Predicting mountain plant richness and rarity from space using satellite-derived vegetation indices

Diversity and Distributions

Volumn 13, Issue 6, 2007, Pages 692-703

  Levin, Noam ^a,b   Shmida, Avi ^c   Levanoni, Oded ^c   Tamari, Hagit ^c   Kark, Salit ^b,c  

^a BEN GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV   (Israel)

^b UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND   (Australia)

^c HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM   (Israel)

Author keywords

Mountains; NDVI; Plants; Rarity; Remote sensing; Richness

Indexed keywords

ASTER; LANDSAT; MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENT; NDVI; PLANT; PREDICTION; RARITY; REMOTE SENSING; SATELLITE; SPACE USE; SPATIAL VARIATION; SPECIES RICHNESS;

ASIA; EURASIA; MIDDLE EAST; MOUNT HERMON;

EID: 35448978767     PISSN: 13669516     EISSN: 14724642     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2007.00372.x     Document Type: Article

References (76)

1. Asner, G.P. (1998) Biophysical and biochemical sources of variability in canopy reflectance. Remote Sensing of Environment, 64, 234 253.
2. Asner, G.P., Nepstad, D., Cardinot, G. Ray, D. (2004) Drought stress and carbon uptake in an Amazon forest measured with spaceborne imaging spectroscopy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 101, 6039 6044.
3. Auerbach, M. Shmida, A. (1993) Vegetation change along an altitudinal gradient on Mt Hermon, Israel - no evidence for discrete communities. Journal of Ecology, 81, 25 33.
4. Bawa, K., Rose, J., Ganeshaiah, K.N., Barve, N., Kiran, M.C. Umashaanker, R. (2002) Assessing biodiversity from space: an example from the Western Ghats, India. Conservation Ecology, 6.
5. Benayas, J.M.R. Scheiner, S.M. (2002) Plant diversity, biogeography and environment in Iberia: Patterns and possible causal factors. Journal of Vegetation Science, 13, 245 258.
6. Birky, A.K. (2001) NDVI and a simple model of deciduous forest seasonal dynamics. Ecological Modelling, 143, 43 58.
7. 2 flux. Vegetatio, 80, 71 89.
8. Chavez, P.S. (1996) Image-based atmospheric corrections revisited and improved. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 62, 1025 1036.
9. Colwell, R.K. Hurtt, G.C. (1994) Nonbiological gradients in species richness and a spurious Rapoport effect. The American Naturalist, 144, 570 595.
10. Colwell, R.K. Lees, D.C. (2000) The mid-domain effect: geometric constraints on the geography of species richness. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 15, 70 76.
11. Dar, S. (1978) A survey of ancient settlements on the Hermon range. The Hermon and its slopes (ed. by S. Apelbaum, S. Dar, Y. Peleg Y. Ruth pp. 52 120. Hamador LeYediat Haaretz Batnua HaKibutzit, Jerusalem.
12. Elmore, A.J., Mustard, J.F., Manning, S.J. Lobell, D.B. (2000) Quantifying vegetation change in semiarid environments: precision and accuracy of spectral mixture analysis and the normalized difference vegetation index. Remote Sensing of Environment, 73, 87 102.
13. Evans, K.L., Greenwood, J.J.D. Gaston, K.J. (2005) Dissecting the species-energy relationship. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological Sciences, 272, 2155 2163.
14. Fairbanks, D.H.K. McGwire, K.C. (2004) Patterns of floristic richness in vegetation communities of California: regional scale analysis with multi-temporal NDVI. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 13, 221 235.
15. Feeley, K.J., Gillespie, T.W. Terborgh, J.W. (2005) The utility of spectral indices from Landsat ETM+ for measuring the structure and composition of tropical dry forests. Biotropica, 37, 508 519.
16. Fritz, L.W. (1999) High resolution commercial remote sensing satellites and spatial information systems. ISPRS Highlights, 4, 19 30.
17. Gillespie, T.W. (2005) Predicting woody-plant species richness in tropical dry forests: a case study from south Florida, USA. Ecological Applications, 15, 27 37.
18. Gould, W. (2000) Remote sensing of vegetation, plant species richness, and regional biodiversity hotspots. Ecological Applications, 10, 1861 1870.
19. Grytnes, J.A. Vetaas, O.R. (2002) Species richness and altitude: a comparison between null models and interpolated plant species richness along the Himalayan altitudinal gradient, Nepal. The American Naturalist, 159, 294 304.
20. Hall, J.K., Weinberger, R., Marco, S. Steinitz, G. (1999) Test of the Accuracy of the DEM of Israel. Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem.
21. Hill, N.M. Keddy, P.A. (1992) Prediction of rarities from habitat variables: coastal plain plants on Nova Scotian lakeshores. Ecology, 73, 1852 1859.
22. Huete, A.R. (1988) A Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI). Remote Sensing of Environment, 25, 295 309.
23. Hurlbert, A.H. Haskell, J.P. (2003) The effect of energy and seasonality on avian species richness and community composition. The American Naturalist, 161, 83 97.
