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A land classification protocol for pollinator ecology research: An urbanization case study

Land‐use change is one of the most important drivers of widespread declines in pollinator populations. Comprehensive quantitative methods for land classification are critical to understanding these effects, but co‐option of existing human‐focussed land classifications is often inappropriate for poll...

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Autores principales: Samuelson, Ash E., Leadbeater, Ellouise
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6010921/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29938077
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4087
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author Samuelson, Ash E.
Leadbeater, Ellouise
author_facet Samuelson, Ash E.
Leadbeater, Ellouise
author_sort Samuelson, Ash E.
collection PubMed
description Land‐use change is one of the most important drivers of widespread declines in pollinator populations. Comprehensive quantitative methods for land classification are critical to understanding these effects, but co‐option of existing human‐focussed land classifications is often inappropriate for pollinator research. Here, we present a flexible GIS‐based land classification protocol for pollinator research using a bottom‐up approach driven by reference to pollinator ecology, with urbanization as a case study. Our multistep method involves manually generating land cover maps at multiple biologically relevant radii surrounding study sites using GIS, with a focus on identifying land cover types that have a specific relevance to pollinators. This is followed by a three‐step refinement process using statistical tools: (i) definition of land‐use categories, (ii) principal components analysis on the categories, and (iii) cluster analysis to generate a categorical land‐use variable for use in subsequent analysis. Model selection is then used to determine the appropriate spatial scale for analysis. We demonstrate an application of our protocol using a case study of 38 sites across a gradient of urbanization in South‐East England. In our case study, the land classification generated a categorical land‐use variable at each of four radii based on the clustering of sites with different degrees of urbanization, open land, and flower‐rich habitat. Studies of land‐use effects on pollinators have historically employed a wide array of land classification techniques from descriptive and qualitative to complex and quantitative. We suggest that land‐use studies in pollinator ecology should broadly adopt GIS‐based multistep land classification techniques to enable robust analysis and aid comparative research. Our protocol offers a customizable approach that combines specific relevance to pollinator research with the potential for application to a wide range of ecological questions, including agroecological studies of pest control.
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spelling pubmed-60109212018-06-22 A land classification protocol for pollinator ecology research: An urbanization case study Samuelson, Ash E. Leadbeater, Ellouise Ecol Evol Original Research Land‐use change is one of the most important drivers of widespread declines in pollinator populations. Comprehensive quantitative methods for land classification are critical to understanding these effects, but co‐option of existing human‐focussed land classifications is often inappropriate for pollinator research. Here, we present a flexible GIS‐based land classification protocol for pollinator research using a bottom‐up approach driven by reference to pollinator ecology, with urbanization as a case study. Our multistep method involves manually generating land cover maps at multiple biologically relevant radii surrounding study sites using GIS, with a focus on identifying land cover types that have a specific relevance to pollinators. This is followed by a three‐step refinement process using statistical tools: (i) definition of land‐use categories, (ii) principal components analysis on the categories, and (iii) cluster analysis to generate a categorical land‐use variable for use in subsequent analysis. Model selection is then used to determine the appropriate spatial scale for analysis. We demonstrate an application of our protocol using a case study of 38 sites across a gradient of urbanization in South‐East England. In our case study, the land classification generated a categorical land‐use variable at each of four radii based on the clustering of sites with different degrees of urbanization, open land, and flower‐rich habitat. Studies of land‐use effects on pollinators have historically employed a wide array of land classification techniques from descriptive and qualitative to complex and quantitative. We suggest that land‐use studies in pollinator ecology should broadly adopt GIS‐based multistep land classification techniques to enable robust analysis and aid comparative research. Our protocol offers a customizable approach that combines specific relevance to pollinator research with the potential for application to a wide range of ecological questions, including agroecological studies of pest control. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018-04-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6010921/ /pubmed/29938077 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4087 Text en © 2018 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Samuelson, Ash E.
Leadbeater, Ellouise
A land classification protocol for pollinator ecology research: An urbanization case study
title A land classification protocol for pollinator ecology research: An urbanization case study
title_full A land classification protocol for pollinator ecology research: An urbanization case study
title_fullStr A land classification protocol for pollinator ecology research: An urbanization case study
title_full_unstemmed A land classification protocol for pollinator ecology research: An urbanization case study
title_short A land classification protocol for pollinator ecology research: An urbanization case study
title_sort land classification protocol for pollinator ecology research: an urbanization case study
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6010921/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29938077
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4087
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