scholarly journals Long-term vegetation monitoring in Great Britain – the Countryside Survey 1978–2007 and beyond

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire M. Wood ◽  
Simon M. Smart ◽  
Robert G. H. Bunce ◽  
Lisa R. Norton ◽  
Lindsay C. Maskell ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Countryside Survey (CS) of Great Britain provides a unique series of datasets, consisting of an extensive set of repeated ecological measurements at a national scale, covering a time span of 29 years. CS was first undertaken in 1978 to monitor ecological and land use change in Britain using standardised procedures for recording ecological data from representative 1 km squares throughout the country. The same sites, with some additional squares, were used for subsequent surveys of vegetation undertaken in 1990, 1998 and 2007, with the intention of future surveys. Other data, for example regarding soils, freshwater and habitat diversity and extents, have also been sampled in the same locations on analogous dates. However, the present paper describes only the vegetation surveys. The survey design is based on a series of gridded, stratified, randomly selected 1 km squares derived from a statistical environmental classification of Britain. 256 1 km sample squares were included in the 1978 survey, 506 in 1990, 569 in 1998 and 591 in 2007. Initially each square contained up to 11 dispersed vegetation plots but additional plots were later placed in different features so that eventually up to 36 additional sampling plots were recorded, all of which can be relocated where practically possible, providing a total of 16,992 plots by 2007. This database of vegetation plots is a unique national resource providing the only comprehensive quantitative ecological coverage of Britain, with a time-series of vegetation samples dating back to 1978. Plots in different habitats, land cover types and landscape features are included. Although a range of analyses have already been carried out, with changes in the vegetation being related to a range of drivers at local and national scales, there is a major potential for further analyses, for example in relation to climate change. Data from each of the survey years (1978, 1990, 1998, 2007) are available via the following DOIs: Countryside Survey 1978 vegetation plot data (https://doi.org/10.5285/67bbfabb-d981-4ced-b7e7-225205de9c96), Countryside Survey 1990 vegetation plot data (https://doi.org/10.5285/26e79792-5ffc-4116-9ac7-72193dd7f191), Countryside Survey 1998 vegetation plot data. (https://doi.org/10.5285/07896bb2-7078-468c-b56d-fb8b41d47065), Countryside Survey 2007 vegetation plot data (https://doi.org/10.5285/57f97915-8ff1-473b-8c77-2564cbd747bc).

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 445-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire M. Wood ◽  
Simon M. Smart ◽  
Robert G. H. Bunce ◽  
Lisa R. Norton ◽  
Lindsay C. Maskell ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Countryside Survey (CS) of Great Britain provides a globally unique series of datasets, consisting of an extensive set of repeated ecological measurements at a national scale, covering a time span of 29 years. CS was first undertaken in 1978 to monitor ecological and land use change in Britain using standardised procedures for recording ecological data from representative 1 km squares throughout the country. The same sites, with some additional squares, were used for subsequent surveys of vegetation undertaken in 1990, 1998 and 2007, with the intention of future surveys. Other data records include soils, freshwater habitats and invertebrates, and land cover and landscape feature diversity and extents. These data have been recorded in the same locations on analogous dates. However, the present paper describes only the details of the vegetation surveys. The survey design is a series of gridded, stratified, randomly selected 1 km squares taken as representative of classes derived from a statistical environmental classification of Britain. In the 1978 survey, 256 one-kilometre sample squares were recorded, increasing to 506 in 1990, 569 in 1998 and 591 in 2007. Initially each square contained up to 11 dispersed vegetation plots but additional plots were later placed in different features so that eventually up to 36 additional sampling plots were recorded, all of which can be relocated where possible (unless the plot has been lost, for example as a consequence of building work), providing a total of 16 992 plots by 2007. Plots are estimated to have a precise relocation accuracy of 85 %. A range of plots located in different land cover types and landscape features (for example, field boundaries) are included. Although a range of analyses have already been carried out, with changes in the vegetation being related to a range of drivers at local and national scales, there is major potential for further analyses, for example in relation to climate change. Although the precise locations of the plots are restricted, largely for reasons of landowner confidentiality, sample sites are intended to be representative of larger areas, and many potential opportunities for further analyses remain. Data from each of the survey years (1978, 1990, 1998, 2007) are available via the following DOIs: Countryside Survey 1978 vegetation plot data (https://doi.org/10.5285/67bbfabb-d981-4ced-b7e7-225205de9c96), Countryside Survey 1990 vegetation plot data (https://doi.org/10.5285/26e79792-5ffc-4116-9ac7-72193dd7f191), Countryside Survey 1998 vegetation plot data (https://doi.org/10.5285/07896bb2-7078-468c-b56d-fb8b41d47065), Countryside Survey 2007 vegetation plot data (https://doi.org/10.5285/57f97915-8ff1-473b-8c77-2564cbd747bc).


Koedoe ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Cleaver ◽  
L.R. Brown ◽  
G.J. Bredenkamp

Long-term conservation ecosystems require a broader understanding of the ecological processes involved. Because ecosystems react differently to different management practices, it is important that a description and classification of the vegetation of an area are completed. A vegetation survey of the valley areas of the Kammanassie Nature Reserve was undertaken as part of a larger research project to assess the environmental impacts of large-scale groundwater abstraction from Table Mountain Group aquifers on ecosystems in the reserve. From a TWFNSPAN classification, refined by Braun-Blanquet procedures, 21 plant communities, which can be grouped into 13 major groups, were identified. A classification and description of these communities, as well as a vegetation map of the different areas are presented. Associated gradients in habitat w ere identified by using an ordination algorithm (DECORANA). The diagnostic species as well as the prominent and less conspicuous species of the tree, shrub, forb and grass strata are outlined. The study also resulted in a total number of 481 species being identified and the discovery of a new Erica species. These vegetation surveys and descriptions provide baseline information for management purposes and that allows monitoring as well as similar surveys to be conducted in future.


