Modeling the spatial distribution and fruiting pattern of a key tree species in a neotropical forest: methodology and potential applications.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The movement patterns of wild animals depend crucially on the spatial and temporal availability of resources in their habitat. To date, most attempts to model this relationship were forced to rely on simplified assumptions about the spatiotemporal distribution of food resources. Here we demonstrate how advances in statistics permit the combination of sparse ground sampling with remote sensing imagery to generate biological relevant, spatially and temporally explicit distributions of food resources. We illustrate our procedure by creating a detailed simulation model of fruit production patterns for Dipteryx oleifera, a keystone tree species, on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama.

Methodology and principal findings

Aerial photographs providing GPS positions for lar

SUBMITTER: Caillaud D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2989912 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature