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Inventorying management status and plant species richness in semi-natural grasslands using high spatial resolution imagery

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Author

Summary, in English

Question Can we reliably estimate grazing intensity, indicators of grazing intensity (i.e. field-layer height and shrub-cover), and vascular plant species richness in semi-natural grasslands from high spatial resolution satellite data? Location The Baltic Island of Oland (Sweden). Methods Fieldwork included the on-site description of grazed and ungrazed areas and shrub-cover within 107 semi-natural grassland sites. Field-layer height and vascular plant species richness (total within-site and mean small-scale species richness) were recorded within the sites. Digital classification of QuickBird data was performed to identify grazed and ungrazed areas and shrub-cover. Vegetation indices were generated to analyze the performance of satellite data for estimating field-layer height, and the spectral heterogeneity was used to characterize the within-site environmental heterogeneity. Results The proportion of digitally classified grazed area explained 45% of the variation in field-layer height and 43% of the variation in shrub-cover. Field-layer height was significantly related to vegetation indices. A linear model with three explanatory variables (spectral richness(red), spectral richness(NIR), and shrub-cover) explained 47% of the variation in total within-site species richness. Conclusions High spatial resolution imagery may assist in the monitoring of the processes that follow the cessation of grazing, on the scale of individual grassland sites. Measures of spectral heterogeneity acquired by high spatial resolution imagery can be used in the assessment of total within-site vascular plant species richness in semi-natural grassland vegetation.

Publishing year

2010

Language

English

Pages

221-233

Publication/Series

Applied Vegetation Science

Volume

13

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Opulus Press

Topic

  • Ecology
  • Physical Geography

Keywords

  • Field-layer height
  • Grazing
  • Scrub-encroachment

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1402-2001