Woody vegetation dynamics in the tropical and subtropical Andes from 2001 to 2014: Satellite image interpretation and expert validation

GRAESSER, JORDAN; BARROS, ANA P.; CUESTA, FRANCISCO; POLK, MOLLY H.; YOUNG, KENNETH R.; AIDE, T. MITCHELL; ANDRADE-NUÑEZ, MARIA JOSE; CAMPOS-CERQUEIRA, MARCONI; ESPINOZA, RAUL; RUEDA, XIMENA; ZARBÁ, LUCÍA; GRAU, H. RICARDO; ARÁOZ, EZEQUIEL; CHACON-MORENO, EULOGIO; PERALVO, MANUEL; SANCHEZ, ADRIANA; ZIMMERER, KARL S.; GRAESSER, JORDAN; BARROS, ANA P.; CUESTA, FRANCISCO; POLK, MOLLY H.; YOUNG, KENNETH R.; AIDE, T. MITCHELL; ANDRADE-NUÑEZ, MARIA JOSE; CAMPOS-CERQUEIRA, MARCONI; ESPINOZA, RAUL; RUEDA, XIMENA; ZARBÁ, LUCÍA; GRAU, H. RICARDO; ARÁOZ, EZEQUIEL; CHACON-MORENO, EULOGIO; PERALVO, MANUEL; SANCHEZ, ADRIANA; ZIMMERER, KARL S.

GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2019 vol. 25 p. 2112 - 2126

1354-1013

The interactions between climate and land-use change are dictating the distribution of flora and fauna and reshuffling biotic community composition around the world. Tropical mountains are particularly sensitive because they often have a high human population density, a long history of agriculture, range-restricted species, and high-beta diversity due to a steep elevation gradient. Here we evaluated the change in distribution of woody vegetation in the tropical Andes of South America for the period 2001?2014. For the analyses we created annual land-cover/land-use maps using MODIS satellite data at 250 m pixel resolution, calculated the cover of woody vegetation (trees and shrubs) in 9,274 hexagons of 115.47 km 2 , and then determined if there was a statistically significant (p