Science topic

Vegetation Ecology - Science topic

Explore the latest questions and answers in Vegetation Ecology, and find Vegetation Ecology experts.
Questions related to Vegetation Ecology
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
17 answers
I collected this Dactylorhiza from NW of Iran in a wetland at 2500 m. I found only one individual between many individual of Dactylorhiza umbrosa. As I know, this kind of Dactylorhiza with such white flower have not been observed so far in Iran. I don't know it is a diffrent species, a hybrid or just a variation in color of flowers within Dactylorhiza umbrosa? please help me to identify that.
thanks so much
Relevant answer
Answer
The above plant is Dactylorhiza incarnata subsp. cilicica (Klinge) H.Sund.
The name Dactylorhiza umbrosa is a synonym of Dactylorhiza incarnata subsp. cilicica
The name Dactylorhiza umbrosa var. ochroleuca is a synonym of Dactylorhiza incarnata subsp. cilicica
Thanks!
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
1 answer
I participate in an international research project focusing on the relationship of happiness feelings to environmental conditions. Our hypothesis is that happiness may be valued more in regions with favorable environmental conditions. Among other variables we would like to examine the length of the vegetation period in several world regions. Therefore we are looking for data on the different vegetation period arount the globe that can be processed numerically (all our other variables are processed in SPSS). I found some databases but they are either local or employ a formats that are not accessible to most psychologists. I would appreciate any suggestions about how to find global vegetation data.
Relevant answer
Answer
Here are some suggestions on how to find accessible and numerically processed global vegetation data:
1. **NASA Earthdata:** NASA provides a wealth of environmental data, including vegetation-related information. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) dataset, available through NASA's Earthdata platform, offers global vegetation indices such as NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) that can be processed numerically. You can access this data in various formats, including HDF, which can be converted for use in SPSS.
2. **UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):** The FAO maintains datasets related to vegetation and land cover. The Global Land Cover SHARE dataset (GLC-SHARE) is a global land cover dataset that includes information on vegetation. While it may require some data processing, it is a valuable resource for your research.
3. **Global Vegetation Monitoring (GVM) Project:** The GVM project provides access to global vegetation datasets, including the GIMMS NDVI dataset, which covers several decades. These datasets are commonly used in ecological and environmental research and can be processed for use in SPSS.
4. **European Space Agency (ESA):** The ESA offers various Earth observation datasets, including vegetation-related data. The Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Land Cover project provides global land cover information, including vegetation, in formats suitable for scientific analysis.
5. **Data Repositories:** Consider exploring data repositories and archives such as the World Bank's DataBank, which provides access to environmental and climate-related datasets. While the focus may not be solely on vegetation, you can find relevant data.
6. **Collaboration with Remote Sensing Experts:** Collaborating with experts in remote sensing and geospatial analysis can be beneficial. They can help you access and process vegetation data for your specific research needs.
7. **Data Conversion Tools:** If you find data in formats not directly compatible with SPSS, consider using data conversion tools or software to transform the data into a usable format. Tools like R or Python can be helpful for this purpose.
8. **Consult Local Universities or Research Institutions:** Local universities or research institutions in your region or in regions of interest may have access to relevant vegetation data or can guide you on where to find it.
When working with global environmental data, it's essential to ensure that the datasets are up-to-date and cover the regions of interest for your research.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
Hi, I want to realize a project of monitoring of Forest Health status on a large scale in Europe. But I don't are sure of the index that can be better to use for this task. maybe the NDVI is one of the most popular, but I have read something about the NDWI and EVI. What do you think about the better index to assess the health status or the decline of the vegetation canopy of the European forest?
Help me, thank you very much
Relevant answer
Answer
if your question is still relevant, see our article, where various vegetation indices were compared (NDVI, NDMI, FMI, SR, TVI, wNDII) for long-term forest change detection in Slovakia and Czechia using Landsat data: (NDMI appeared to the best for evaluating the individual stages of disturbance - especially the bark beetle calamity)
and the paper dealing with comparison of vegetation indexes (NDVI and NDMI) and orthogonal indexes (TCG, TCW) to distinguish between healhty forests, forests after disturbane and in recovery phase using Sentinel-2 data: (using the NDMI we achieved the best results again)
All the best,
Daniel
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
If I have a camera capable of taking raw images and a spectralon 99% reflectance panel, can I calculate accurate reflectance readings or NDVI values from small vegetation plots without a spectrometer if the reflectance panel is in every image? I would like to take reflectance readings from small vegetation plots and correlate them to biomass estimates.
Relevant answer
Answer
1. Keep in mind that 'DN' stands for 'Digital Number' and has nothing to do with an image being calibrated or not calibrated or raw spectral band or ratio or PCA results or anything else.  EVERY image assigns a DN value to the pixels.  What is important is what the DN values represent !  If it is raw Landsat TM or drone image data it is the radiance received at the sensor and adjusted/converted to a digital number range based on the specifications of the sensor typically using gains and offset (or bais) values; if an image has radiometric calibration procedures applied then it can represent TOA radiance, TOA reflectance, surface reflectance, or whatever (even for DEM images the pixel values are DNS that in this case represent elevation).  Again, every image (no matter what they represent) has DN values and I would suggest that 'DN' not be used to imply raw image data only as it is being used in this conversion.
2. Since the early days of Landsat MSS 'broad' spectral bands have been used for digital remote sensing analyses and mapping, so I do not agree that your drone aerial images can only be used for photo interpretation.  I worked with some of the very first Landsat MSS images in early 1972 and have since then used many 'broad' band spectral image data sets for various applications.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
9 answers
Dear All,
I am looking for values of Urbanity and Hemeroby indexies for the below listed plants. I have borrowed the BiolFlor book with CD-database (Klotz & Kühn 2002) from the library but still don't have an access to the database on it (limited only to the CD owner).
Do you know any sources (publications, on-line databases) of the above indexies which is available for free?
Species list,
1. Cucubalus baccifer:
2. Erigeron annuus:
3. Lamium galeobdolo:
4. Myosotis palustris:
5. Plantago major:
6. Polygonum lapathifolium: (or Persicaria lapathifolia).
7. Ranunculus auricomus:
8. Rosa canina:
9. Taraxacum officinale:
Thank you in advance for any help.
Maciek
P.S. Please share this quaestion with your botanist-colleques.
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Maciek,
If you can read at least a little German you can find this info for many species via http://floraweb.de/. On the page for the species there is a direct link to the full BiolFlor data sheet.
Kind regards,
Uwe
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
2 answers
Bruce M. Boghosian in the November 2019 issue of Scientific American (p. 73) writes about wealth distribution. Using math and physics, it seems that a slight perturbation to a symmetric or isotropic starting point can result in inequality. Slight inequality results in increasing inequality (anisotropy) over time. These issues are also canvassed in the Growth of Oligarchy in a Yard-Sale Model of Asset Exchange by Bruce M. Boghosian, Adrian Devitt-Lee, and Hongyan Wang, arxiv 2016 and in The Affine Wealth Model by Jie Li, Bruce M. Boghosian, and Chengli Lion, arxiv 2018.
Ehud Meron in Physics Today November 2019 issue writes about Vegetation Pattern Formation (p. 31). While water distribution for a given topography may initially be isotropic, vegetation can distribute in anisotropic patterns.
Are these two instances of initial isotropic distribution leading to anisotropic patterns connected by the same physics? If so, what is the physics?
Relevant answer
Answer
The common properties of the systems described in the question are the complexity, the multi-scale nature and the self-similarity of the governing laws with respect to scaling. The concept of complexity used here is very general and indicates that the system is composed of a large number of interacting parts and has a marked tendency to self-organization (emergence of macroscopic structures).
Multiscale complex systems are described by a non-Gaussian statistical distribution. They also exhibit the self-organized criticality observed in phenomena ranging from earthquakes and landslides to undesirable stock market behavior.
In examining the problem from the historical point of view, it is worth mentioning that the non-Gaussian statistical distribution was identified in 1892 by Wilfredo Pareto after a survey of the income distribution. Asymmetrical distributions, similar to those studied by Pareto, have also been observed in the natural sciences.
This fact led to the creation of a physical economy based on the methods developed in statistical physics. This new disciplines shows significant predictive skill with respect to the forecasting of general trends.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
13 answers
I wanted to know if the data of plant survey in an 0.1ha of area can represent the vegetation of the whole forest area in general? Any 
Relevant answer
Answer
It depends on the sampling methodology and total area of the location.
Regards
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
During the last years many electronic databases of vegetation plots, mainly phytosociological relevés, were established in different European countries. These databases contain information which is extremely valuable for both testing various macroecological hypotheses and for nature conservation surveying or monitoring.
Somebody can help me to find vegetation-plot databases of relevés based in the phytosociological method made in Portugal?
Thanks in advance.
Relevant answer
Answer
Thanks for the answers.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
9 answers
Simpson's Diversity index has two forms, one equation for finite populations and one for infinite populations. Which version should I use if working with vegetation % cover values from quadrats? A brief survey of published papers shows both equations used with such data suggesting that either there is no meaningful difference or that authors have not considered the options.
Relevant answer
Answer
Have you thought of using Hill numbers instead? Hill 1 and 2 are equivalent to Shannon and Simpson, respectively. But have much better properties thann the traditional use. Firstly, they have units, that is the value provided is in number of species (SW &S are unitless) thus are comparable and more meaningful. Secondly, they comply with the doubling principle. That is, if true diversity doubles, their value does so (SW &S don't). You can read Jost or Chao for more information. Lastly, the use of Shannon or Simpson (or their equivalents) depends on how much weight you want to give to common species. Hope this helps.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
Dear Colleagues,
I am beginning to investigate assessment of vegetation using Ellenberg classification in marsh habitats. And in studies of marsh vegetation I have a problem when species list of a study plot is too short (1-3 species). And I would like to ask you, does this sample suitable for calculation of mean Ellenberg indicator value of a habitat? Maybe, are there any publications pointed out this issue?
