Authors: J. Luis Hernandez-Stefanoni¹; Raul Ponce-Hernandez²

Source: Biodiversity and Conservation, Volume 13, Number 14, December 2004 , pp. 2599-2621(23)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

The relationships among alpha and beta diversity indices, computed from 141 randomly sampled quadrats, and the vegetation classes obtained by multi-spectral satellite image classification, were used as a strategy for mapping plant diversity in a tropical landscape mosaic. A relatively high accuracy of the land cover map was revealed by the overall accuracy assessment and the Cohen's Kappa statistic. Species accumulation models were used to evaluate how representative the sample size was the different vegetation types. A standard one-way, between-subjects ANOVA confirmed a significant reduction of the within-class variance of plant diversity with respect to their total variance across the landscape. Computed uniformity indices, to assess the internal uniformity of vegetation classes on the diversity indices, confirmed the goodness of the mapped classes in stratifying variability of plant diversity. This allowed for the use of the mapped classes as spatial interpolators of plant diversity values for estimation and up-scaling purposes. Finally, it was revealed that the plant diversity of the landscape depends, to a large extent, on the diversity contained in the most mature forest class, which is also the most diverse community in the studied area. High and moderate beta diversity values between mature forests and both the secondary associations and the first stages of succession, respectively, indicated that there is a significant contribution to the diversity of the landscape by those vegetation classes.

Keywords: Biodiversity; - and -diversity; Landscape; Mapping; Remote sensing; Satellite image classification; Tropical forest

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10531-004-2137-2

Affiliations: 1: Watershed Ecosystems Graduate Program, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada 2: Environmental and Resource Studies Program, Department of Geography, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9J 7B8 (( rponce@trentu.ca;extn. 1569)), Fax: +1-705-748-1011-, Email: rponce@trentu.ca

Publication date: 2004-12-01

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