24. Huston, M. (1994) Biology diversity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
25. Izco, J. (1998) Types of rarity of plant communities. Journal of Vegetation Science, 9, 641 646.
26. Janzen, D.H. (1973) Sweep samples of tropical foliage insects: effects of seasons, vegetation types, elevation, time of day, and insularity. Ecology, 54, 687 708.
27. Karl, J.W., Svancara, L.K., Heglund, P.J., Wright, N.M. Scott, J.M. (2002) Species commonness and the accuracy of habitat-relationship models. Predicting species occurrences, issues of accuracy and scale (ed. by J.M. Scott, P.J. Heglund, M.L. Morrison, J.B. Haufler, M.G. Raphael, W.A. Wall F.B. Samson pp. 573 580. Island Press, Washington D.C.
28. Karnieli, A. (2003) Natural vegetation phenology assessment by ground spectral measurements in two semi-arid environments. International Journal of Biometeorology, 47, 179 187.
29. Kattan, G.H. Franco, P. (2004) Bird diversity along elevational gradients in the Andes of Colombia: area and mass effects. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 13, 451 458.
30. Keeley, J.E. Fotheringham, C.J. (2003) Species-area relationships in Mediterranean-climate plant communities. Journal of Biogeography, 30, 1629 1657.
31. Kerr, J.T. Ostrovsky, M. (2003) From space to species: ecological applications for remote sensing. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 18, 299 205.
32. Lassau, S.A., Cassis, G., Flemons, P.K.J., Wilkie, L. Hochuli, D.F. (2005) Using high-resolution multi-spectral imagery to estimate habitat complexity in open-canopy forests: can we predict ant community patterns? Ecography, 28, 495 504.
33. Lauver, C.L. Whistler, J.L. (1993) A hierarchical classification of Landsat TM imagery to identify natural grassland areas and rare species habitat. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 59, 627 634.
34. Lomolino, M.V. (2001) Elevation gradients of species-density: historical and prospective views. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 10, 3 13.
35. McCain, C.M. (2004) The mid-domain effect applied to elevational gradients: species richness of small mammals in Costa Rica. Journal of Biogeography, 31, 19 31.
36. Medail, F. Quezel, P. (1999) Biodiversity hotspots in the Mediterranean Basin: Setting global conservation priorities. Conservation Biology, 13, 1510 1513.
37. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2003) Ecosystems and human well-being. Island, Washington, DC.
38. Mittelbach, G.G., Scheiner, S.M. Steiner, C.F. (2003) What is the observed relationship between species richness and productivity? Reply. Ecology, 84, 3390 3395.
39. Mittelbach, G.G., Steiner, C.F., Scheiner, S.M., Gross, K.L., Reynolds, H.L., Waide, R.B., Willig, M.R., Dodson, S.I. Gough, L. (2001) What is the observed relationship between species richness and productivity? Ecology, 82, 2381 2396.
40. Myers, N., Mittermeier, R., Mittermeier, C., da Fonseca, G. Kent, J. (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature (London), 403, 853 858.
41. Nichols, W.F., Killingbeck, K.T. August, P.V. (1998) The influence of geomorphological heterogeneity on biodiversity II. A landscape perspective. Conservation Biology, 12, 371 379.
42. Nilsson, C., Grelsson, G., Johansson, M. Sperens, U. (1988) Can rarity and diversity be predicted in vegetation along river banks? Biological Conservation, 44, 201 212.
43. O'Brien, E.M., Field, R. Whittaker, R.J. (2000) Climatic gradients in woody plant (tree and shrub) diversity: water-energy dynamics, residual variation, and topography. Oikos, 89, 588 600.
44. Oindo, B.O. Skidmore, A.K. (2002) Interannual variability of NDVI and species richness in Kenya. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 23, 285 298.
45. Pettorelli, N., Vik, J.O., Mysterud, A., Gaillard, J.M., Tucker, C.J. Stenseth, N.C. (2005) Using the satellite-derived NDVI to assess ecological responses to environmental change. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 20, 503 510.
46. Rahbek, C. (1995) The elevational gradient of species richness: a uniform pattern? Ecography, 18, 200 205.
47. Rahbek, C. (1997) The relationship among area, elevation, and regional species richness in Neotropical birds. The American Naturalist, 149, 875 902.
48. Riano, D., Chuvieco, E., Salas, J. Aguado, I. (2003) Assessment of different topographic corrections in Landsat-TM data for mapping vegetation types (2003). IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 41, 1056 1061.
49. Ricketts, T.H., Dinerstein, E., Boucher, T., Brooks, T.M., Butchart, S.H.M., Hoffmann, M., Lamoreux, J.F., Morrison, J., Parr, M., Pilgrim, J.D., Rodrigues, A.S.L., Sechrest, W., Wallace, G.E., Berlin, K., Bielby, J., Burgess, N.D., Church, D.R., Cox, N., Knox, D., Loucks, C., Luck, G.W., Master, L.L., Moore, R., Naidoo, R., Ridgely, R., Schatz, G.E., Shire, G., Strand, H., Wettengel, W. Wikramanayake, E. (2005) Pinpointing and preventing imminent extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 102, 18497 18501.