Best wishes, Anatoliy A. Khapugin
Relevant answer
Answer
Рекомендую обратиться к геоботанику-болотоведу Ивченко Татьяне Георгиевне Tatiana Ivchenko
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
210 answers
World's urban tales had been told many years ago that polar bears are wandering through Polish country. It was never true in historical times, however Alfred Jahn has written in his "Ice and glaciations" (PWN 1971): "In Poland, snow begins to fall mostly in December, and in January and February already covers the earth with a thin layer. This happens when the air temperature drops below 0deg, when the water freezes and the earth is covered with a hard, soggy clod. The change takes place in March. Just a few days of thaw ..." This winter we have here up to 9degC and a thin layer of snow was with breaks for... four weeks no more. In late December I've found the willow flowers at the walk. Daisies bloomed on the lawns. It's a rule now. However, it is not question in plant biology. We start to enjoy with a mediterrenian climate, now. And the mediterrenians? Now it is hard to stay there in the summer time. We also are the most calm country in the Europe with longest white-and-yellow sandy sunny beaches at the seaside. Will Poland be the best place to live for next few centuries?
This winter season the first thin layer of snow occurred here on 5th January 2020.
Relevant answer
Answer
In Greenland the Inuit home rule government has a policy to install hydropower in every town tapping the energy from the meltwater. So far they have build six. Each city supplied has ceased to use their diesel generator power plant.
The second photo is of the Sisimut plant close to my universities Sisimut campus.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
53 answers
Dear colleagues, which indices for measuring species diversity you think are the best ? I used Shannon–Wiener diversity index , but reviewer thinks it is not the appropriate method. Can somebody tell my why, please? Do you use Shannon–Wiener diversity index? Could you give me some references where this index is used? Is Simpson' s diversity index better? If so, then why? Or just simple species richness?
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Alena, in reality there is no good or bad way to measure diversity, it is all relative to your research question, what you really want to give more weight to (i.e., common species, uncommon species, etc). However, most measures, but species richness, have serious problems in reflecting the 'true' diversity and are difficult to compare. One very clever alternative is to use instead Hill numbers, which are related to these traditional ways of measuring diversity (Shannon, Simpson, etc) and deal with the comon problems they have. You can read a number of recent papers that describe in more detail what the Hill numbers are, but I would start with Jost 2006 Oikos 113:363 and Jost 2007 Ecology 88:2427 (and check Jost's web page www.loujost.com). Hope this helps.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
I would like to know if exist methodologies to calculate the Kcb (basal crop coefficient) and the Ke (soil evaporation coefficient) using remote sensing data (e.g. NDVI, SAVI, etc.)?
Thanks,
Relevant answer
Answer
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
In a particular (natural) environment biological diversity can quantified, For example, a 4 X 4 meter square area in a carrot patch has 300 carrot plants, all the same species. It has a very low biodiversity index of 1/300, or 0.003.
A 4 X 4 meter square area in the forest has 1 pine tree, 1 fern, 1 conifer tree, 1 moss, and 1 lichen, for a total of 5 different species and 5 individuals. The biodiversity index here is high, 5/5 = 1.
Is the shanon wineer index relevant for enviromental recondition like garden and city park ?
Relevant answer
Answer
thanks for great answers @janice @andrew
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
6 answers
If there are statistical tool that can answer my query, that would be awesome. Thanks..
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Miguel,
We have tested a model for forest distirbance and resilience in the linked papers.
The datas you'd need are diameter distribution of the forests you want to study, tree heights and crown volume.
You need to do an height vs crown volume power regression. This tells you the optimal size distribution of the diameters in the stand. Then you compare this with the real diameter distribution. The farther the two distributions are, the most disturbed is the forest. Different forests will then have different disturbance degrees, and if the time at which disturbance happened (es. Fire) is known, then you can get resilience.
Best whishes
Giacomo
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
Dear colleagues,
Last time, I have found a population of plant at 6m and 1700m altitude. Morphologicaly, there is a visible difference. Can you suggest me other parameters?!
Thank you
Relevant answer
Answer
THANK YOU Dr Singh
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
2 answers
Can anybody explain how to calibrate the LAI Meter before taking the readings from a fruit tree? Explanation along with demonstration will be highly appreciated please. 
Regards,
Ansar Ali
Relevant answer
Answer
Third fully expanded healthy leaf from the top is used for the measurement. Clip the lead in LICOR leaf area meter. Nowadays digitalised instruments are available that give the readings instantly. Take at least 5 readings to minimise error.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
7 answers
is plant habit one of the factors determining photosynthesis light response? can we say trees generally have curve with bigger slope compared to herbs?   
Relevant answer
C3, C4 and CAM photosynthesis occurs in small plants but only C3 in trees :)
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
This in order to make an accurate comparison in Biogeography for a genus.
Relevant answer
Answer
I was using the concept that species accumulation curve uses sampling effort. For bats, each night sampling is also used instead of area or net, so I would like to try an alternatiive with herbaria specimens.
Thank you all for your ideas, I'll consider them all.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
Dear researcher, professor, practician, Hydrologist
my name is Ali, I am a student of Gifu university. my research is comparison two small catchment with different vegetation types in central Japan. one part of my research is water quality.
I was measure water quality from broadleaf deciduous and evergreen coniferous forest. and one of my parameters in dissolved oxygen (DO). 
based on my data, DO in coniferous evergreen is always lower than in broadleaf deciduous. who knows the reason?
I try to connect with baseflow data because baseflow in coniferous evergreen is lower than broadleaf deciduous. but some literature said groundwater have low DO. 
based on my data, DO in coniferous evergreen is always lower than in broadleaf deciduous. who knows the reason?
Thank you very much for your help
Relevant answer
Answer
Thank you very much, Dr. Ali Hussein and Dr.Jo-Anne Joyce. I get the point and match with the pH data.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
7 answers
Good day,
I need to design a sampling method to quantify the regeneration  of the selected species at different altitudes/canopy closures in a national park. The park is about 9000 ha and ranges in altitude from sea level to about 600 m (tropical rain-forest conditions). 
I am dealing with 6 tree species, 3 of which are relatively rear and found only at the peaks. I was thinking about going along with transects and using these to determine DBH (diameter at breast height) size class distribution of the species, but I was informed this may not be the best approach. Any Suggestions?
Relevant answer
Answer
First, decide on the gradient along which the regeneration is to be measured, Second, decide on plot size and whether placement will be random or not. 1-ha plot size within which complete enumeration of all erect woody species is done is sufficient. Number of the plots will depend on sampling intensity, desired level of accuracy and cost and time implications. Then have a technical definitions of seedling, sapling, medium-sized trees and large trees. Collect the data and segregate it according to size classes and habitat gradient (altitude?), You can the compare composition similarity by Spearman's rank correlation coefficient or any other appropriate statistic. You will document all species in each plot, and determine the proportional composition of the species of interest therein. Good luck.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
Are these exotics are one of  the reasons  for the depletion of ground water table in nilgiris 
Relevant answer
Answer
According to my knowledge, any tree species consumes water depending on its vegetative mass and effective or active depth penetration of the root system. Though there is a general belief that Eucalyptus trees consume more water, there are reports contradicting the same, stating that there are more than 20 species of Eucalyptus & not all of them consume same amount of water. The only argument against growing Eucalyptus is that it should not be done in water scarce region, as these trees can be grown in any dry areas or saline pockets or water logged areas. Other reasons against growing Eucalyptus trees are the ecological & soil fertility problems. As far as Kolar region is concerned, the area is water scarce and experiences recurring drought and hence definitely not advisable to grow any water intensive crops/trees.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
Despite Germany is probably the one country in the world where the largest number of vegetation plots (phytosociological relevés) have been sampled, their mobilisation in large vegetation-plot databases is lagging far behind other European countries. This relatively poor electronic data coverage from Germany impedes European studies, e.g. on diversity patterns and their drivers, niches of plant species and assembly rules of plant communities as well as broad-scale consisten vegetation classification, which otherwise are now well possible through the 1.3 million plots stored in the European Vegetation Archive (EVA).
GrassVeg.DE is a new collaborative vegetation-plot database organised by German members of the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) and has just joined the EVA consortium. GrassVeg.DE aims at making grassland relevés from Germany available for fundamental and applied research, both within Germany and internationally, while ensuring that data providers get proper credit and benefit. We collect relevés of grasslands and herblands in the widest sense, i.e. everything except forest, shrubland, segetal and aquatic communities. Phytosociologically, the scope mainly refers to the classes Festuco-Brometea, Koelerio-Corynephoretea (including Sedo-Scleranthetea), Violetea calaminariae, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea, Juncetea maritimi (including Saginetea maritimae), Juncetea trifidi, Elyno-Seslerietea, Carici-Kobresietea, Calluno-Ulicetea (including Nardetea strictae), Loiseleurio-Vaccinetea, Salicetea herbaceae, Trifolio-Geranietea  (including Melampyro-Holcetea), Artemisietea vulgaris (incl. Galio-Urticetea) and Mulgedio-Aconitetea from the territory of Germany. Plot observations from other vegetation classes can be included as well if they form a minor part of a certain contribution.
Contributing data to GrassVeg.DE (and thus to the European and global megadatabases "EVA" and "sPlot"), ensures that your valuable plot data are permanently safeguarded for science, that you will get invitations for co-authorship and citations, while at the same time you become entitled to propose own research projects using the whole GrassVeg.DE and EVA database (and in the future also the sPlot database). That way you can get more out of your data, whether published or unpublished.
The rights and obligations of data contributors and data users of GrassVeg.DE are regulated by Bylaws that ensure a fair balance between both groups. Anyway, data use is restricted to data contributors. GrassVeg.DE is governed by a Custodian and a Deputy Custodian and a Governing Board, elected by the Consortium members (those who contributed the data). You find more information about GrassVeg.DE at our homepage: http://www.bayceer.uni-bayreuth.de/ecoinformatics/en/forschung/gru/html.php?id_obj=139259
If you are interested to join with your data, please contact me (juergen.dengler@uni-bayreuth.de),
Jürgen Dengler
(GrassVeg.DE Custodian)
Relevant answer
Answer
SILAM (Finland) - data for all Europe including Germany аrom various stations and data of satellite remote sensing of the Earth (grass cover)
I cooperate with them
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
Best approach for statistical analysis of intercropped maize+cowpea experiment. Please take a example of any growth parameter such as plant height, number of leaves, LAI, CGR etc. and compare the both ANOVA tables. Thank u.