1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 1343-1350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen E. Dollar ◽  
Stephen G. Pallardy ◽  
H. Gene Garrett

Trees and their environment were studied in floodplain forests in the glaciated region of northern Missouri. Ordination of tree vegetation samples by detrended correspondence analysis indicated a primary vegetation continuum of decreasing Acersaccharinum L. and increasing Caryalaciniosa (Michx. f.) Loud with several other species associated with secondary vegetation gradients, TWINSPAN classification of tree vegetation identified three groups of plots that were dominated by A. saccharinum in varying degrees of association with other species, most importantly Populusdeltoides Bartr. and Ulmusamericana L.; two groups dominated by species of Carya and Ulmus; and two groups where dominance was more broadly distributed among lowland Quercus spp., U. americana, Aesculusglabra Willd., Fraxinuspennsylvanica Marsh., Platanusoccidentalis L., and Betulanigra L. Importance of A. saccharinum was greatest in plots where the leading dominants were young, while Quercus and Carya spp. were more common in plots with older leading dominants, suggesting that the predominant environmental influence on vegetation composition was frequency and severity of disturbance associated with flooding. Plots with younger dominant trees had lower species richness and diversity than plots with older dominants. Higher soil pH and slough location were also positively correlated with A. saccharinum importance, and Acernegundo L. was more frequent in sloughs. Analysis of overstory and understory relationships indicated that A. saccharinum is likely to remain important in the immediate future in many forests currently dominated by this species because of its abundance in subcanopy positions. Potential canopy trees of F. pennsylvanica, C. laciniosa, Caryacordiformis (Wangenh.) K. Koch, and Celtisoccidentalis L. may, in the absence of major flooding disturbance, cause long-term shifts in composition in some of these forests. While Ulmus spp. are abundant in the understory, they are unlikely to become important canopy species because of disease.


Author(s):  
O. Semenenko ◽  
O. Vodchyts ◽  
V. Koverga ◽  
R. Lukash ◽  
O. Lutsenko

The introduction and active use of information transmission and storage systems in the Ministry of Defense (MoD) of Ukraine form the need to develop ways of guaranteed removal of data from media after their use or long-term storage. Such a task is an essential component of the functioning of any information security system. The article analyzes the problems of guaranteed destruction of information on magnetic media. An overview of approaches to the guaranteed destruction of information on magnetic media of different types is presented, and partial estimates of the effectiveness of their application are given by some generally accepted indicators of performance evaluation. The article also describes the classification of methods of destruction of information depending on the influence on its medium. The results of the analysis revealed the main problems of application of software methods and methods of demagnetization of the information carrier. The issue of guaranteed destruction of information from modern SSD devices, which are actively used in the formation of new systems of information accumulation and processing, became particularly relevant in the article. In today's conditions of development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, methods of mechanical and thermal destruction are more commonly used today. In the medium term, the vector of the use of information elimination methods will change towards the methods of physical impact by the pulsed magnetic field and the software methods that allow to store the information storage device, but this today requires specialists to develop new ways of protecting information in order to avoid its leakage.


2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waldemar Frackowiak ◽  
Sebastian Gryglewicz ◽  
Piotr Stobiecki ◽  
Maciej Stradomski ◽  
Adam Szyszka

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-136
Author(s):  
R. N. Ibragimov

The article examines the impact of internal and external risks on the stability of the financial system of the Altai Territory. Classification of internal and external risks of decline, affecting the sustainable development of the financial system, is presented. A risk management strategy is proposed that will allow monitoring of risks, thereby these measures will help reduce the loss of financial stability and ensure the long-term development of the economy of the region.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 438
Author(s):  
Subrina Tahsin ◽  
Stephen C. Medeiros ◽  
Arvind Singh

Long-term monthly coastal wetland vegetation monitoring is the key to quantifying the effects of natural and anthropogenic events, such as severe storms, as well as assessing restoration efforts. Remote sensing data products such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), alongside emerging data analysis techniques, have enabled broader investigations into their dynamics at monthly to decadal time scales. However, NDVI data suffer from cloud contamination making periods within the time series sparse and often unusable during meteorologically active seasons. This paper proposes a virtual constellation for NDVI consisting of the red and near-infrared bands of Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager, Sentinel-2A Multi-Spectral Instrument, and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer. The virtual constellation uses time-space-spectrum relationships from 2014 to 2018 and a random forest to produce synthetic NDVI imagery rectified to Landsat 8 format. Over the sample coverage area near Apalachicola, Florida, USA, the synthetic NDVI showed good visual coherence with observed Landsat 8 NDVI. Comparisons between the synthetic and observed NDVI showed Root Mean Squared Error and Coefficient of Determination (R2) values of 0.0020 sr−1 and 0.88, respectively. The results suggest that the virtual constellation was able to mitigate NDVI data loss due to clouds and may have the potential to do the same for other data. The ability to participate in a virtual constellation for a useful end product such as NDVI adds value to existing satellite missions and provides economic justification for future projects.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document