Fine spatial scale assessment of structure and configuration of vegetation cover for northern bobwhites in grazed pastures  

作　　者：J.Silverio Avila‑Sanchez Humberto L.Perotto‑Baldivieso Lori D.Massey J.Alfonso Ortega‑S Leonard A.Brennan Fidel Hernández 

机构地区：[1]Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute,Texas A&M University-Kingsville,Kingsville,TX 78363,USA [2]Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service,Department of Rangeland,Wildlife,and Fisheries Management,Texas A&M University,College Station,TX 77843,USA [3]Borderlands Research Institute,Department of Agriculture,Life,and Physical Sciences,SulRoss State University,Alpine,TX 79832,USA [4]Departmentof Rangeland,Wildlife,and Fisheries Management,Texas A&M University,College Station,TX 77843,USA [5]Chaparral WMA Biologist,Texas Parks and Wildlife Department,Cotulla,TX 78014,USA

出　　处：《Ecological Processes》2024年第4期36-50,共15页生态过程(英文)

基　　金：supported by the Hildebrand Foundation,Ken Leonard Fund for Livestock Interactions Research,Harvey Weil Foundation,Comision Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia(CONACYT),Houston Safari Club,South Texas Quail Coalition Chapter,Hill Country Quail Coalition,and R.Stacy from Houston,TX.

摘　　要：Background Monitoring forage in livestock operations is critical to sustainable rangeland management of soil and ecological processes that provide both livestock and wildlife habitat.Traditional ground-based sampling methods have been widely used and provide valuable information;however,they are time-consuming,labor-intensive,and limited in their ability to capture larger extents of the spatial and temporal dynamics of rangeland ecosystems.Drones provide a solution to collect data to larger extents than field-based methods and with higher-resolution than traditional remote sensing platforms.Our objectives were to(1)assess the accuracy of vegetation cover height in grasses using drones,(2)quantify the spatial distribution of vegetation cover height in grazed and non-grazed pastures during the dormant(fall-winter)and growing seasons(spring-summer),and(3)evaluate the spatial distribution of vegetation cover height as a proxy for northern bobwhite(Colinusvirginianus)habitat in South Texas.We achieved this by very fine scale drone-derived imagery and using class level landscape metrics to assess vegetation cover height configuration.Results Estimated heights from drone imagery had a significant relationship with the field height measurements in September(r2=0.83;growing season)and February(r^(2)=0.77;dormant season).Growing season pasture maintained residual landscape habitat configuration adequate for bobwhites throughout the fall and winter of 2022-2023 following grazing.Dormant season pasture had an increase in bare ground cover,and a shift from many large patches of tall herbaceous cover(40-120 cm)to few large patches of low herbaceous cover(5-30 cm)(p<0.05).Conclusions Drones provided high-resolution imagery that allowed us to assess the spatial and temporal changes of vertical herbaceous vegetation structure in a semi-arid rangeland subject to grazing.This study shows how drone imagery can be beneficial for wildlife conservation and management by providing insights into changes in fine-scale vegetation spatial a

关 键 词：Spatial heterogeneity Landscape metrics Image height classification Canopy height model Normalized digital surface model 

分 类 号：Q94[生物学—植物学]