Relevant answer
Answer
Dr Ronald we have four crop rotations in the main plots i.e. Maize+Cowpea-Oats-Cowpea, Maize-Oats-Mungbean, Maize+cowpea(2:1)-oats-mungbea and Cowpea-oats-cowpea and 5 nutrient management treatments in sub plots  I.e. Control, 100% NPK (inorganic, 125% NPK inorganic, 75%NPK+FYM+PGPR, 100%NPK+FYM. The experiment is ongoing under split plot design.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
Please give me an example of a temperature zero of a plant for the different phenological stages ?
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
What kind of landscape are you classifying?
Relevant answer
Answer
We use UAV multispectral data with 5cm GSD for invasive species classification. More details here:
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
6 answers
It is assumed that the grassland patches in the sub-tropical region of Nepal are homogeneous dominated by few major grass species. What should be the sample size and number of sampling units in a particular location (grassland patch)? Some literature have highlighted Relevee method and some have mentioned Tansley method. But how to fix the number of sampling units (or number of sample points/plots)?. 
Relevant answer
Answer
Thank you all for your suggestions and idea. 
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
6 answers
I am thinking about a remote sensing project, where I could use the vegetation data, especially grassland data, as ground truth. For that I would need the spatial location of the vegetation assassment. I searched a bit, but only found the Countryside survey, where the coordinates of the plots apparently are not easily available. I would be greatful if someone could help me with some links where I could find this kind of data. Thanks in advance,
Nadine
Relevant answer
Answer
I think this is going to be a two-step process.  First search through the Research Gate PUBLICATIONS for the five kinds of native UK grasslands like at https://www.researchgate.net/search.Search.html?query=england%20chalk%20grassland&type=publication
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
Dear Colleagues,
I would like to work on the effect of  salinity on leaf area, but there, I work on legumes wich leaf is composed of some leaflets, then my question, should I measure the surface of all the leaflets one by one, or  another way exists to estimate this parameter?
Thank you for your contribution
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Colleagues,
Tahnk you very much for your suggestions. That will be very helpfull for my studies.
Cordially
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
18 answers
I am currently studying the ecology of arboreal mammals. I am looking for possible tools or index to measure the connectivity of canopy between trees. If you have any references to study at, i will be happy to know it. 
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
I am interested in knowing some experience in research about the impacts suffered by the biological soil crust by activities such as trekking, 4x4 or mountain bikes travels, or in any case mechanical damage induced by human activities.
Relevant answer
Answer
Weber et al. 2016. pp. 479-498. In Biological soil crusts: an organizing principle in drylands. Springer-Verlag. - summarizes a wide variety of recovery rates from disturbances including foot traffic and vehicle tracks. No data on mountain bikes that I know of. 
Cole.  1990. Great Basin Naturalist 50:321-325
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
We are preparing a project that intends to study how the climate change affects the distribution of Arbutus unedo, but the literature that we found about environmental factors affecting the species distribution is somehow vague. Most of the literature have general indications about the species ecology.
Thanks in advance
Relevant answer
Answer
The tree is well known to me from around the Med and as invasive alien in Ireland. If I would have to answer this question in my Majella research area, I would consider the following. Preparation of a SDM with a comprehensive set of environmental variables. Secondly, from my observations the species is more narrowly eu-mediterranean (oceanic) than say Quercus ilex and other broad-leaf evergreens. To obtain fine resolution data or proxies (terrain/cold air sinks) for minimum winter T would seem worthwhile. Cloudiness could also be relevant as this would decrease night frost.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
13 answers
Dear all, once I accidentally came across a map (a gradient map in green color) showing the intensity of vegetation ecology studies / or may be it was showing availability of vegetation survey data throughout the world. Now I need this map to show the regions of vegetation data gaps across the globe, but unfortunately I do not exactly know the source of that map. So, I would be grateful, if someone could provide me the source of such a map, which shows the vegetation data gap/or intensity of vegetation survey/ or vegetation data availability  across the globe. Thanks in advance!
Relevant answer
Answer
It might be useful for you to have a look at sPlot which is a new initiative aimed at forming a database of plant plots across the globe. It includes the EVA data, as well as many other local initiatives but is of course not 100% complete (e.g. missing some plots in Sub-Saharan Africa).
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
10 answers
I am currently looking at the dissappearance of wetlands/marshlands in and around Chennai. What would be the best month to get a good look at the vegetation development. December/january after the north east monsoon has hit the area?
Kind regards
Relevant answer
Answer
Its depends on location of vegetation and seasons as per your study location it will be November to January. please find the link for details methodology:
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
Hi
I've seen with reason that we can distinguish between two types of vegetation by thermal data...and now there is a person how worked on designing algorithm in this section that can do this differentiation automatically? To help each other to do a research.
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi,
you could try the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin in QGIS:
It is free, and there are plenty tutorials on how to conduct a supervised classification.
Hope that helps!
Best,
André
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
We seek to define the reflectance plots of some halophytic plants using specific vegetation indices as it is different from other kind of vegetation?!
Relevant answer
Answer
Thank you Mehebub ... interesting paper
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
9 answers
I have read already dozens of book chapters and papers on the notation of Anne Chao et al. on how they define abundance based diversity data and incidence based diversity data. Abundance based means that for an ("plotless"?) area there is a complete (?) count of, let´s say all tree species and their respective number. Incidence based data refers to the case when I have sampling units spread across an area and list the species in these sampling units. Then, the information on the species is reduced to presence/absence and I count in how many plots a species occured in order to have some kind of information on the species frequency.
However, what do I do if I have counted all tree indivduals of trees in let´s say 30 plots? That was done for three different regions (which I want to compare), I counted about 5000 individual trees, in total and now one tells me that I have to reduce the count to 0/1? Or is it allowed to pool the data (see Gotelli and Colwell 2001) and sum up all individuals for one region? Is this then still a "true" abundance data set? Am I corrupting any rules then?
I hope that someone has a good explanation :)
Cheers
Gotelli, N. J., & Colwell, R. K. (2001). Quantifying biodiversity: procedures and pitfalls in the measurement and comparison of species richness. Ecology letters, 4(4), 379-391.
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Rodrigo,
that is pretty helpful, and an interesting topic, too (biodiversity ~ restoration). Most interesting is the fact that Tropek et al. used relative cover for the vascular plants. This is something I always was afraid of, as the methods clearly (?) depend on abundance "counts". Anyway, this is another problem :) Actually, I already asked Chao and Jost etc. but never got any answer. What a pity. Thanks for your thoughts! I will now pool the dataset and refer to Gotelli & Colwell 2001 and Tropek et al. 2010.
best regards from Hamburg
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
Brazilian water agency (ANA) provides water stage and water discharge from many monitoring stations in Brazil. However, provided tables have a weird structure and are wide-structured.
Since this dataset is widely used around the world, I'm wondering if anyone have a script in Python, R, Matlab or any other language to format those tables to a more "readable" long-structured format?
(attached one of those tables)
Relevant answer
Answer
I looked at table, the data is column separated, and the daily times were so unusual.  Then as suggested in your question, there were 31 codes of columns with data in it, probably some flow or other indicator.  Since I do not know Spanish, I could not decipher details, but the formating of the daily data in 31 columns verified the daily max, min and average, I could not figure out the 31 daily codes, what they might be (possibly discharge readings at different times), and why the three readings per day, one with no time, one with 0700 hours and one with 1700 hours.  The 31 codes (coda) were possibly a measure of discharge during the day. 
I would suggest contacting the agency collecting the data for an explanation.  The format may be clear to them, but they might not be aware that its formatting is creating issues for others in its reading and interpretation.  
In downloading data from USGS website, it is not uncommon to have to adjust the date time indicator into separate columns, and select out specific data if you want only date, time, and stream discharge, there are several columns such as stream stage removed.  I usually have a spreadsheet with original data, and then I copy and paste into another spreadsheet for alterations, adjustments for analysis, plots, etc. 
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
To separate the vegetated area from non-vegetated area we are supposed to use empirically determined threshold value. So how to determine threshold value empirically?
Relevant answer
Answer
just go through the attachment in these paper they have calculated threshold value empirically 
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
-
Relevant answer
Answer
Hello Yadav,
You may find the following articles useful.  They use/highlight population viability methods in varying ways.
I hope they help.  Feel free to email me with any questions.  Also, if you are trying to do some basic analyses, I also suggest looking at the "Pop-tools" extension in Excel.  It is very useful for estimating the basic parameters that are included in most PVA's
Cordially,
Benjamin
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
Hi all,
I am looking for more information about " Use game engine for exploring vegetation change".
I will be thankful for any help..
My Regard
Relevant answer
Answer
Thank you Matheus. I will look.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
I am experimenting with some datasets at hand and would like to try REVEALS (Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites) model (Sugita 2007) that provides parameters for landscape openness. I extensively searched the internet to see how REVEALS could be accessed, but haven't found much except that it is run as part of the POLLSCAPE which used to be accessed at http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/ (according to Sugita 2007 Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science); but now the website has no information about any of the above. 
Can I anyone please help me in terms of identifying the source of this model and explaining the initial steps of its application? 
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Charuta,
currently, there are two "slightly" different implementation of REVEALS in R.
Second is available from Petr Kuneš GitHub site: https://github.com/petrkunes/LRA
HTH,
martin
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
15 answers
I am working on LULC change detection by applying change detection techniques like image differencing, image rationing, PCA, Tasseled Cap transformation which produce change or no-change binary output. After that I have done supervised classification of original image and then applied post classification. Now I want to do cross tabulation between  the change detection results derived for different techniques against the post classification data. But I could not understand how to do?
