Session Information
| Session | Poster Session | | Date | Monday (2008-04-07) | | Time | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | Room | Grand Terrace |
Presentation Information
| Presenter | Dahl Winters | | Title | The influence of landscape fragmentation on plant diversity and productivity within the southeastern United States | | Affiliation | UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Geography | | Authors | Dahl Winters | | Keywords | Biodiversity, Fragmentation, Productivity, Remote sensing, Richness | | Presentation Type | Poster | Abstract:
The management and conservation of biodiversity can be greatly aided by using remotely-sensed environmental variables to predict plant diversity. However, the ecological processes governing the plant diversity-productivity relationship across a landscape may be influenced by spatial patterns. Areas are likely to be different in spatial structure and composition due to landscape fragmentation. Thus, it was our objective to determine whether fragmentation has an impact on the plant diversity-productivity relationship. We used plot-level species richness data obtained from the Carolina Vegetation Survey (CVS) and Virginia Natural Heritage (VNH) collection across 3 southeastern states, in conjunction with MODIS productivity data and fragmentation data, within a GIS framework. Our results show that the plant diversity-productivity relationship is strongest under high levels of fragmentation. From this, we conclude that fragmentation has an important influence on the diversity-productivity relationship, and should be included in any models attempting to estimate plant diversity from MODIS productivity images in the southeastern US.
|
|