Abstract
Approaches linking biodiversity assessment with landscape structure are necessary in the framework of sustainable rural development. The present paper describes a methodology to estimate plant diversity involving landscape structure as a proportional weight associated with different plant communities found in the landscape mosaic. The area occupied by a plant community, its patch number or its spatial distribution of patches are variables that could be expressed in gamma plant diversity of a territory. The methodology applies (1) remote sensing information, to identify land cover and land use types; (2) aspect, to discriminate composition of plant communities in each land cover type; (3) multi-scale field techniques, to asses plant diversity; (4) affinity analysis of plant community composition, to validate the stratified random sampling design and (5) the additive model that partitions gamma diversity into its alpha and beta components. The method was applied to three Spanish rural areas and was able to record 150–260 species per ha. Species richness, Shannon information index and Simpson concentration index were used to measure diversity in each area. The estimation using Shannon diversity index and the product of patch number and patch interspersion as weighting of plant community diversity was found to be the most appropriate method of measuring plant diversity at the landscape level.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allan, J. D.: 1975, ‘Components of diversity’, Oecologia 18, 359–367.
Anon: 2000, ‘Indicadores para la integración de las consideraciones medioambientales en la Política Agraria ComÚn’, Comisión de las Comunidades Europeas COM (2000) 20.
Anon: 2001, ‘Indicadores estructurales’, Comisión de las Comunidades Europeas COM(2001)619
Atauri, J. A. and De Lucio, J. V.: 2001, ‘The role of landscape structure in species richness distribution of birds, amphibians, reptiles and lepidopterans in Mediterranean landscapes’, Landscape Ecol. 16, 147–159.
Bales, C. L., Willians, J. B. and Charley, J. L.: 1998, ‘The impact of aspect on forest structure and floristic in some eastern Australian sites’, Forest Ecol. Manage. 110, 363–377.
Bolaños, F., García del Barrio, J. M., Sánchez-Palomares, O., Camacho, G. and Elena-Rosselló, R.: 2001, ‘Tendencias evolutivas en paisajes con rebollo (Quercus pyrenaica Willd) durante el periodo 1956–1984. Valoración del significado de algunos índices de paisaje’, Junta de Andalucía (ed), III Congreso Forestal Español, Granada, Spain, 25–28 September 2001, pp 285–292.
Campbell, P., Comiskey, J. Alonso, A., Dallmeier, F., Nuñez, P., Beltran, H., Baldeon, S., Nauray,W., De La Colina, R., Acurio, L. and Udvardy, S.: 2002, ‘ModifiedWhittaker plots as and assessment and monitoring tool for vegetation in a lowland tropical rainforest’, Environ. Monit. Assess. 76, 19–41.
Conroy, M. J. and Noon, B. R.: 1996, ‘Mapping of species richness for conservation of biological diversity: conceptual and methodological issues’, Ecol. Appl. 6(3), 763–773.
Cowling, R. M., Rundel, P. W., Lamont, B. B., Arroyo, M. K. and Arianoutsou, M.: 1996, ‘Plant diversity in Mediterranean-climate regions’, Trends Ecol. Evol. 11, 362–366.
Duelli, P.: 1997, ‘Biodiversity evaluation in agricultural landscapes: an approach at two different scales’, Agr. Ecosyst. Environ. 62, 81–91.
EC and EEA: 2000, ‘From land cover to landscape diversity in the European Union’, in http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/publi/landscape/index.htm.
EEA and ETC: 1999, ‘Land Cover, Corine Land Cover Technical Guide’, in http://etc.satellus.se/the_data/Technical_Guide/index.htm.
Elena-Roselló, R.: 1997, ‘Clasificación Biogeoclimática de España Peninsular y Balear’, Ministerio de Agricultura pesca y Alimentación, Madrid, Spain.
