A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Detecting plant spatial patterns, using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, in rural landscapes in Central Iberian Peninsula
AbstractThis paper studies perennial and spring-visible plant taxa composition at the small-regional level as a method for determining meso-scale floristic spatial patterns. Vascular plant taxa were inventoried from over 40 universal transversal Mercator (UTM) grid cells of 1km×1km size (Badiel Valley, Central Spain). It has been detected 148 taxa, which allowed for a spatial comparison. Floristic similarity among all grid cells was determined with Jaccard's index, which allowed us to obtain a symmetrical matrix of similarity values between each pair of grid cells. These grid-cell-based floristic values were subjected to both multidimensional scaling (MDS) and cluster analysis to expose environmental gradients and provide evidence of the incidence in plant distribution particular to the features of a rural landscape.Two main areas have been differentiated by clear environmental behaviour: mesophytic area versus thermic area. The differentiation of these two areas is caused by a strong topographical control that yields the former area with a shady aspect and the latter with a sunny character. Performing a more detailed analysis of clustering levels, other environmental areas have been discerned, all with subtle differences: it has been identified thermo-mesophytic, transitional mesophytic, upper-mesophytic and riparian variant areas. In addition, there are several outstanding outlier cells which reveal special circumstances in the factors’ co-occurrence. The MDS and clustering, collated with simultaneous geographical observations through mapping, showed a strong floristic imbrication, as expected, over the small area studied (40km2). The main valley direction and anthropic effects explain most of the floristic variation.
Detecting plant spatial patterns, using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, in rural landscapes in Central Iberian Peninsula
AbstractThis paper studies perennial and spring-visible plant taxa composition at the small-regional level as a method for determining meso-scale floristic spatial patterns. Vascular plant taxa were inventoried from over 40 universal transversal Mercator (UTM) grid cells of 1km×1km size (Badiel Valley, Central Spain). It has been detected 148 taxa, which allowed for a spatial comparison. Floristic similarity among all grid cells was determined with Jaccard's index, which allowed us to obtain a symmetrical matrix of similarity values between each pair of grid cells. These grid-cell-based floristic values were subjected to both multidimensional scaling (MDS) and cluster analysis to expose environmental gradients and provide evidence of the incidence in plant distribution particular to the features of a rural landscape.Two main areas have been differentiated by clear environmental behaviour: mesophytic area versus thermic area. The differentiation of these two areas is caused by a strong topographical control that yields the former area with a shady aspect and the latter with a sunny character. Performing a more detailed analysis of clustering levels, other environmental areas have been discerned, all with subtle differences: it has been identified thermo-mesophytic, transitional mesophytic, upper-mesophytic and riparian variant areas. In addition, there are several outstanding outlier cells which reveal special circumstances in the factors’ co-occurrence. The MDS and clustering, collated with simultaneous geographical observations through mapping, showed a strong floristic imbrication, as expected, over the small area studied (40km2). The main valley direction and anthropic effects explain most of the floristic variation.
Detecting plant spatial patterns, using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, in rural landscapes in Central Iberian Peninsula
García-Abad, Juan-Javier (author) / Malpica, José-Antonio (author) / Alonso, María-Concepción (author)
Landscape and Urban Planning ; 95 ; 138-150
2009-12-04
13 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Taylor & Francis Verlag | 1975