Exam 2 Flashcards
Define points:
- Single x, y coordinate
- No length or area at a given scales
Feature that is too small to be displayed as a line or area
- No length or area at a given scales
Define polygons:
Have area at a given scale
Define lines
Have length, but too narrow for width to be shown at given scale
Define climax community
A plant community in stable equilibrium with its environment. The climax community is the plant community that will develop with long periods without disturbance, and it will not change significantly without disturbance
Define raster
Data represented as a grid, with a value assigned to each pixel.
simple data structure, faster to use. Map output appears blocky
Define vector
Data represented as polygons, lines, and points.
correcter boundaries, more complex data structure. Cannot store continually varying image data
Define Landsat
Landsat imagery is a collection of satellite images of the surface of earth with a resolution of 30x30m. Images are taken every 8 days. This data is publicly available and is often used in natural resource management to show changes in systems over time
You would want to use Landsat if you want to look at the amount and vigor of vegetation over a large area (because it has more bands including near infra-red). You would also use Landsat to look at changes in a landscape over time at a temporal scale of weeks, months or one year.
Define NRCS
Natural Resource Conservation Service.
Government agency that helps provide private landowners with the resources they need to manage their land in an ecologically-informed way. They provide them with data about the biotic and abiotic factors of their land, offer consulting, and help landowners acquire the finances they need to make sustainable improvements on their land.
Define Ecological Site Description
The Ecological Site Description is a document prepared by the NRCS, which defines what the ecological function of biotic and abiotic factors should be for a given site, and what the site should look like when the site is functioning properly.
The ESD is a tool to help land managers determine the health of their land, and get an idea of what they can do to improve it.
Define Multiple Use planning
The planning of natural resource management that allows for many different uses of the resource. Takes into account the opinions and values of many different interest groups, and manages the resource in a way that allows the most benefit to the most of them.
Define Disturbance
Something that disrupts a natural site’s biotic or abiotic components in such a way that results in the destruction of old in making way for the new
Define threshold
An ecological threshold is a point in a site’s composition that if crossed, you won’t be able to return to the reference state without significant inputs of energy
Types of cover:
thermal - protects from climate
escape (visual) - avoid predation
breeding / nesting - safe from predators where young can be raised
rest / play - areas with infrequent disturbance where animals can be less vigilant and focus on foraging, etc.
Define ultimate factors
Factors that influence the long-term reproductive success and survival of a species. Effects the evolutionary process of the species.
Ex. animals that group together die less, so there’s a selection pressure for herding
Define proximate factors
factors that cause the release of innate behaviors that result in a particular “settling pattern”
Ex. animals exhibiting a fear response (high heart rate, shaking) when separated from the herd