Elkie, P., Rempel, R. and Carr, A.: 1999, Patch Analyst User's Manual, Ont. Min. Natur. Resour. Northwestern Sci. and Technol. Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Farina, A.: 2000, Principles and Methods in Landscape Ecology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Forman, R. T. T.: 1995, Land Mosaics: The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Franklin, S. E., Connery, D. R. and Williams, J. A.: 1994, ‘Classification of alpine vegetation using Landsat thematic mapper, SPOT HRV, and DEM data’, Can. J. Remote Sens. 20, 49–56.
González-Bernáldez, F., Abello, R. P., Galiano, E. F., Herrero, C., Levassor, C., de Nicolás, J. P., Pineda, F. D., Peco, B., Pou, A., Parra, F. and Ruíz, M.: 1980, ‘Modelos de paisaje en zonas de montaña de Madrid’, in Ministerio de Agricultura, Ministere de L'Environnement et du cadre de vie (ed.), Coloquio Hispano-Francés sobre áreas de montaña, Madrid. pp 113–123.
Griffiths, G. H., Lee, J. and Eversham, B. C.: 2000, ‘Landscape pattern and species richness; regional scale analysis from remote sensing’, Int. J.Remote Sens. 21, 2685–2704.
Hansson, L., Fahrig, L. and Merrian, G. (Editors).: 1995, Mosaic Landscapes and Ecological Processes, Chapman and Hall, London, UK.
Hellmann, J. J. and Fowler, G. W.: 1999, ‘Bias, precision and accuracy of four measures of species richness’, Ecol. Appl. 9(3), 824–834.
Huston, M. A.: 1999, ‘Local processes and regional patterns: appropriate scales for understanding variation in the diversity of plants and animals’, Oikos 86, 393–401.
Hutcheson, K.: 1970, ‘A test for comparing diversities based on the Shannon formula’, J. Theor. Biol. 29, 151–154.
Jaccard, P.: 1901, ‘Distribution de la flore alpine dans le Bassin des Dranes et dans quelques regions voisines’, Bull. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Naturelles 37, 241–272.
Lande, R.: 1996, ‘Statistics and partitioning of species diversity, and similarity among multiple communities’, Oikos 76, 5–13.
Lewontin, R. C.: 1972, ‘The apportionment of human diversity’, Evol. Biol. 6, 381–398.
Loreau, M.: 2000, ‘Are communities saturated? On the relationship between α, β and γ diversity’, Ecol. Lett. 3, 73–76.
Magurran, A. E.: 1988, ‘Ecological Diversity and its Measurement’, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ.
McGarigal, K. and Marks, B.: 1994, Fragstats: ‘Spatial Pattern Analysis Program for Quantifying Landscape Structure. Reference Manual’. For. Sci. Dep. Oregon State university, Corvallis, Oregón.
Miller, J. and Franklin, J.: 2002, ‘Modelling the distribution of four vegetation alliances using generalized linear models and classification trees with spatial dependence’, Ecol. Model. 157, 227–247.
Mueller-Dombois, D. and Ellenberg, H.: 1974, Aims and Methods of Vegetation Ecology, John Wiley and Sons. New York.
Myers, N., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., da Fonseca, G. A. B. and Kent, J.: 2000, ‘Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities’, Nature 403, 853–858.
Nagendra, H. and Gadgil, M.: 1999a, ‘Biodiversity assessment at multiple scales: Linking remotely sensed data with field information’, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 96, 9154–9158.
Nagendra, H. and Gadgil, M.: 1999b, ‘Satellite imagery as a tool for monitoring species diversity: an assessment’, J. Appl. Ecol. 36, 388–397.
Noss, R. D.: 1987, ‘From plant communities to landscapes in conservation inventories: A look at the nature conservancy (USA)’, Biol. Conserv. 41, 11–37.
Noss, R. D.: 1990, ‘Indicators for monitoring biodiversity: A hierarchical approach’, Conserv. Biol. 4(4), 355–364.
Noss, R. F.: 1999, ‘Assessing and monitoring forest biodiversity: a suggested framework and indicators’, Forest Ecol. Manage. 115, 135–146.
Patil, G. P. and Taillie, C.: 1982, ‘Diversity as a concept and its measurement’, J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 77, 548–567.
