Transcript Modeling Terrestrial Ecosystem Distribution as a Basis for a

Modeling Terrestrial Ecosystem
Distribution, Mapping Threats
and Updating Protected Area
Information
Leonardo Sotomayor
South America Conservation Region
Terrestrial Ecosystems
• A layer of contiguous vegetation-based
ecological systems as conservation targets
• Contracted NatureServe to develop the
classification (Josse et al 2003), but had no map
• Project lead by Roger Sayre (now at USGS)
• Data now being used for various applications
including preliminary biodiversity assessments
and effective conservation measures
• Data is undergoing final updates and revisions
prior to distribution
Ecosystem Classification
Elevation
Landform
Geology
Landcover
Bioclimate
Modeling
Unique
Gridcodes
NS Classification
Terrestrial
Ecosystems
Elevation
• 450 Meter Digital Elevation Model Data (DEM)
produced by WWF from 90 meter SRTM DEM
data.
• Classification is based primarily on floristics:
– 0 - 500m: corresponds to lowlands
– 500 - 1000m: transitional mixed flora of the
piedmont, in the case of massive ridges like the
Andes; or is already montane, with a different set of
species, in the case of low ridges
– 1000 - 3300m: two life zones in the mountains,
mostly forest covered
– Over 3300m: treelines for the Andes
General Landform
• Landforms were developed using a
neighborhood analysis using DEM
General Landform Class
Description
Plains
0 – 25 meters relative relief
Rolling Plains
25- 50 meters relative relief
Hills
25 – 300 meters relative relief
Mountains
over 300 meters relative relief
Plateaus
Detailed description in report
River Valleys / Mountain Plateaus
Detailed description in report
Floodplains
Detailed description in report
Coastal Plains
Plains adjacent to the coast on alluvial type geology
General Geology
• Detailed geology data was purchased from
Geologic Data Systems Inc. (GDS).
• Compiled geological information from over
50 published maps to create a digital
geology map of South America.
• Data for Brazil was compiled at
1:1,000,000 scale with the remainder of
South America at 1:500,000 scale.
Subset of Detailed Geology (Amazon River)
Subset of General Geology with Detailed Geology Linework
General Land Cover
• South America GLC 2000 (Global Land
Cover 2000)
• 1 km resolution at the equator, resampled
to 450 meters
• Generalized from 57 classes to 18 classes
to reduce the natural complexity of the
data
General Land Cover
SACR GLC Code
South America GLC codes represented in ESA
10 Tree Cover, Broadleaf Evergreen
10
11
12
13
14
110
111
112
113
114
160
161
164
Closed evergreen tropical forest
Open evergreen tropical forest
Bamboo dominated forest
Closed semi-humid forest
Open semi-humid forest
Montane forests 500-1000m – dense evergreen
Montane forests 500-1000m – open evergreen
Montane forests 500-1000m – bamboo
Montane forests 500-1000m – closed semi-humid
Montane forests 500-1000m – open semi-humid
Montane forests >1000m – dense evergreen
Montane forests >1000m – open evergreen
Montane forests >1000m – open semi humid
Subset of Detailed GLC Land Cover
Subset of General GLC Land Cover
General Bioclimate
• WORDCLIM Global climate grid data (30
second resolution) from the University of
California, Berkley
– monthly precipitation (prec)
– monthly mean temperature (tmean)
Bioclimate Zone
Io
Tropical pluvial
>= 3.6
Tropical pluvialseasonal >= 3.6
Tropical xeric
1.0 – 3.6
Tropical desertic
0.1 – 1.0
Tropical hyperdesertic
< 0.1
Ombrothermic Index (Io):
Io =
Pp
(Tp/100) x 12
Where:
Pp = Total Annual Precipitation,
and Tp = Total Annual
Temperature
Gridcodes
• Each unique gridcode represents a combination
of the 5 input data layers numeric codes
• For example, the unique gridcode for one
polygon might be 1742020, which represents:
1000000
700000
40000
2000
20
0 – 500 meters
Floodplains
Alluvium
Tropical Pluvial-seasonal
Tree Cover, Broadleaf
Deciduous
Terrestrial
Ecosystems Map
• NatureServe
Ecologist (C. Josse)
attributed the
gridcodes into
Ecosystems
• 659 Ecological
Systems mapped
• Continuous updates
and reviews
• Approximately
285,000 unique
ecosystem polygons
1:1,000,000
Current Human Activity
South America Threat to
Biodiversity Assesment
Threats to Biodiversity
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Conversion to pasture
Conversion to agriculture
Infrastructure
Invasive species
Conversion by forestry activities
Fire (in ecosystems without fire regimes)
Pollution
Mining
Oil and gas exploration
Accessibility
• Calculate km/hr to cross 1km cells of
roads, rivers, railroads, borders, landcover
(glc2000), urban areas (nightlights)
• Merge above and represent the time in
minutes
• Factor in elevation, slope
• Divide by 60 to convert to hours, then by
1000 to convert meters to km
Time to Market
TOOLS Comissioned to CIAT
Protected Areas
Data Collection using WDPA as
the Standard and improving the
database
Effective Conservation
• We use the Protected Areas information,
Biodiversity information and Threats
Analysis
• Estimating how well conservation is doing
as a measure
• Monitor conservation efforts
• Find conservation gaps