Exploration of the use of the National Vegetation Database to estimate vegetation parameters for hydrological modeling
Jasper Slingsby
8 Novemer 2016
## Loading required namespace: rgeos## Warning in .local(x, y, ...): Transforming SpatialPoints to the CRS of the
## RasterLets have a look at the basic stats
Number of plots altogether = 53499
Number of plots with spatial data = 33401
Number of unique species names = 50849 - lots if issues there!
Number of unique genus names = 6143 - suspicious too…
Number of species by site observations = 1152987
Ok, lets look at the spatial distribution with sites with larger circles indicating poor location confidence, and red sites falling in the sea:
What about representation of plots in the National Vegetation Map (2012) vegetation types (447 altogether)?
There are 84 veg types without any plot data, 148 veg types with less than 5 plots, 193 veg types with less than 10 plots…
What about representation of plots in hydrological clusters (veg types lumped into 132 clusters based on similar climates)?
There are 5 veg types without any plot data, 13 veg types with less than 5 plots, 21 veg types with less than 10 plots…
But! 3387 of the 33401 plots with spatial information are now in transformed landscapes according to the 2013 National Land Cover. So let’s look at all those stats again, excluding transformed plots…
There are 7 veg types without any plot data, 15 veg types with less than 5 plots, 22 veg types with less than 10 plots…
We can still use the data from the transformed sites, but we obviously can’t revisit these sites to measure any additional parameters.
Here’s teh representation by ecohydrological cluster:
##
## Albany Thicket 1 Albany Thicket 2 Albany Thicket 3
## 327 39 61
## Albany Thicket 4 Albany Thicket 5 Azonal Vegetation 1
## 91 134 27
## Azonal Vegetation 10 Azonal Vegetation 11 Azonal Vegetation 2
## 164 99 629
## Azonal Vegetation 3 Azonal Vegetation 4 Azonal Vegetation 5
## 3 74 14
## Azonal Vegetation 6 Azonal Vegetation 7 Azonal Vegetation 8
## 130 189 11
## Azonal Vegetation 9 Desert 1 Desert 2
## 24 67 401
## Desert 3 Desert 4 Forest 1
## 79 81 624
## Forest 2 Forest 3 Forest 4
## 165 109 0
## Fynbos 1 Fynbos 10 Fynbos 11
## 101 18 346
## Fynbos 12 Fynbos 13 Fynbos 14
## 81 669 23
## Fynbos 15 Fynbos 16 Fynbos 17
## 12 76 139
## Fynbos 18 Fynbos 19 Fynbos 2
## 58 22 8
## Fynbos 20 Fynbos 21 Fynbos 22
## 55 0 8
## Fynbos 23 Fynbos 24 Fynbos 25
## 1 21 5
## Fynbos 26 Fynbos 27 Fynbos 28
## 754 361 37
## Fynbos 29 Fynbos 3 Fynbos 30
## 518 2 1
## Fynbos 31 Fynbos 32 Fynbos 33
## 0 71 14
## Fynbos 34 Fynbos 35 Fynbos 36
## 30 0 212
## Fynbos 37 Fynbos 38 Fynbos 4
## 602 9 333
## Fynbos 5 Fynbos 6 Fynbos 7
## 318 36 180
## Fynbos 8 Fynbos 9 Grassland 1
## 47 190 107
## Grassland 10 Grassland 11 Grassland 12
## 2101 1700 588
## Grassland 13 Grassland 14 Grassland 15
## 55 375 536
## Grassland 16 Grassland 17 Grassland 18
## 1804 77 147
## Grassland 19 Grassland 2 Grassland 20
## 324 545 5
## Grassland 21 Grassland 22 Grassland 3
## 354 6 291
## Grassland 4 Grassland 5 Grassland 6
## 1204 63 145
## Grassland 7 Grassland 8 Grassland 9
## 15 715 2
## IOCB 1 IOCB 2 Nama Karoo 1
## 233 25 67
## Nama Karoo 2 Nama Karoo 3 Nama Karoo 4
## 660 82 226
## Savanna 1 Savanna 10 Savanna 11
## 300 320 595
## Savanna 12 Savanna 13 Savanna 14
## 305 341 476
## Savanna 15 Savanna 16 Savanna 17
## 66 367 342
## Savanna 18 Savanna 19 Savanna 2
## 252 1 805
## Savanna 20 Savanna 21 Savanna 22
## 65 38 122
## Savanna 23 Savanna 24 Savanna 25
## 129 533 281
## Savanna 3 Savanna 4 Savanna 5
## 67 246 91
## Savanna 6 Savanna 7 Savanna 8
## 5 385 0
## Savanna 9 Succulent Karoo 1 Succulent Karoo 10
## 223 523 96
## Succulent Karoo 11 Succulent Karoo 12 Succulent Karoo 13
## 277 58 1
## Succulent Karoo 14 Succulent Karoo 15 Succulent Karoo 16
## 502 142 624
## Succulent Karoo 17 Succulent Karoo 2 Succulent Karoo 3
## 258 530 66
## Succulent Karoo 4 Succulent Karoo 5 Succulent Karoo 6
## 83 207 1
## Succulent Karoo 7 Succulent Karoo 8 Succulent Karoo 9
## 1066 9 22