Riitters, K. H., O Neill, R. V., Hunsaker, C. T., Wickham, J. D, Yakee, D. H., Timmins, S. P., Jones, K. B. and Jackson, B. L.: 1995, ‘A factor analysis of landscape pattern and structure metrics’, Landscape Ecol. 10(1), 23–39.
Scheiner, S. M.: 1992, ‘Measuring pattern diversity’, Ecology 73(5), 1860–1867.
Schriever, J. R. and Congalton, R. G.: 1993, ‘Mapping forest cover in New Hampshire using multitemporal Landsat Thematic Mapper data. ASPRS/ACSM’, Ann. Convent. Exposit. 3, 333–342.
Scott, J. M., Davis, F., Csuti, B., Noss, R., Butterfield, B., Groves, C., Anderson, H., Caicco, S., D'Erchia, F., Edwards, T. C., Ulliman, J. and Wright, R. G.: 1993, GAP Analysis: ‘A geographic approach to protection of biological diversity’, Wild. Monogr. 123, 1–41.
Shannon, C. E. and Weaver, W.: 1962, The Mathematical Theory of Communication, Univ. of Illinois Press. Urbana. IL.
Shmida, A.: 1984, ‘Whittaker's plant diversity sampling method’, Isr. J. Bot. 33, 41–46.
Simpson, E. H.: 1949, ‘Measurement of diversity’, Nature 163, 688.
Stohlgren, T. J. Falkner, M. B. and Schell, L. D.: 1995, ‘A modified-Whittaker nested vegetation sampling method’, Vegetatio 117, 113–121.
Stohlgren, T. J., Coughenour, M. B., Chong, G. V., Blinkey, D., Kalkhan, M. A., Schell, L. D., Buckley, D. J. and Berry, J. K.: 1997a, ‘Landscape analysis of plant diversity’, Landscape Ecol. 12, 170–197.
Stohlgren, T. J., Chong, G. V., Kalkhan, M. A. and Schell, L. D.: 1997b, ‘Rapid assessment of plant diversity patterns: A methodology for landscapes’, Environ. Monit. Assess. 48, 25–43.
Sweeney, B. A. and Cook, J. E.: 2001, ‘A landscape-level assessment of understory diversity in upland forest of North-Central Wisconsin, USA’, Landscape Ecol. 16, 55–69.
Treitz, P. M., Howerth, P. J., Shuffling, R. C. and Smith, P.: 1992, ‘Application of detailed ground information to vegetation mapping with high spatial resolution digital imagery’, Remote Sens. Environ. 42, 65–82.
Turner, M. G. and Gardner, R. H. (Editors): 1991, Quantitative Methods in Landscape Ecology. The Analysis and Interpretation of Landscape Heterogeneity, Springer-Verlag. New York.
Wagner, H. H., Wildi, O. and Ewald, K. C.: 2000, ‘Additive partitioning of plant species diversity in an agricultural mosaic landscape’, Landscape Ecol. 15, 219–227.
Wagner, H. H. and Edwards, P. J.: 2001, ‘Quantifying habitat specificity to assess the contribution of a patch to species richness at a landscape scale’, Landscape Ecol. 16, 121–131.
Whittaker, R. H.: 1972, ‘Evolution and measurement of species diversity’, Taxonomy 21, 213–251
Wolter, P. T., Mladenoff, D. J., Host, G. E. and Crow, T. R.: 1995, ‘Improved forest classification in the Northern Lake States using multi-temporal Landsat imagery’, Photogramm. Eng. Rem. Sens. 61, 1129–1143.
Zonneveld, I. S.: 1995, ‘Vicinism and mass effect’, J. Veg. Sci. 5, 441–444.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ortega, M., Elena-Rosello, R. & García del Barrio, J.M. Estimation of Plant Diversity at Landscape Level: A Methodological Approach Applied to Three Spanish Rural Areas. Environ Monit Assess 95, 97–116 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EMAS.0000029893.27432.1c
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EMAS.0000029893.27432.1c