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Environmental Monitoring and Modelling

This short course brings together the theoretical concepts of landscape ecology with spatial analysis techniques from remote sensing and GIS to address landscape scale applications of relevance to natural resource management. Landscape ecology is concerned with spatial patterns, in particular spatial heterogeneity across landscapes, the spatial and temporal arrangement of features, and the implications of this patterning for ecosystems. This course takes a practical approach to look at how landscape analysis can be used to quantify pattern to generate land cover and habitat maps using digital image processing techniques and explores spatial pattern analysis techniques in the form of landscape metrics using local applications.

Context-dependent vegetation dynamics in an African savanna

The spatial extent of termite influences on herbivore browsing in an African savanna

Termite mounds form islands of fertility in savanna landscapes and create foraging hotspots for herbivores, but the magnitude and spatial extent of these influences is unknown. We mapped terrain, termite mound and woody vegetation three-dimensional …

Patch and species specific responses of savanna woody vegetation to browser exclusion

The impact of browsers on the structure of woody vegetation has been well documented in savanna landscapes but the spatial distribution of these impacts is poorly understood. Savannas are structurally heterogeneous and the effects of browsers are …