Spatially explicit modelling of topographic and climatic influences on vegetation distribution in Labrador's Mealy Mountains

Loader, Seth (2007) Spatially explicit modelling of topographic and climatic influences on vegetation distribution in Labrador's Mealy Mountains. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (7MB)

Abstract

Changing vegetation distributions due to climate change are a concern world wide. Understanding these potential changes is of special interest in the proposed Akamiuapishku (Mealy Mountains) national park (Labrador, Canada). The potential for change under future climate scenarios was investigated through spatially explicit statistical models. The models are based on sampling data from classified Quickbird high resolution satellite imagery. Topoclimatic variables were used to predict percentage cover by vegetation cover classes. Temperature was by far the most important predictor variable but other variables such as incident solar radiation and measures of slope and sheltering also proved to be useful predictors. The relationships between temperature and the percentage cover variables were nonlinear in most cases and so nonlinear parameter estimation was used to build the predictive equations. The predictions suggest there is great potential for an increase in abundance of coniferous forest in the study area given future climate scenarios used.

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