GIS and Remote Sensing Applications in Biogeography and Ecology: 626 (The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, 626) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792374541 ISBN 13: 9780792374541

Publisher: Springer, 2001

Synopsis

In recent years, the conservation of tropical forests has received worldwide publicity whereas effective forest management, particularly for timber extraction, has attracted little attention and gained some notoriety. The overall aim of the present paper was to examine how environmental micro-variation in the Chiquibul Forest Reserve of Belize can influence species distribution and thereby inform management strategy. The paper deals first with the background to forest management in Belize, then considers the methodology used in the present study and fin~~ly assesses the preliminary results. The specific objectives are: (1) to assess the effects of changing scale on the variability of selected individual soil properties in forest plots within the same vegetation class; and (2) to examine the variation in soil properties and tree species distribution, and to integrate environmental and ecological data over a range of scales. BACKGROUND Whereas the global and regional distribution of tropical forests is broadly governed by climatic and altitudinal variation, individual forest tracts need to consider a range of other, locally important factors to explain species distribution and change. With very high species diversity, tropical forests present a major challenge in the attempt to unravel controlling factors in distribution and growth (Swaine et aI. 1987). Research that attempts to explain diversity has looked at species distribution according to a range of factors, with a general recognition that soil fertility plays a significant if ill­ defined role (Swaine 1996).

About this title

Synopsis

This volume gathers together a representative set of examples from the many varied spatial techniques and analytical approaches being used by geographers, ecologists, and biogeographers to study plant and animal distributions, to assess processes affecting the observed patterns at selected spatial and temporal scales, and to discuss these examples within a strong conceptual spatial and/or temporal framework.

Therefore, the aims of this volume are to: identify the key spatial concepts that underpin Geographic Information Science (GISc) in biogeography and ecology; review the development of these spatial concepts within geography and how they have been taken up in ecology and biogeography; exemplify the use of the key spatial concepts underpinning GISc in biogeography and ecology using case studies from both vegetation science and animal ecology/biogeography that cover a wide range of spatial scales (from global to micro-scale) and different geographical regions (from arctic to humid tropical); and develop an agenda for future research in GISc, which takes into account developments in biogeography and ecology, and their applications in GISc including remote sensing, geographic information systems, quantitative methods, spatial analysis, and data visualization.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792374541
• ISBN 13: 9780792374541
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 343
• Editor: Millington Andrew C., Walsh Stephen J., Osborne Patrick E.