Can digital image classification be used as a standardised method for surveying peatland vegetation cover?
Can digital image classification be used as a standardised method for surveying peatland vegetation cover?
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DOI：
10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.11.035
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发表时间：
2016-09-01
影响因子：
6.9
通讯作者：
Ward, Susan E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Baxendale, Catherine L.;Ostle, Nick J.;Ward, Susan E.
进行系统、准确和可重复的植被调查的能力是对生态系统生物多样性和功能进行长期科学研究的重要组成部分。然而，目前广泛使用的传统调查技术，如破坏性收获，针框样方和视觉覆盖估计可以是非常耗时的，容易主观变化。我们调查了使用数字图像技术作为记录泥炭地生态系统植被覆盖植物功能类型水平的另一种方式。使用一个既定的植物操作实验站点在摩尔众议院NNR（环境变化网络网站），我们比较了泥炭地植被的视觉覆盖估计与覆盖估计使用数字图像分类方法，从0.5米× 0.5米的实地地块。我们的研究结果表明，用标准数码相机拍摄的照片的数字图像分类可以成功地用于估计矮灌木和禾本科植被覆盖在一个可比的水平，实地视觉覆盖估计，虽然方法是有效的较低的植物，如苔藓和地衣。我们的研究说明了数字图像技术的新应用，提供了一种新的方式来测量和监测泥炭地植被的植物功能组的水平，这是不太容易受到调查员的偏见比视野调查。此外，由于这种数字技术是高度可重复的，我们建议，他们有潜力用于长期监测研究，在情节和景观尺度。(C)2015爱思唯尔有限公司版权所有。
The ability to carry out systematic, accurate and repeatable vegetation surveys is an essential part of long-term scientific studies into ecosystem biodiversity and functioning. However, current widely used traditional survey techniques such as destructive harvests, pin frame quadrats and visual cover estimates can be very time consuming and are prone to subjective variations. We investigated the use of digital image techniques as an alternative way of recording vegetation cover to plant functional type level on a peatland ecosystem. Using an established plant manipulation experimental site at Moor House NNR (an Environmental Change Network site), we compared visual cover estimates of peatland vegetation with cover estimates using digital image classification methods, from 0.5 m x 0.5 m field plots. Our results show that digital image classification of photographs taken with a standard digital camera can be used successfully to estimate dwarf-shrub and graminoid vegetation cover at a comparable level to field visual cover estimates, although the methods were less effective for lower plants such as mosses and lichens. Our study illustrates the novel application of digital image techniques to provide a new way of measuring and monitoring peatland vegetation to the plant functional group level, which is less vulnerable to surveyor bias than are visual field surveys. Furthermore, as such digital techniques are highly repeatable, we suggest that they have potential for use in long-term monitoring studies, at both plot and landscape scales. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.