Relevant answer
Answer
 I will advise you to same way: Erdas imagine Accuracy assessment tools to evaluate your LU/LC also you can use kappa index but it is not usefull at latest studies. You will use maximum likelihood algorithm and accuracy measures like 0.82, 0.90  ....
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
7 answers
For proper management of river ecosystem how ecological flow is important and by which method it can be calculated for particular river?
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Mr. Nagar,
        Based on my experience in assessing e-flow in respect of hydro-electricity project clearance from MoEF, I attach the required write-up for your use. Best method of e-flow assessment at present is to follow MIKE 11 tool.
 Environmental Flows
Riverine ecosystems are among the most impacted ecosystems worldwide. Human activities, such as the construction of dikes, dams, barrages and weirs, the straightening and deepening of river channels, the conversion of floodplains to agricultural land, water abstraction, water transfer and pollution; etc., have heavily modified most large lowland rivers. As a result, a large number of fish species became threatened or endangered and the fish productivity of most riverine ecosystems has declined. This is all the more troubling since, large lowland rivers support a significant proportion of the world’s fish diversity and their fisheries provide a major source of food, employment and income to society. Until now, the flow regimes of most large lowland rivers have been heavily manipulated to serve the needs of society. To balance the interests of different stakeholder groups, many countries have implemented water resources management plans. Water policy decisions are typically made with little or no consideration of fish conservation and fisheries, despite a high public perception of fish. The reason is not only the relative lower socioeconomic importance of fisheries compared to ecosystem services such as flood protection and navigation. Whereas the optimal flow regime for navigation, agriculture and flood protection (in terms of magnitude, timing and duration of flow events) is comparably easy to determine, the consequences for fish diversity and fisheries are much more difficult to quantify.
Environmental flow refers to the water considered sufficient for protecting the structure and function of an ecosystem and its dependent species. Environmental flows are required to be maintained through a river reach for sustaining its ecosystem and dependent species. It means enough water is to be released in the downstream of the river system after utilizing the water for the development projects in order to ensure downstream environmental, social and economic benefits. Realizing its importance, several countries have made ensuring environmental flows mandatory. For example, The Mekong River Agreement, 1995; South Africa’s National Water Act, 1998 and the Swiss Water Protection Act, 108. These legislations attempt to ensure required minimum flow in the river system to sustain ecosystem services. A wide range of environmental flow methodologies (EFMs) have been developed to determine flow thresholds for various objectives such as the preservation of natural conditions, the maintenance or restoration of ecological integrity and cultural and recreational values. Most of these methods were developed primarily to protect endangered fish species and to maintain fisheries resources in human-modified rivers. Until now, these methodologies have been mostly applied to small upland rivers and headwater streams. Although a growing body of literature summarizes the status of available EFMs the question remains whether or not these EFMs are suitable to protect fish diversity and fisheries resources in regulated large lowland rivers.
 Methodologies for estimation of environmental flows worldwide
Most currently available EFMs can be grouped in four main categories:
1. Hydrological methods
2. Hydraulic rating
3. Habitat simulation methods
4. Holistic methodologies.
In European countries, hydrological and habitat simulation are the prevailing methods, while some developing countries and countries with newer environmental legislation have focused on holistic methods. Hydrological methods rely primarily on flow measures and indices, which are drawn from historical time series data on annual or daily mean flow. Still widely used is the Tennant method (also known as Montana method), which relates the ratio between river discharge and fish habitat availability to certain percentages of annual flows to meet predefined requirements (Tennant, 1976). The Tennant method assumes similarity of aquatic habitats when carrying the same proportion of average flow but rarely considered the effective habitat quality at varying flows. The method lists eight categories of in-stream flow that range from maximum to severe degradation. Below the threshold of 10% mean flow, the environmental conditions for fish are judged to be degraded, whereas 50% provides for excellent conditions in terms of stream width, water depth and velocity. While the Tennant method does not explicitly consider duration or the timing of flow events, some extensions integrate flow duration and frequencies. Other hydrological methods include duration percentiles or single flow indices that are usually generated from historical stream flow databases. One example is the widely used 7Q10, which is defined as the ‘seven-day, consecutive low flow with a ten-year return frequency; the lowest stream flow for seven consecutive days that would be expected to occur once in ten years’ (United States Environmental Protection Agency) or similar discharge indices. 
 Hydraulic rating considers the channel morphology of a given river and calculates acceptable flows by relating river discharge with a variety of hydraulic characteristics such as water depth, velocity or wetted perimeter. These methods rely on transects measured across a river section comprising habitat factors that are assumed to be limiting factors for target biota. The wetted perimeter method considers the variation in wetted perimeter or river width with water discharge. Plotting the wetted perimeter against discharge shows a breakpoint where a comparable small decrease in discharge results in a comparably larger decrease in wetted perimeter. This breakpoint is used as a minimum in-stream flow recommendation. The widely used habitat simulation methods are sophisticated extensions of hydraulic rating methods within a framework addressing many ecological components of riverine ecosystems (IFIM, In-stream Flow Incremental Methodology, Bovee, 1982). Within the context of IFIM, a broad range of modelling tools such as PHABSIM aim to predict how physical habitat conditions (i.e. water depth, velocity, cover, substrata) change with discharge. Typically, detailed hydrological and hydraulic data for a grid of cells in a river stretch are compared with the habitat suitability of a target species. The habitat suitability is expressed as a habitat suitability curve (e.g. suitability index curve, probability of use or preference curve), often seasonally defined, which specifies the assumed seasonal requirements of different species, life stages or habitat guilds. The curves depict the relationship of target organism’s response to a gradual changing habitat variable scaling from unsuitable to suitable, which are usually obtained from existing data or field measurements. By comparing the curves with the predicted habitat area at various flows, the minimum flow thresholds can be defined in a way so that the discharge provides optimal habitat conditions, retains a percentage of habitats at average flow or provides a minimum amount of habitat area. Most commonly, the flow threshold is set at the breakpoint in the habitat/flow curve where proportionally more habitat is lost with decreasing flow than is gained with increasing flow. The commonly used output of, for example PHABSIM quantifies the suitability of a location for a target species in terms of a weighted usable area (WUA; expressed as, e.g. m2 1000m stream length1). More advanced software tools such as 2D and 3D models achieve greater hydraulic representation. Other models allow for inclusion of water quality, temperature and other biological factors such as prey densities, energy allocation and behavioral components. The complexity of current models is growing and there are many approaches to establish statistical techniques that improve the predictability of species abundance on the basis of biotic and abiotic variables. The growing recognition that rivers are closely connected to their watersheds has led to the realization that protecting and rehabilitating riverine ecosystems requires sensitivity, not only to the key hydrological, biological and ecological, but also to the economic and social aspects of a riverine ecosystem. Assuming that a natural flow system will maintain the ecological function of a riverine ecosystem, so-called holistic methodologies will define the critical environmental flows of an entire riverine ecosystem rather than focusing on the needs of a single species.
Holistic methods rely less on modelling and more on multidisciplinary panels covering biophysical disciplines such as hydrology, geomorphology, sedimentology, water chemistry, botany and zoology. Advanced methodologies such as DRIFT (Downstream Response to Intended Flow Transformations Methodology, King et al., 2003) consist of different modules that integrate biophysical, and economic and social factors and aim at participating stakeholder groups. Within the biophysical module, various EFMs such as habitat-modelling tools can also be implemented. The growing recognition that rivers are closely connected to their watersheds has led to the realization that protecting and rehabilitating riverine ecosystems requires sensitivity not only to the key hydrological, biological and ecological, but also to the economic and social aspects of a riverine ecosystem. Assuming that a natural flow system will maintain the ecological function of a riverine ecosystem so-called holistic methodologies will define the critical environmental flows of an entire riverine ecosystem rather than focusing on the needs of a single species. Holistic methods rely less on modelling and more on multidisciplinary panels covering biophysical disciplines such as hydrology, geomorphology, sedimentology, water chemistry, botany and zoology. Advanced methodologies such as DRIFT consist of different modules that integrate biophysical, and economic and social factors and aim at participating stakeholder groups. Within the biophysical module, various EFMs such as habitat-modelling tools can also be implemented.
 Analysis of Environmental flows
Mostly, to maintain specific river classes, the E-flows are estimated world-wide at monthly time-scale using the Flow-Duration curve analysis. For this, generally, a minimum of 25 years river discharge time series data is used. It is the management and planning authority, who decides the quantity of E-flow to be released to maintain a particular environmental management class (EMC) of the river. A river may be classified into six environmental management classes of A, B, C, D, E, and F depending on the following flow.
modification category (Kleynhans, 1996). The more pristine is the desired management class, the higher is the E-flow requirement.
 Class A (Natural): Pristine river condition or minor modification of in-stream and riparian habitat.
 Class B (Slightly modified): Largely intact biodiversity and habitats in the river despite water resources development and/or basin modifications
 Class C (Moderately modified): The river habitats and dynamics of the biota have been disturbed, but the basic ecosystem functions are still intact. Some sensitive species are lost/or reduced in extent; however, the alien species are present.
 Class D (Largely modified): There is large changes in the river natural habitats, biota and basic ecosystem functions with a clearly lower than expected species richness. A clearly lower than expected species richness.
 Class E (Seriously modified): Habitat diversity and availability have declined. A strikingly lower than expected species richness. Alien species invaded the ecosystem.
 Class F (Critically modified): Modifications have reached a critical level and ecosystem has been completely modified with almost total loss of natural habitat and biota. This river status is not acceptable at all.
Hence, the E-flow should be released from the dam so that it can maintain the EMC-B condition, which should not be less than the EMC-C condition in worst case.
