The Ecology of Animal Senses

The Ecology of Animal Senses PDF

Author: Gerhard von der Emde

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-12-16

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 3319254928

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The collection of chapters in this book present the concept of matched filters: response characteristics “matching” the characteristics of crucially important sensory inputs, which allows detection of vital sensory stimuli while sensory inputs not necessary for the survival of the animal tend to be filtered out, or sacrificed. The individual contributions discuss that the evolution of sensing systems resulted from the necessity to achieve the most efficient sensing of vital information at the lowest possible energetic cost. Matched filters are found in all senses including vision, hearing, olfaction, mechanoreception, electroreception and infrared sensing and different cases will be referred to in detail.

Remote Sensing for Landscape Ecology

Remote Sensing for Landscape Ecology PDF

Author: Robert C. Frohn

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 1997-12-29

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 9781566702751

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Landscape ecology is a rapidly growing science of quantifying the ways in which ecosystems interact - of establishing a link between activities in one region and repercussions in another region. Remote sensing is a fast, inexpensive tool for conducting the landscape inventories that are essential to this branch of science. However, anyone who has conducted studies in the field has already found that traditional landscape ecology metrics are not always reliable with remote images. Landscape Ecology: New Metric Indicators for Monitoring, Modeling, and Assessment of Ecosystems with Remote Sensing presents a new set of metrics that allows remotely sensed data to be used effectively in landscape ecology. This groundbreaking new work is the first to present new metrics for remote sensing of landscapes and demonstrate how they can be used to yield more accurate analyses for GIS studies. The new metrics expand the capabilities of GIS, reduce interference and incorrect readings, help ecologists better understand ecosystem relationships, and reduce study costs. This set of metrics should be adopted by the EPA and will be the standard measure for future landscape analysis. This authoritative guide assesses the current state of the field and how remote sensing and landscape metrics have been used to date. It also explains how some of the traditional metrics were developed and how they can fail in landscape studies. Once this background has been established, the new metrics are introduced and their benefits and uses explained. The information in this book has previously been available only in scattered journal articles; this is the first single source for complete background information and instructions on using the new metrics.

Ecology of Sensing

Ecology of Sensing PDF

Author: Friedrich G. Barth

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-06-29

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 3662226448

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Sense organs serve as a kind of biological interface between the environment and the organism. Therefore, the relationship between sensory systems and ecology is very close and its knowledge of fundamental importance for an understanding of animal behavior. The sixteen chapters of this book exemplify the diversity of the constraints and opportunities associated with the sensation of stimuli representing different forms of energy. The book stresses the events taking place in the sensory periphery where the animal is exposed to and gets in touch with its natural habitat and acquires the information needed to organize its interaction with its environment. Ecology of Sensing brings together the leading experts in the field.

Remote Sensing and GIS for Ecologists

Remote Sensing and GIS for Ecologists PDF

Author: Martin Wegmann

Publisher: Pelagic Publishing Ltd

Published: 2016-02-08

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 1784270245

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This is a book about how ecologists can integrate remote sensing and GIS in their daily work. It will allow ecologists to get started with the application of remote sensing and to understand its potential and limitations. Using practical examples, the book covers all necessary steps from planning field campaigns to deriving ecologically relevant information through remote sensing and modelling of species distributions. All practical examples in this book rely on OpenSource software and freely available data sets. Quantum GIS (QGIS) is introduced for basic GIS data handling, and in-depth spatial analytics and statistics are conducted with the software packages R and GRASS. Readers will learn how to apply remote sensing within ecological research projects, how to approach spatial data sampling and how to interpret remote sensing derived products. The authors discuss a wide range of statistical analyses with regard to satellite data as well as specialised topics such as time-series analysis. Extended scripts on how to create professional looking maps and graphics are also provided. This book is a valuable resource for students and scientists in the fields of conservation and ecology interested in learning how to get started in applying remote sensing in ecological research and conservation planning.

Spatial Uncertainty in Ecology

Spatial Uncertainty in Ecology PDF

Author: Carolyn T. Hunsaker

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-12-01

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1461302099

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This is one of the first books to take an ecological perspective on uncertainty in spatial data. It applies principles and techniques from geography and other disciplines to ecological research, and thus delivers the tools of cartography, cognition, spatial statistics, remote sensing and computer sciences by way of spatial data. After describing the uses of such data in ecological research, the authors discuss how to account for the effects of uncertainty in various methods of analysis.

