of surrounding landscape structure on local habitat quality, across multiple spatial scales. Traditional models which report that ‘habitat amount’ in the landscape is sufficient to explain patterns of biodiversity, irrespective of habitat configuration or spatial variation in habitat quality at edges, implicitly treat each unit of habitat as interchangeable and ignore the high degree of interdependence between spatial components of land-use change. Here, we test the contrasting hypothesis, that local habitat units are not interchangeable in their habitat attributes, but are instead dependent on variation in surrounding habitat structure at both patch- and landscape levels. As the statistical approaches needed to implement such hierarchical causal models are observation-intensive, we utilise very high resolution (VHR) Earth Observation (EO) images to rapidly generate fine-grained measures of habitat patch internal heterogeneities over large spatial extents. We use linear mixed-effects models to test whether these remotely-sensed proxies for habitat quality were influenced by surrounding patch or landscape structure. The results demonstrate the significant influence of surrounding patch and landscape context on local habitat quality. They further indicate that such an influence can be direct, when a landscape variable alone influences the habitat structure variable, and/or indirect when the landscape and patch attributes have a conjoined effect on the response variable. We conclude that a substantial degree of interaction among spatial configuration effects is likely to be the norm in determining the ecological consequences of habitat fragmentation, thus corroborating the notion of the spatial context dependence of habitat quality.     

基于植被分布特征的森林景观建模方法

在虚拟地理环境中如何快速地生成具有特定空间格局的森林景观是一个具有挑战的问题。现有的研究主要以模拟或随机的方式确定树木的位置,但难以反映每个树种的分布特征。本文提出了一种基于图的中性景观模型,根据指定的景观指数生成特定组成结构和空间配置的森林景观。模型将格网随机划分为若干不规则的区域,并将其转化为对应的区域邻接图,通过源节点的受限生长生成特定大小和形状的图斑。相比其他中性景观模型,该模型在可控性和灵活性上具有优势,能对每种类型的景观特征分别进行表达。最后根据模型生成的森林景观确定树木的位置与种类。本方法不仅能为植被场景的可视化提供合理的植被分布,而且能反映森林景观的空间分布特征,为虚拟森林环境中的林业规划决策以及植被分布规律认知提供一定的支持。     

基于GIS的济南泉域土地利用变化空间格局的研究

应用不同时期的航天遥感图像,编制各期土地利用分类图,在ARC／INFO和ARCVIEW系统的支持下,建立空问信息库。根据景观生态学原理选取斑块大小、面积、多样性指数、均匀度指数、优势度指数等指标,对济南泉域景观空间格局的动态变化进行了分析。结果显示,济南泉域内耕地面积迅速减少,而城镇、农村居民点和工矿建设用地大量增加,景观空间格局发生了较大变化。     

Spatial pattern of urban functional landscapes along an urban–rural gradient: A case study in Xiamen City,China

Since there is an increasing demand for integrating landscape ecology and urban planning theories to study complex urban ecosystems and establish rational and ecological urban planning, we introduced a new concept-urban functional landscapes which can be reclassified based on detailed land use data to fulfill the various urban functions, such as residential, commercial, industrial, and infrastructure purposes. In this paper, urban functional landscapes were defined based on urban land use data produced from Pleiades images, and then landscape metrics and population density were combined to identify the urban functional zones along an urban–rural gradient. The features of urban functional landscape patterns and population density were also analyzed, and their relationship has been explored. The results showed that the pattern of urban functional landscapes and population density in the urban functional zones (Urban center, Urban peripheral area, Landscape barrier, Satellite city and Far-suburb) along the urban–rural gradient in Xiamen doesn't totally conform to the classical theories in spatial and social aspects. Urban functional landscapes is potential of acting as bridges between the landscape ecology and urban planning theories, providing scientific support for rational urban landscape planning and urban land use policy making.     

基于Google Earth Engine的遥感大数据分析研究进展与应用

随着地理信息数据规模不断增长,传统的空间分析模式受限于软硬件的性能已经不能对大数据多尺度研究提供较好的支持。以GEE平台为基础,通过算法原理阐述平台架构体系以及分析GEE的技术特点,论述其在遥感大数据分析领域的研究进展、人工智能技术在地理信息分析领域的应用,探索地理空间数据分析的智能化方向。最后,结合交叉学科前沿探索GEE在未来的热点研究领域中的应用模式,并展望GEE作为云端空间信息服务平台的未来发展以及和下一代互联网技术的协同演进。     

遥感技术在景观生态学研究中的应用

景观生态学是一门新兴的宏观生态学分支学科，自20世纪80年代以来，其研究内容和方法论的发展与遥感、GIS等现代对地观测技术的发展紧密联系在一起。对近年来遥感技术在景观生态学中的运用，从景观结构研究、功能研究、动态研究、尺度研究以及景观生态学应用研究五个方面加以总结，进而分析遥感技术在景观生态学研究中的应用优势特征和目前存在的主要问题，并对未来遥感技术在景观生态学研究的应用发展方向提出意见和建议。