Flow-Duration Curve (FDC) Method
The flow-duration curve is the plot between the percentages of time that flow in a stream is likely to equal or exceed some specified value of interest. The basic time unit used in preparing a flow-duration curve will greatly affect the nature of the curve. For most studies, mean daily discharges are used. These will give a steep curve. When the mean flow over a long period is used (such as mean monthly flow), the resulting curve will be flatter due to normalization of short-term peaks by averaging with intervening smaller flows during a month. The extreme discharge values are averaged out more and more, as the time period gets larger (e.g., for a flow duration-curve based on annual flows at a long-record station). The shape of a flow-duration curve in its upper and lower regions is particularly significant in evaluating the river and basin characteristics. The shape of the curve in the high-flow region indicates the type of flood regime the river basin is likely to have; whereas, the shape of the low-flow region characterizes the ability of the river basin to sustain low flows during dry seasons. A very steep curve (high flows for short periods) would be expected due to rainfall in small watersheds, as the watershed behave non-linearly to the rainfall-runoff transformation process. The floods due to snowmelt, which last for several days, or regulation of floods with reservoir storage, will generally result in a much flatter curve near the upper limit. In the low-flow region, an intermittent stream would exhibit periods of no flow; whereas, a very flat curve indicates that moderate flows are sustained throughout the year due to natural or artificial stream flow regulation, or due to a large groundwater capacity which sustains the base flow to the stream.
In this study, the available 10-daily averaged observed discharge time series in a particular month for different years are ranked using the Weibull plotting position method. The flow-duration curve for that specific month is represented by a table of flow values (percentiles) covering the entire range of probabilities of occurrence corresponding to 17 fixed percentage points: 0.01, 0.1, 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 99, 99.9, and 99.99%. These percentage points ensure that the entire range of flows is adequately accounted for. The flow-duration curve developed using the historical data is termed as the reference class. For estimating the Environmental Flow (E-flow) requirement for different categories of EMC, the flow duration curve is shifted by one step, two steps, three steps, and four steps for EMC-A, EMC-B, EMC-C, and EMC-D, respectively. The E-flow is computed based on the 90% dependable flow of this FDC for different EMCs. The E-flow thus computed for different months is routed along the river reached downstream by using the MIKE 11 Hydrodynamic Model (DHI-Water & Environment, 2012) to simulate the spatial distribution of discharge, flow depth, and flow velocity at different sections of the river downstream under no lateral flow condition.
Habitat Simulation Method
The main issue with the FDC method is a limited justification of the permissible FDC shifts per EMC. The currently accepted step of a shift (one FDC table point per class) is based on limited calibration of the proposed method. It is very difficult to evaluate the results when there are no ecological data available to confirm or deny the suitability of the estimated EF. It is, in principle, possible to collect some limited hydraulic information for rivers and examine the characteristics of the available habitat (water depth, wetted area and velocity, for example) under different flow conditions (natural and FDC shifting method recommendations). This is not, however, a real substitute for scientific information on the relationships between ecological characteristics and flow.
Keeping this in view, a further assessment is to be carried out using habitat simulation and hydraulic modelling. Habitat requirements have to be established in different seasons for baseline data collected .
From baseline data, habitat requirement are to be established to protect fishes in the river limbs. Dependency of the local population on rivers for other needs e.g. domestic requirement, irrigation, navigation, commercial fisheries. is not there.
Flow modeling has to be carried out for different release scenarios in different seasons using Mike11. Flow simulations generally to be carried out for 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 40%, 50% and 100% releases of the average discharge in 90% dependable year of the flow series. Annual series may be further divided into Monsoon, Lean and pre & post monsoon period. Flow release recommendations are to be made using this approach to ensure habitat requirements are met with throughout the year.
MIKE 11 Hydrodynamic Model
The MIKE11 hydrodynamic model (DHI-Water & Environment, 2012) is widely used world-wide to model the 1-D flood wave movement in rivers under steady and unsteady flow conditions. This model solves the de Saint-Venant equations of continuity and momentum using six-point Abbot numerical scheme. The Saint-Venant equations of continuity and momentum are to be followed.
 The MIKE11 model uses the E-flow as the upstream boundary condition, which is then routed along the river downstream to estimate the discharge, flow depth and velocity at different sections of the river reach at different time levels. MIKE11 is accepted by US Federal Emergency Management Agency for use in the National Flood Insurance Program.
  Comments
The Report on Estimation of Environment Flows Requirement for tropical rivers like India typically may include the following;
 Baseline Data, broadly given below, may be elaborated.
 Secondary sources based on literature covering fish fauna of rivers rivers
 Primary sources – Based on sampling and analysis covering physico-chemical and biological characteristics
 ·         Physico–chemical Characteristics (water and sediment)                                                     
·         Periphyton, Phytoplankton and zooplankton                                                                     ·         Macro-Invertebrates (benthic) Fish Fauna
 ·         Fish species sampled during different seasons
·         Catch Per Unit Effort
·         Size/s of fish caught during sampling in different season
·         Habitat Characteristics of sites where sampling was conducted like substrate, river depth, flow velocity, etc.
 The data from the seasonal sampling on water quality and biological features (phytoplankton, zooplankton, macro-benthos, fishes, etc) are to be included in the report along with discussion on seasonal trend in parameters and correlation, if any, between water quality and biological parameters of key species.
 Establishing habitat requirement based on Ecological and Social needs in different seasons – Lean (Winter), Monsoon, pre and post monsoon, i.e., Flow Depth, Width, Velocity, Turbidity, Flood Peaks, Intermittent Wetting of Riparian vegetation during high flows, etc. needs to be elaborated in a report.
 Meeting of habitat requirement through environment flow may also be elaborated in a report.
 ·        
·                                                                                
·         Spills from dam during monsoon to be assessed
·         
Hydrology
MIKE 11 has been used for hydro-dynamic modelling and several runs for different discharges must  be made with number of inputs .
 Maximum number of river cross-sections on river limbs need to be used for modelling (at least 9-10 sections on each limb). The use of data for several sections would facilitate assessment of critical stretch.
 . The entire river reach needs to be represented in the model set up using all the cross sections provided.
             The model output should include flow depth, velocity of flow and top flow width at each cross section of the study reach for 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 40%, 50% & 100% flow of the average of leanest 4 months, 4 monsoon months & other 4 months in 90% dependable year.
 The flow simulation results, viz., depth of flow, velocity and top flow width of all the three seasons need to be correlated with the respective riverine fauna to estimate the environmental flow requirements.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
Key words: Flash flood - Gully and Rill -Land Use - Vegetation covers - Topography.
How can i combine all in one model? And how can i quantify these factors?  
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Amr Saleem, The end of my post missed so trying to proceed:
Hydrological cycle in all water bodies (including groundwaters) is very important factor,  not only flash floods caused in abundant precipitation. Evaporation drived by temperature dynamics  and other factors is also valuable too. Note that exact parameters had to be taken into account  depend on certain location. Very important point is a scale. Drivers of short-term (seasonal) dynamics usually differ from annual, decimal trends  as well as dymamic character itself. human impact including land use is most unpredictable factor. Remotely sensed (satellite) data help in estimation of most referred factors (direct or ondirect) for model verification. This is suggested in accordance to our experience. Honestly speaking, the models you suggest are really complicated   I suddenly found the reference I was giong to share: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270769761_Spatially_explicit_estimation_of_soil-water_resources_by_coupling_of_an_eco-hydrological_model_with_remote_sensing_data_in_the_Weihe_River_Basin_of_China
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
In Europe, vegetation growth is related to minimum temperatures of 5 degrees or higher. Is there a minimum temperature for vegetation growth in the southern African region? And if so, how low?
Relevant answer
Answer
Kathleen, I don't think you should be focusing on temperature as a limiting factor for plant growth in Southern Africa. The climate of Southern Africa is almost the complete opposite to the European climate. Southern Africa is warm and dry whereas Europe is cool and wet. In Europe temperatures drop below the minimum required for plant growth during the winter (the length of this period obviously depends on altitude/latitude etc), while moisture is plentiful. In Southern Africa temperatures probably do not fall below the minimum required for plant growth at any time of the year, while rainfall is relatively low and unpredictable and drought is common. Therefore I think you should be considering rainfall (or moisture availability) as your main environmental factor limiting plant growth.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
10 answers
I am using linear (Ordinary Least Squares) regression to estimate the coefficients and model fitness for vegetation in an ecological study. However, after model fit, tests showed that the linear regression violates 1) normality of error terms 2) is heteroscedastic (non-constant) variance of error terms and 3) likely spatially correlated error terms(non-indepedence). What alternative linear regression model should i use? Or how do i solve for these problems to meet the assumptions in regression?
Relevant answer
Answer
Apologies in advance if I am telling you things you already know. If you suspect the spatial correlation to be present in your data, the first thing to do is plot a variogram or bubble plot, there are several R packages that allow you to do this (spatial, gstat, geoR). This will allow you to either visualise how the semi variance of the model changes with distance (variogram) or how the residuals of your model are positioned in space (bubble plot). In both cases if you see clear patterns, you have spatial autocorrelation. 
Accounting for heteroscedasticity can be done in several ways including adding more explanatory variables (which may explain the patterns of variance), random effects, or variance structures
Without knowing more about your data is it hard to give a definite answer on what is best. But a generalised least squares regression (GLS) allows you to incorporate both a spatial correlation structure and variance structure (to account for heteroscedasticity), so it might be a good place to start in your case.
Beyond that, there are other mixed effects regressions which could work, but the specification of variance/correlation structures becomes more complex.
Hope this is helpful.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
9 answers
Is there any correlation of soil organic carbon, inorganic carbon, total carbon and total nitrogen concentration with leaf total carbon and total nitrogen concentration?
Relevant answer
Answer
Arshad your question is really articulative. Shall we take  it  this way , whether or not soil C:N ratio affect the leaf  C:N ratio ? . My answer will big affirmative. Any change in concentration of soil C will bring simultaneous change in N status , considering the C:N ratio   of  soil as a constant . Such  soil C:N ratio  will trigger  the better microbial diversity plus the higher buffering capacity of the soil , thereby , maintain the better nutrient supply to above ground plant parts  .
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
12 answers
I have GPS data of the localities of occurrence of a particular species. I want to know that from this data how can I know the Extent of Occurrence and Area of Occurrence of that species?
