Previous studies demonstrate that old-growth forest remnants and vegetation regenerating after anthropogenic disturbance provide habitat for birds in a human modified coastal dune forest landscape in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. However, occurrence does not ensure persistence. Based on a 13-year monitoring database we calculated population trends for 37 bird species and general trends ...

Th i s study relates Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) imagery to ground measurements of vegetation distribution, physiology, and productivity at Stanford University's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Primary efforts focused on a 9-ha region of annual grassland where we completed a detailed ground-based study in conjunction with a 15 May 1991 A VIRIS overflight. Spectral ...

A decision support system model is described to advise nature park managers. It applies dynamic modelling techniques to relate abiotic characteristics of a site over time to species that can be found. For a desired vegetation type it determines how such abiotic factors are to be changed in order to obtain the desired change in the vegetation after some time. The system takes into account an eco...

Knowledge of current vegetation dynamics and an ability to make accurate predictions of ecological changes are essential for minimizing food scarcity in developing countries. Vegetation trends are also closely related to sustainability issues, such as management of conservation areas and wildlife habitats. In this study, AVHRR and MODIS NDVI datasets have been used to assess the spatial tempora...

A suitable index is proposed to evaluate the natural short–medium-term recovery capability of vegetation in burnt areas. The study area covers 2450 km in western Tuscany (Province of Pisa, Italy). This region is characterized by a typical Mediterranean climate and is subject to fire damage during the dry summer season. Damage is mitigated where a natural rapid regrowth of vegetation prevents so...

Increasing evidence indicates that current dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) have suffered from insufficient realism and are difficult to improve, particularly because they are built on plant functional type (PFT) schemes. Therefore, new approaches, such as plant trait-based methods, are urgently needed to replace PFT schemes when predicting the distribution of vegetation and investigati...

We present a methodology to detect terrain mobilization in the years following a fire using multitemporal Landsat TM imagery. Furthermore, we show the spectral evolution of the land cover since fire occurrence, and analyze the feasibility of detecting the type of land cover a number of years after fire occurrence. The methodology developed here is a spectral change identification technique base...

A modern pollen-vegetation data set of 46 samples is presented from subantarctic Campbell Island, 600 km south of the New Zealand mainland. The sampled vegetation includes all major community types: maritime turf and grassland, sedge flushes, dwarf forest, scrub, cushion bog, tussock grassland, and high altitude graminoid turfs and tundra. Macrophyllous forbs characteristic plants of subantarct...

The vegetation outlook (VegOut) is a geospatial tool for predicting general vegetation condition patterns across large areas. VegOut predicts a standardized seasonal greenness (SSG) measure, which represents a general indicator of relative vegetation health. VegOut predicts SSG values at multiple time steps (two to six weeks into the future) based on the analysis of “historical patterns” (i.e.,...