Estimating altitude in distribution records of Amphibians and Reptiles: a comparative study between topographic maps and Remote Sensing data

Authors: Sillero, Neftalí¹; Ribeiro, Raquel²; Brito, José Carlos²; García-Meléndez, Eduardo³

Source: Amphibia-Reptilia, Volume 29, Number 1, 2008 , pp. 121-126(6)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

Altitude is an important factor when explaining species distributions. However, many biogeographical studies register altitude directly through topographic maps; a time-consuming manual process prone to mistakes. Currently, GIS and DEMs allow this work to be done more efficiently. Two methods for registering altitude for locations of amphibians and reptiles in the Iberian Peninsula were compared in order to evaluate their efficiency and similarity: manually through topographic maps, and automatically with a GIS, where two DEMs were analysed: the SRTM DEM and a DEM generated through topographic maps. The SRTM altitudes were similar to those recorded by the manual method (only Rana perezi presented differences), whereas the other DEM had differences in almost all amphibians and three reptiles. The differences between both DEMs corresponded mostly to rivers and band effect of radar sensor. The GIS method was faster, efficient and no time was consumed in searching and correcting human errors.

Document Type: Short communication

DOI: 10.1163/156853808783431532

Affiliations: 1: CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos da Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal, Área de Geodinámica Externa, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Universidad de León, Campus de Vegazana s/n, 24071, León, Spain; , Centro de Investigação em Ciências Geo-Espaciais (CICGE), Universidade do Porto, Departamento de Matemática Aplicada, Rua do Campo Alegre, 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal, Email: neftali.pablos@fc.up.pt 2: CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos da Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal 3: Área de Geodinámica Externa, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Universidad de León, Campus de Vegazana s/n, 24071, León, Spain

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