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Amber,
Here are a couple of  papers available on RG and another on ncbi for your reference
1. Applications of the IUCN Red List: towards a global barometer for plant diversity
N Brummitt, SP Bachman, J Moat - Endangered Species …, 2008
2. Modelling bryophyte distribution based on ecological information for extent of occurrence assessment ,C Sérgio, R Figueira, D Draper, R Menezes… 2007 - Elsevier
3.Supporting Red List threat assessments with GeoCAT: geospatial conservation assessment tool by S Bachman, J Moat, AW Hill, J de Torre, B Scott - ZooKeys, 2011 - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.sci-hub.org
Good luck!
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
12 answers
PC-ORD needs a specific way of data entry. I need a software which can do Ordination and can calculate diversity index  with a simple data entry method.
Relevant answer
Answer
You could also try PAST - it has ordination and diversity calculations, among other things, and the creator of the program is constantly updating it and always available to answer questions and assist people in using the program.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
I am planning to assess the impacts of climatic (rainfall, temperature, snow cover) and non-climatic (human and livestock population) factors to vegetation cover in a river basin in Nepal. I saw few papers, some are using PCA and some partial correlation method for identifying the relations? Any suggestions?
Relevant answer
Answer
I agree the another appropriate method PCA,.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
49 answers
Somewhere in my head it resonates that (plant) species occupy more specific niches at the edge of their distribution range. They become ecological specialists, whereas in the range center they are less demanding. I could imagine this theoretically, but I cannot find early or recent references
Who can help me? Thank you in advance!!
Relevant answer
Answer
 Edward Greene's study of the California poppy ecotypes has been reprinted, and the most interesting part is that he created a taxonomic key to sort out the 116 ecotypes that he describes in detail.   If you go to Amazon and look for Pittonia Volume 5 1902-1905, the paperback reprint is under $30.  
And the simplicity of the perennial grasses and how quickly you can conduct a common garden study to view the fixed ecotypic variations, by using a common garden study is like putting on magic glasses, and be able to see evolution in progress.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
15 answers
I am almost certain of the first photo to be Sorghum bicolor L. What is the species of second photo? Sorghum ........... The local people gave different vernacular names and I guess these are also two different Sorghum species. Right?
The fourth and fifth photos are from the same species; It is naturally occurring and also cultivated, harvested and sold by local people specially in northern Ghana.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
15 answers
EVI index became extremely popular due to its ability to eliminate background and atmosphere noises, as well as its non-saturation in high biomass regions while NDVI asymptotically saturates in high biomass regions.
If EVI has such advantages over NDVI, why do we use NDVI ? In what kind of studies we should choose one over another ?
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi,
The NDVI has been around for over 40 years, has a simple formula and requires only red and NIR data, all of which contribute to its ongoing popularity. However, it is highly sensitive to soil background and atmospheric effects, while the EVI was designed to be much less sensitive to these extraneous effects and, therefore, to provide a better quantification of vegetation abundance and physiological activity. The paper below reviews the development of some of the most important post-NDVI indices and provides a modified EVI equation that does not require blue band data:
JP
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
12 answers
On the base of leaves reflectance data obtained by remote sensing method I calculate several vegetation indices (VI), which I found out in literature. Unfortunately no one of authors comments what the differences in the obtained indices  of control and infected plants presents.
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Svetla,
The issue raised in your last message (detecting pathogens) is rather different, and much more specific, than your original question (meaning of vegetation indices). As pointed out by Rafael, vegetation indices are rather arbitrary (and largely obsolete) combinations of spectral bands that exhibit at best limited correlations with plant properties collected in field campaigns. And when such relations have been established, they are generally applicable only to the geographical area and time periods of those campaigns.
Coming back to your much more pointed question on the pathogens: the first thing to do would be to establish whether the presence or the effect of these pathogens has any noticeable impact on the bidirectional spectral reflectance of the affected canopies (hence in either the color or the anisotropy of the plant canopy), at the spatial scales and resolutions sampled by space borne instruments. If the canopy reflectance does not change as a result of the pathogen attack (or if the change is too small to be noticeable from space), then remote sensing is not an appropriate approach for this problem, irrespective of what index or other 'trick' you may want to use...
Assuming now that the reflectance of plants is indeed sufficiently affected by pathogens to be measurable, then the next step would be to characterize those changes, and to design a method to highlight those particular changes (not any generic change in plant properties). Hence, you should develop your own approach to address this particular problem: there is no reason to believe that any odd generic vegetation index is relevant or optimized for your specific interest.
To explore these ideas further, you may want to look at this paper:
Verstraete, M. M. and B. Pinty (1996) 'Designing optimal spectral indices for remote sensing applications', IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 34, 1254–1265.
Good luck with your investigations. Michel.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
7 answers
I want apply different statistical tools (methods) to analyse my ethnomedicinal and ethnobotanical data and information.
Relevant answer
Answer
cross-cultural differences,  chi-square, Fishers test, RRI,etc.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
6 answers
I have collected data from 4 small mountain streams with permanent flow or with dry months. I took between about 74 plots with 40mx 20m size, collecting data related to tree species richness, number of individuals, height, DBH, tree distance from river bank, and regeneration . Site characteristics and water regime in the river is also recorded, as well as number of dry months (if any). My aim is to study  the relationship between actual dominant tree or shrub species, and their regeneration, to better understand successions (if any). Please provide links or publications if available as I have limited access. 
Relevant answer
Answer
Jean, Check out this paper by a colleague Christian Marks
This is focused on how changing the flood regime changes species composition within floodplain forest communities
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
6 answers
I have collected data from 4 small mountain streams with permanent flow or with dry months. I took between about 74 plots with 40mx 20m size, collecting data related to tree species richness, number of individuals, height, DBH, tree distance from river bank, and regeneration . Site characteristics and water regime in the river is also recorded, as well as number of dry months (if any).  My aim is to study riparian tree (and shrub) distribution according to distance from riverbank and altitude, as well as according to river regime. Then to study the relationship between actual dominant tree or shrub species, and their regeneration, to better understand successions (if any),  
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
1 answer
Are there any environmental gradients that one might look out for within a particular landscape? I'm from India and mostly concerned about tropical rainforest vegetation but any information would be most welcome at this point.
Relevant answer
Answer
I suggest you should be considered all available environment gradients 
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
Paulownia description.
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi
General information about Royal paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa) Tree:
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
2 answers
We have found that as follows:
Firstly, there was an increased photosynthetic rate in grazed plots as compared to non-grazed plots for both the tussock grass and the deep-rooted grass.
Secondly, there was a phenomenon that deep-rooted grass grows basal leaves in grazed plots, but the tussock-grass does not.
I can’t make a sense of it. I guess there may be a tradeoff between the competition and the ability in withstand grazing between the tussock-grass and deep-rooted grass?
Could you give me some information about it?
Any help appreciated very much!
Relevant answer
Answer
To Zaal,
Thank you very much, I strongly approve of your opinion.
It was an obvious phenomenon that  the sheep like to eat the tussock more than the deep-rooted grass in the experimental area. I believe that your hypothesis is convincing.
I appreciated very much.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
Shifting R values in labdsv
Relevant answer
Answer
Thanks - that makes sense. The permutation just wasn't stable at the default number of iterations.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
I have a dataset or co-occuring trees sampled  from a stand. Predawn water potential varies during the dry season. Since we assume that predawn water potential depends is measured at low (or 0) transpiration rates I tend to argue that the differences are due to differences in rooting depths. However, I wonder have connections of predawn water potential and rooting depths been explored in a systematic way?
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Frank,
Theoretically, if some trees are rooted in deeper/wetter soil than their neighbors, you would expect to see relatively higher predawn water potentials, provided that the plant is in equilibrium with the soil. It would be necessary to verify soil moisture profiles. In practice, such an approach tends to be problematic. You might also consider the use of stable isotopes. Here is a paper you may find helpful.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
7 answers
There are two subspecies: Asphodelus bento-rainhae ssp. bento-rainhae is found in Portugal and Asphodelus bento-rainhae ssp. salmanticus is present in Spain. The two subspecies are not closely related genetically.
This species is classified as Vulnerable D2, as it is only found in four locations (two in Portugal and two in Spain), in a very tiny area of occupancy. If, despite conservation actions, the quality of its habitat was to decrease further, this species would qualify for an Endangered category.
Relevant answer
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
The research focuses to develop an index for Wetland Health
Relevant answer
Answer
It is always better to use your own wetlands with historical and present data in order to establish an índex correctly or at least to have reference conditions from your own cases
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
2 answers
Please hme elp find geobotanical descriptions of Stipetum lessingianae Soό in 1948! Ukrainian Azov steppes phytocoenology describe and refer to Stipetum lessingianae Soό 1948 (Kostylev et al. 1986). However, I have not found descriptions of this association.
In his article on the steppes of Kursk, "Comparative study of the vegetation in the forest-steppe zone of the USSR" 1959, page 279, Dr. Soό writes: "... Stipetum lessingianae Soό (27) 46 is the most representative of the western steppes nizkozlakovyh ..."
Where can I find descriptions of the association Stipetum lessingianae Soό 1948?
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Olga,
I am not specialised on vegetation on steppe, however, have rather large experience with R. Soó's publications. The problems are following: 1) Soó wrote large amount of papers and sometimes he published more papers during one year. As many of his papers are witten in Hungarian, it is sometimes difficult for other people to estimate in which of the papers could be published particular description. Additionally, my impression from Soó's papers is that he was able to place anything anywhere, and thus e.g. some aquatic syntaxa were described in the paper focused mainly on halophilous vegetation;
2) Many of the Soó's descriptions are invalid, mainly as nomina nuda according to the article 2b of ICPN  (there are many cases when the association name is only mentioned in the text, without any relevé or table of relevés). However, some of the names which were just mentioned in some of his older papers we  documented by relevé(s) in some newer publication. It is one of the sources of the confusions because some of the authors (especially those before the first version of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature publication) used the year of invalid publication in syntaxa names, some other authors the year of valid publication.... and some other made type error in the date and thus many of the associations are given with very variable years of description. Even Soó himself, when refered to his own papers, often gave several various dates or he even did was not sure about the year of publication of the associations he should describe!