50. Rocchini, D., Chiarucci, A. Loiselle, S.A. (2004) Testing the spectral variation hypothesis by using satellite multispectral images. Acta Oecologica, 26, 117 120.
51. Rosenzweig, M. (1995) Species diversity in space and time. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
52. Rosenzweig, M.L. Abramsky, Z. (1993) How are diversity and productivity related? Species diversity in ecological communities: historical and geographical perspectives (ed. by R.E. Ricklefs D. Schluter pp. 52 65. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
53. Rouse, J.W., Haas, R.H., Schell, J.A. Deering, D.W. (1973) Monitoring vegetation systems in the great plains with ERTS. Third ERTS symposium (ed. by NASA pp. 309 317. Washington, DC.
54. Rowe, R.J. (2005) Elevational gradient analyses and the use of historical museum specimens: a cautionary tale. Journal of Biogeography, 32, 1883 1897.
55. Sanders, N.J. (2002) Elevational gradients in ant species richness: area, geometry, and Rapoport's rule. Ecography, 25, 25 32.
56. Sanders, N.J., Moss, J. Wagner, D. (2003) Patterns of ant species richness along elevational gradients in an arid ecosystem. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 12, 93 102.
57. Shmida, A. (1977) A quantitative analysis of the Tragacanthic vegetation of Mt. Hermon and its relation to enviornmnetal factors. The Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
58. Shmida, A. (1980) Vegetation and flora of Mt. Hermon. Mt. Hermon - nature and landscape (ed. by A. Shmida M. Livne pp. 97 158. Kibbutz Hameouchad, Tel Aviv, Israel.
59. Shmida, A. (1984) Whittaker plant diversity sampling method. Israel Journal of Botany, 33, 41 46.
60. Shmida, A. (1985) Species richness and evolution of annual plants in the Mediterranean maquis. Rotem, 18, 57 68.
61. Shmida, A. Sinai, G. (1980) The snow on Mt. Hermon. Mt. Hermon - nature and landscape (ed. by A. Shmida M. Livne pp. 38 65. Kibbutz Hameouchad, Tel Aviv, Israel.
62. Shmida, A. Wilson, M.V. (1985) Biological determinants of species diversity. Journal of Biogeography, 12, 1 20.
63. Smith, J.A., Lin, T.L. Ranson, K.J. (1980) The Lambertian assumption and Landsat data. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 46, 1183 1189.
64. Stevens, G.C. (1992) The elevational gradient in altitudinal range: an extension of Rapoport's latitudinal rule to altitude. The American Naturalist, 140, 893 911.
65. Tilman, D. (1982) Resource competition and community structure. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
66. Tucker, C.J. (1979) Red and photographic infrared linear combinations for monitoring vegetation. Remote Sensing of Environment, 8, 127 150.
67. Tucker, C.J., Grant, D.M. Dykstra, J.D. (2004) NASA's global orthorectified Landsat data set. Photogrammateric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 70, 313 322.
68. Tucker, C.J. Sellers, P.J. (1986) Satellite remote-sensing of primary production. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 7, 1395 1416.
69. Turner, W., Spector, S., Gardiner, N., Flodeland, M., Sterling, E. Steininger, M. (2003) Remote sensing for biodiversity science and conservation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 18, 306 314.
70. Vetaas, O.R. Grytnes, J.A. (2002) Distribution of vascular plant species richness and endemic richness along the Himalayan elevation gradient in Nepal. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 11, 291 301.
71. Waide, R., Willig, M., Steiner, C., Mittelbach, G., Gough, L., Dodson, S., Juday, G. Parementer, R. (1999) The relationship between productivity and species richness. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 39, 257 300.
72. Wang, Q., Adiku, S., Tenhunen, J. Granier, A. (2005) On the relationship of NDVI with leaf area index in a deciduous forest site. Remote Sensing of Environment, 94, 244 255.
73. Whittaker, R.J. Heegaard, E. (2003) What is the observed relationship between species richness and productivity? Comment. Ecology, 84, 3384 3390.
74. Williams, P.H. (2000) Some properties of rarity scores used in site quality assessment. British Journal of Entomology and Natural History, 13, 73 86.
75. Williams, P.H., Gibbons, D.W., Margules, C.R., Rebelo, A., Humphries, C.J. Pressey, R.L. (1996) A comparison of richness hotspots, rarity hotspots, and complementary areas for conserving diversity of British birds. Conservation Biology, 10, 144 174.
76. Wulder, M.A., Franklin, S.E. White, J.C. (2004) Sensitivity of hyperclustering and labelling land cover classes to Landsat image acquisition date. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 25, 5337 5344.