Plant Sensing & Communication

Plant Sensing & Communication PDF

Author: Richard Karban

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2015-06-18

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 022626484X

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The news that a flowering weed—mousear cress (Arabidopsis thaliana)—can sense the particular chewing noise of its most common caterpillar predator and adjust its chemical defenses in response led to headlines announcing the discovery of the first “hearing” plant. As plants lack central nervous systems (and, indeed, ears), the mechanisms behind this “hearing” are unquestionably very different from those of our own acoustic sense, but the misleading headlines point to an overlooked truth: plants do in fact perceive environmental cues and respond rapidly to them by changing their chemical, morphological, and behavioral traits. In Plant Sensing and Communication, Richard Karban provides the first comprehensive overview of what is known about how plants perceive their environments, communicate those perceptions, and learn. Facing many of the same challenges as animals, plants have developed many similar capabilities: they sense light, chemicals, mechanical stimulation, temperature, electricity, and sound. Moreover, prior experiences have lasting impacts on sensitivity and response to cues; plants, in essence, have memory. Nor are their senses limited to the processes of an individual plant: plants eavesdrop on the cues and behaviors of neighbors and—for example, through flowers and fruits—exchange information with other types of organisms. Far from inanimate organisms limited by their stationary existence, plants, this book makes unquestionably clear, are in constant and lively discourse.

GIS and Remote Sensing Applications in Biogeography and Ecology

GIS and Remote Sensing Applications in Biogeography and Ecology PDF

Author: Andrew C. Millington

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-11

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1461515238

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In recent years, the conservation of tropical forests has received worldwide publicity whereas effective forest management, particularly for timber extraction, has attracted little attention and gained some notoriety. The overall aim of the present paper was to examine how environmental micro-variation in the Chiquibul Forest Reserve of Belize can influence species distribution and thereby inform management strategy. The paper deals first with the background to forest management in Belize, then considers the methodology used in the present study and fin~~ly assesses the preliminary results. The specific objectives are: (1) to assess the effects of changing scale on the variability of selected individual soil properties in forest plots within the same vegetation class; and (2) to examine the variation in soil properties and tree species distribution, and to integrate environmental and ecological data over a range of scales. BACKGROUND Whereas the global and regional distribution of tropical forests is broadly governed by climatic and altitudinal variation, individual forest tracts need to consider a range of other, locally important factors to explain species distribution and change. With very high species diversity, tropical forests present a major challenge in the attempt to unravel controlling factors in distribution and growth (Swaine et aI. 1987). Research that attempts to explain diversity has looked at species distribution according to a range of factors, with a general recognition that soil fertility plays a significant if ill defined role (Swaine 1996).

Fundamentals of Satellite Remote Sensing

Fundamentals of Satellite Remote Sensing PDF

Author: Emilio Chuvieco

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2020-01-22

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0429014465

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Fundamentals of Satellite Remote Sensing: An Environmental Approach, Third Edition, is a definitive guide to remote sensing systems that focuses on satellite-based remote sensing tools and methods for space-based Earth observation (EO). It presents the advantages of using remote sensing data for studying and monitoring the planet, and emphasizes concepts that make the best use of satellite data. The book begins with an introduction to the basic processes that ensure the acquisition of space-borne imagery, and provides an overview of the main satellite observation systems. It then describes visual and digital image analysis, highlights various interpretation techniques, and outlines their applications to science and management. The latter part of the book covers the integration of remote sensing with Geographic Information System (GIS) for environmental analysis. This latest edition has been written to reflect a global audience and covers the most recent advances incorporated since the publication of the previous book, relating to the acquisition and interpretation of remotely sensed data. New in the Third Edition: Includes additional illustrations in full color. Uses sample images acquired from different ecosystems at different spatial resolutions to illustrate different interpretation techniques. Includes updated EO missions, such as the third generations of geostationary meteorological satellites, the new polar orbiting platforms (Suomi), the ESA Sentinels program, and high-resolution commercial systems. Includes extended coverage of radar and LIDAR processing methods. Includes all new information on near-ground missions, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Covers new ground sensors, as well as machine-learning approaches to classification. Adds more focus on land surface characterization, time series, change detection, and ecosystem processes. Extends the interactions of EO data and GIS that cover different environmental problems, with particular relevance to global observation. Fundamentals of Satellite Remote Sensing: An Environmental Approach, Third Edition, details the tools that provide global, recurrent, and comprehensive views of the processes affecting the Earth. As one of CRC’s Essential titles, this book and stands out as one of the best in its field and is a must-have for researchers, academics, students, and professionals involved in the field of environmental science, as well as for libraries developing collections on the forefront of this industry.