3) Some of the valid descriptions are documented just by a single relevé which is so well hidden in the text that many people did not find it and considered the descriptions as invalid (e.g. the case of species poor vegetation like Lemnetum minoris or Potametum crispi associations).
May be some of the colleagues who will join your question will know accurately where the description of Stipetum lessingianae was validly published for the first time. If no, than I recommend you to check all the papers published in the years which appear in various forms of the name, i.e. besides 1948 also 1927, any may be also some later papers, if you would not be successful. The paper from 1927 is probably Soó R. von (1927): Geobotanische Monographie von Kolozsvár (Klausenburg). A studium könyvkiadó R. T. Bizománya, Budapest. 
For 1946 I do not have any idea but will try to check some sources of references when I will be in my office.
From the newer papers there is important
Soó, R. (1964): A magyar flóra és vegetació rendszertani-növenyföldrajzikézikönyve I. (Synopsis systematico-geobotanica florae vegetationisque Hungariae I). - Budapest 589 S. I think there are not valid descriptions of associations, just list of syntaxa, however, there are references to older Soó's papers and the names have authors and years of publication, thus potentially there can be some new information for you. Of course, there is couple of other papers. As in the following weeks I must go through them (search of aquatic syntaxa), I can check them for Stipetum lessingianae too (unfortunately, the papers are not available in my institution and thus I can not manage it immediately).
If you hurry on the correct reference of Soó's paper, you can try to contact someone from Hungary here on ResearchGate directly (by sending message), e.g. Róbert Pál, Zoltán Botta Dukát or Attila Lengyel.
Good luck in your search and best regards!
Katerina
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
Reproductive maturity and long distance dispersal are important criteria in the spatio-temporal expansion of invasive tree species. I want to know how far the vegetative growth rate is directly or indirectly involved in this process.
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Dr. Windey,
My observations also are the same as of you. However, recently came across a paper which stated a positive relationship between growth rate and invasive potential of tree species.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
8 answers
Which model would you recommended for this purpose?
Relevant answer
Answer
با عرض سلام دفتر اقتصاد محیط زیست سازمان حفاطت محیط زیست در تابستان 1390 یک نشست یک روزه در این مورد برگزار کرده که گزارش از کارهای تحقیقاتی انجام شده را ارایه کرده
2/ خانم دکتر زهرا عابدی سرپرست یک گروه تحقیقاتی در این زمینه بوده اند
3/ نام خانم مونا نظیری را جستجو فارسی کنید
4 در SID نام SEEA را جستجو لفرمتیید مقلات زیادی را مییابید
موفق باشید
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
2 answers
SOC is basically contributed through litter and detritus of coastal vegetation
Relevant answer
Answer
Blue carbon is the carbon captured by the world's oceans and coastal ecosystems. The carbon captured by living organisms in oceans is stored in the form of biomass and as sediments from mangroves, salt marshes and sea-grasses. Soil organic carbon has been contributed both by microbial degradation of litters or detritus and sewage effluent, aquaculture run off, industrial wastes as well. Here to consider it under the domain of blue carbon the biogenic part preferably those obtain by microbial degradation of coastal vegetation should have certain % over the carbon being contributed by other means...
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
3 answers
I would like to prepare an index or model for damage estimating that can be applied for insurance of rangeland and natural resources cover.
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Dr. Arastoo - Perhaps some of the following or the authors may help:
.
Baker, Barry; Viglizzo, Ernesto F. 1998? 9. Rangeland and Livestock. In: UNEP/IVM Handbook 34 p.
Climate change and sustainable livelihood of rural people in Mongolia. Preliminary report..67 p.
Colpaert, Alfred et al. 2003. Reindeer Pasture Biomass Assessment Using Satellite Remote Sensing. Arctic 56(2): 147-158.
El-Tantawi, Attia Mahmoud Mohamed. 1966. Climate Change in Libya and Desertification of Jifara Plain Using Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing Techniques. Dissertation. 261 p.
Eniolorunda, Nathaniel Bayode 2014. Climate Change Analysis and Adaptation: The Role of Remote Sensing (Rs) and Geographical Information System (Gis). International Journal Of Computational Engineering Research 04()1)
Fang, Xiuqin et al. 2014. Analysis of vegetation dynamics and climatic variability impacts on greenness across Canada using remotely sensed data from 2000 to 2009. SPIE Digital Library.
FAO. 2008. Climate change adaptation and mitigation in the food and agriculture sector. Technical background document from the expert consultation held on 5 to 7 March 2008. 17 p.
Feenstra, Jan F. et al. eds.1998. Handbook on Methods for Climate Change Impact Assessment and Adaptation Strategies. Version 2.0. 464 p.
Gavazov, K. S., et al. 2013. Dynamics of forage production in pasture-woodlands of the Swiss Jura Mountains under projected climate change scenarios. Ecology and Society 18(1): 38.
Gunlycke, Naemi; Tuomaala, Anja. 2011. Detecting forest degradation in Marakwet district, Kenya, using remote sensing and GIS. Seminar series nr 200. 78 p.
Hartman, Ingrid et al. 2009 The Impact of Climate Change on Pastoral Societies of Somaliland. Candlelight for Health, Education & Environment Report. 62 p.
Maynard, N.G. et al. 2008. Eurasian Reindeer Pastoralism in a Changing Climate: Indigenous Knowledge & NASA Remote Sensing. 26 p.
McKeon, G.M et al. 2009. Climate change impacts on Australia’s rangeland livestock carrying capacity: A review of challenges. Report for Land & Water Australia Senior Research Fellowship (QNR46). 78 p.
Projected impacts of climate changes on agriculture. NSW.
Rakonczai, J. et al. 2008. Climate change and changing landscape – a comparative evaluation on Chinese and Hungarian sample areas. Journal of Env. Geogr. 1(1-2): 23-30.
Renchin, Tsolom et al. 2009. Land Use Change Analysis in Uvurkhnagai Province (Mongolia). ASPRS 2009 Annual Conference. 8 p.
Singh, Sudhir Kumar. 2010. Temporal monitoring impact of land use and land cover change in Shiwalik hills of Punjab, India using satellite remote sensing. Geospatial World.
The Bridge Fund. 2012. Climate Change Impacts on the Tibetan Plateau. 39 p.
Tolba, Mostafa K.; Saab. Najib W. 2009. Arab Environment: Climate Change - Impact of Climate Change on Arab Countries. 2009 report of the Arab forum for environment and development. 181 p.
Traore, S.; Owiyo, T. 2013. Dirty droughts causing loss and damage in Northern Burkina Faso. Int. J. Global Warming, 5(4):498–513.
Weber, Keith T. et al. 2013. Forecasting Rangeland Condition with GIS in Southeastern Idaho Rangeland Ecology and Management 66(1): 82-87. Abstract.
Weber, Keith T.; Davis, Kerynn. Eds. 2010. Final Report: Forecasting Rangeland Condition with GIS in Southeastern Idaho (NNG06GD82G) 189 p.
Weber, Keith T.; Gokhale, Bhushan S. 2010. Effect of Grazing Treatment on Soil Moisture in Semiarid Rangelands. In: Final Report: Forecasting Rangeland Condition with GIS in Southeastern Idaho. 14 p.
White, David H.; Howden, S. Mark. 2010? Climate and its effects on crop productivity and Management. EOLSS. 9 p.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
4 answers
Maybe in environmental modeling, ecology, robotics, and so on.
Relevant answer
Answer
For spatial mathematics, including environmental modeling, the kriging estimation method (as well most methods in geostatistics) relies on finding the weights for it's samples trought the solution of A*w=B system, the kriging system. The criteria for the solution is that the model of anisotropy given by the user is followed in the estimation.
In the same procedure it is very common to use rotation matrices to make compatible two different spatial entities of data (point and grid or mesh, for example).
Also I believe linear algebra is commonly used in most physical engines, including scientific DEM methods to calculate force, velocity, etc., by means of direction. In fact is so common that most probably the same is used in robotics.
I've actually googled it, (http://commons.bcit.ca/math/examples/robotics/linear_algebra/) and in here you can see they use algebra to handle several different coordinate systems in the same machine.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
10 answers
I'm dealing with a diverse genus (>50 spp) that contains a great deal of cosmopolitan fungal species, and I have a set of DNA sequences of one to three genes. I would like to know if there is a way to quantify the distance between populations from different countries on different continents (and see if I can relate the geographic distance to genetic distance). It seems obvious that using Euclidian distances is biologically meaningless. How can I compare populations of a species that is distributed in, say, France, India, and South Africa (just to give an extreme example)? Is there a way to consider biomes? How can I account for them moving across the ocean?
I think my question is rather complex, but I would love to hear all sort of opinions and suggestions.
Relevant answer
Answer
@Sandra,
Try this !
Arcmap - Add point layer - Arctoolbox - Analysis tools - Proximity - Point Distance - Add your point layer into "input and near" boxes - define your output location for saving the the .dbf file - click OK.
You can open your .dbf file using excel.
Hope it helps
Raoof
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
10 answers
I'm doing a research about the serpentine flora in northern Greece and I am looking for accessible literature/articles about the ecology of serpentine soils. Could anyone help me?
Relevant answer
Answer
A very good book is:
BROOKS R. R. 1987. Serpentine and its vegetation – A multidisciplinary approach. Croom Helm, London, 455pp.
and some related articles:
-Tsiripidis, Ioannis et al. “Approaching the Serpentine Factor at a Local Scale--a Study in an Ultramafic Area in Northern Greece.” Plant and Soil 329.1-2 (2009): 35–50.
-Chiarucci, Alessandro et al. “A Test of Vegetation–environment Relationship in Serpentine Soils of Tuscany, Italy.” Ecological Research 16.4 (2001): 627–639.
-Proctor, John. “Toxins, Nutrient Shortages and Droughts: The Serpentine Challenge.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 14.9 (1999): 334–335.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
6 answers
It seems that some conventional indices are not adequate to represent the biodiversity of a forest ecosystem. Here I am soliciting the comments from those who are working in the area of quantitative biodiversity studies. Please suggest me the most meaningful and reliable approach for expressing species composition of forest.
