TY - JOUR

T1 - Competing Vegetation Structure Indices for Estimating Spatial Constrains in Carabid Abundance Patterns in Chinese Grasslands Reveal Complex Scale and Habitat Patterns

AU - Tsafack, Noelline

AU - Fattorini, Simone

AU - Benavides Frias, Camila

AU - Xie, Yingzhong

AU - Wang, Xinpu

AU - Rebaudo, Francois

PY - 2020/4/16

Y1 - 2020/4/16

N2 - Carabid communities are influenced by landscape features. Chinese steppes are subject to increasing desertification processes that are changing land-cover characteristics with negative impacts on insect communities. Despite those warnings, how land-cover characteristics influence carabid communities in steppe ecosystems remains unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate how landscape characteristics drive carabid abundance in different steppes (desert, typical, and meadow steppes) at different spatial scales. Carabid abundances were estimated using pitfall traps. Various landscape indices were derived from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images. Indices expressing moisture and productivity were, in general, those with the highest correlations. Different indices capture landscape aspects that influence carabid abundance at different scales, in which the patchiness of desert vegetation plays a major role. Carabid abundance correlations with landscape characteristics rely on the type of grassland, on the vegetation index, and on the scale considered. Proper scales and indices are steppe type-specific, highlighting the need of considering various scales and indices to explain species abundances from remotely sensed data.

AB - Carabid communities are influenced by landscape features. Chinese steppes are subject to increasing desertification processes that are changing land-cover characteristics with negative impacts on insect communities. Despite those warnings, how land-cover characteristics influence carabid communities in steppe ecosystems remains unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate how landscape characteristics drive carabid abundance in different steppes (desert, typical, and meadow steppes) at different spatial scales. Carabid abundances were estimated using pitfall traps. Various landscape indices were derived from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images. Indices expressing moisture and productivity were, in general, those with the highest correlations. Different indices capture landscape aspects that influence carabid abundance at different scales, in which the patchiness of desert vegetation plays a major role. Carabid abundance correlations with landscape characteristics rely on the type of grassland, on the vegetation index, and on the scale considered. Proper scales and indices are steppe type-specific, highlighting the need of considering various scales and indices to explain species abundances from remotely sensed data.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - steppes

KW - landscape ecology

KW - vegetation index

KW - normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)

KW - modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI)

KW - Gao's normalized difference water index (NDWI2)

KW - tasseled-cap indices

KW - soil-adjusted total vegetation index (SATVI)

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083700187&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/insects11040249

DO - 10.3390/insects11040249

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 32316087

VL - 11

SP - 1

EP - 18

JO - Insects

JF - Insects

SN - 2075-4450

IS - 4

M1 - 249

ER -