Relevant answer
Answer
Sooraj,
Working with biological assemblies is a matter of weigh pros and cons. There is no single metric (or index) that best describe a community, but using this type of approach you may gain in simplicity. Distance-based and multivariate approach, as Ana Bugnot said, is much better, but you still loosing information. In addition, there is a lot of data transformations to fine tune the analysis with your needs.
I don't want sound dizzy, but the first step is define what type of information is most valuable to you. Are you more interested in abundances per species, or just the composition?
Best,
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
18 answers
I am working on a project where I am trying to deduce the best affinities between Irish saltmarsh communities defined by fuzzy analysis and European phytosociological syntaxon. I have been working with the lists of classes by Mucina (1997) and the alliances by Rodwell et al. (2002). Is there a more recent standard conspectus that I have overlooked, possibly with some expanded definitions? I am struggling with some transitional communities of the upper marsh. Many thanks.
Mucina, L. 1997. Conspectus of the classes of European vegetation. Folia Geobotanica et Phytotaxonomica 32: 117-172.
Rodwell, J.S., Schaminée, J.H.J., Mucina, L., Pignatti, S., Dring, J. & Moss, D. 2002. The diversity of European vegetation: an overview of phytosociological alliances and their relationships to EUNIS habitats. National Reference Centre for Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries, Wageningen, NL.
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Philip,
It is in pipeline. The paper featuring the complete European vegetation system (alliances, orders, classes) has been submitted to a journal last year and we are working on a revision of the manuscript. Hopefully the paper gets published sometimes in May/June this year.
Laco Mucina
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
2 answers
Orienteering is a sport which takes place largely off-track in terrain which often has conservation value. This gives rise to concern amongst protected areas' managers and ecologists about the vegetation damage and recovery.
The studies on the impact of orienteering and other outdoor sports over vegetation measure the degree of disturbance based on the recovery time and evidences of damage on plants. However, the methods vary considerably between studies, and In some studies the methods are not satisfactorily explained.
Relevant answer
Answer
Hello Luís,
I could read recently a paper from the ENVIRONMENT COMMISSION of the INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION in 2007.
"NUMERICAL METHODS OF CALCULATING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF SPORTS ACTIVITIES"
This is not my area but, may be you find interesting information in the content or in the references.
Cheers,
Andrés.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
7 answers
I want to estimate environmental conditions of several habitats with plant communities. What ecological scales are the most helpful for that?
Relevant answer
Answer
As said by Didier the first step is using a contingency table of past and present, where it is possible to have archives. Unless sites are undisturbed a main antropic factor would be present. Land use and frequency of species depends on activity AND on environment. Soil loss and pollution can create sensible concern. ADE-4 package of Lyon-1 has got a collection of procedures and references using a free R platform, but it is just one of several possible start up
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
13 answers
I want to study the vegetation pattern in different scales, like slope-scale, small watershed scale and regional scale. But i don't know what methods to use and how to understand the meaning of pattern. Judging from some papers, they just use some landscape indexes, and compared the larger or smaller of different patches or landscapes.
In my opinion, the pattern research should answer what is the vegetation distribution and its features, not just compare the larger or smaller.
Who can help me? Please!
Thanks very much!
Relevant answer
Answer
What i understood and I think GIS software has the option of this.Layered mapping
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
2 answers
My study needs four-way ANOVA analysis. how do I operate this? and how do I analyze the results?
Relevant answer
Answer
I was used this system before several years but I am trying to help you. In the SPSS menu - Analyze list select General linear Model then select Multivariate then add your model. Best wishes.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
1 answer
I am marine ecologist working on infralittoral rocky reef in the Mediterranean Sea.
I am studying 'Cystoseira forests', that is an assemblage of macroalgae dominated by Cystoseira species (around 20 ind./m²), a brown algae whose 'branches' form dense canopy from 5cm to 20 cm up to the substrate. Below this canopy, i.e. around the tronks of Cystoseira individuals, some sponges, calcareous algae and other sessile sciaphilic organisms are dwelling. (BTW, I doubt we can call it a shrub strata, since most of them are encrusting organisms, i.e. 'confounded with the substrate')
Within 0 and 5 cm from the substrate, i.e. up the sessile sciaphilic organisms (among the only few non-encrusting organisms) and below the canopy, some small bodied fishes are living there. May I call it understory, considering this microhabitat is less complex than the canopy?
I am studying other macroalgae assemblages (Dictyotales- , Sphacelariales-, articulated Corallinales- dominated assemblages) that don't present a canopy. In these habitat, dominant erect macroalgae are usually <10 cm height and we can see the substrate (or turf) between the individuals (absence of canopy). How can I describe this habitat. Until now, I have used Shrub or Shrub-like habitats. However, I am afraid that this brings confusion with the shruby strata of a forest. Is Bush or Bush-like habitat would be more appropriated terminology?
I hope these descriptions are clear enough, and I thank you in advance.
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Piere,
How are you?
Usually, I read it as layer of understory crustose algae or organisms (e.g. Lithophyllum, Mesophyllum...), epiphytes and understory turf-forming assemblage (e.g. Corallina, Laurencia...). See for instance "Mechanisms of succession along the emersion gradient in intertidal rocky shore assemblages" of Rosa M Viejo. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2007.0030-1299.16206.x/abstract
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
2 answers
I have woody component data that I collected using belt transect sampling method, and the total length of my transect was 250 meters. Attributes collected were height, crown, number of stems and stem circumference. Therefore I want to obtain % cover per species, any assistance would be appreciated!
Relevant answer
Answer
Thank for your response Manuel, i have calculated the Basal area, so what i was missing was the formula which i now found, but thanks for your willing to assist, however my objective for this section was to obtain some sense of variation in species distribution along the altitude gradient,
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
I am working on vegetation phenology by using an RS time series. For data analysis, I need to do a statistical computation like partial least-squares regression, MANOVA etc. All my data is made in the format of ArcGIS 10.0 Grid and ERDAS 9.1 image.
So I want to know the following:
1. Are there any useful tools for spatial statistical computation of gridded time series?
2. Is there an R package to direct process ArcGIS 10.0 Grid and ERDAS 9.1 image?
3. Is it possible to use R functions or packages (mainly for grid calculation) in ArcGIS 10.0 platform?
I would sincerely appreciate any recommendations.
Relevant answer
Answer
The R package 'raster' is pretty handy, it can read arcgis and erdas grids and images either directly or in exported formats. It also allows for statistical analyses on raster : http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/raster/raster.pdf.
Hope that helps.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
5 answers
e.g. when different scales for estimating plant cover have been used to assess plant species abundance in different experiments in the field, but then for reasons of wanting to compare across experiments, one would like to transform one scale to another (eg. modified Braun Blanquet to modified Londo)?
The different scales were used in different experiments since the main questions being asked required slightly different levels of precision, but now it would still be nice to be able to compare cover values across experiments.
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Vicky! I agree with Flavia in transforming the cover classes into percentage values. Best option to do statistics! Additionally, to ensure comparability I would transform all cover values into percentage values of the least best resolution. As I understand, in your case that would mean that you would also have to transform the Londo cover values into Braun-Blanquet "percentage values".
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
26 answers
We are going to collect more than 300 sample plots in 19 districts for the biomass and carbon stocks study. I am thinking why we should not include "Field Spectrophotometer for Vegetation Reflectance". If you have experience, please share with me;
1: Advantages and Disadvantages
2: Different models of Field Portable Spectrophotometers with prices
Relevant answer
Answer
I would be careful with the OO systems. From what I know, they have no cooling system so in the field they tend to overheat and can lead to serious spectral response variability. You can probably minimize this with really good in-field calibration procedures but it's a good issue to keep in mind.
As Anthony suggested, having a way to measure downwelling irradiance allows sampling during cloudy conditions. If you are looking for a system measuring only in the VIS-NIR, the dual channel Unispec spectrometer form PP systems may be a good option. It's incredibly stable, portable and having the two channels (upward and downward) in one system is really nice. It's a little more expensive than the Ocean Optics systems but much less than the ASD.
Good luck!!!
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
1 answer
I will express my own opinions later in the discussion.
Relevant answer
Answer
I think the north of Iran is a good place for studying vegetation ecology, because in that ecosystem you have high richness with a best climate. In some part of north you could watch an ecoton clearly and as you know the ecoton ecosystem has a best quality of biodiversity. I study many article about your subject in north, e.g. Nematolah Khorasani is one of the pioneer for vegetation ecology study.
Good luck
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
2 answers
I currently have a Landsat 5 image, but the resolution seems too high for this project.
Relevant answer
Answer
its better go for some other data than Landsat since it is very coarse to map mangroves. Mangroves cover along coast line there will be a chance of miscalculation of area with coarse resolution. u will be face mixed pixel problem
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
12 answers
Plants respond to climate change ecologically by shifting the abundance of seedlings and saplings at higher altitudes than at lower altitudes. Can this shift be measured by sampling the seedlings and saplings of the tree at different altitudes? What factors need to be considered if we want to explore this topic?
Relevant answer
Answer
Well, i cannot answer about the seedling abundance, but certainly plants do respond to climate change and this can also be seen via different ecological behaviour at different elevations and directions. We have sampled 10 different woody species during several years, regarding their reproductive attributes, like flowering phenology (number of flowers and inflorescences per crown surface), pollen production (number of pollen grains per inflorescence and then per individual), but also morphometric variables, like stem perimeter, plant height, crown lateral surface etc. The difficult thing about such samplings is the numerous samplings that are needed, both in terms of quantity and quality. I hope i was of help.
  • asked a question related to Vegetation Ecology
Question
15 answers
I'm making a classification (OBIA) supported software Definiens 7, only to separate the vegetation of other covers. I'm using WorldView-2 sensor with the bands of the visible and infrared. However I need articles showing what the best descriptors for my rating. I work in a city in the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), where the Atlantic rainforest is predominant.
Relevant answer
Answer
As your objective is just to seperate the vegetation from others, I suggest you calculate the NDVI, then conduct segmentation and classification by setting a threshold.