University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"SPATIAL ANALYSIS IN BIOGEOGRAPHY AND ECOLOGY"
A TWO-CENTER INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

ORGANIZED BY THE

BIOGEOGRAPHY STUDY GROUP
INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL UNION (IGU)

BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY (BES)

BIOGEOGRAPHY RESEARCH GROUP
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY/INSTITUTE OF BRITISH GEOGRAPHERS (RGS-IBG)

AND THE

ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN GEOGRAPHERS (AAG)
BIOGEOGRAPHY, REMOTE SENSING, AND GIS SPECIALITY GROUPS

Symposium/Conference Organizers

Andrew Millington is Professor and Head of the Department of Geography at Leicester University. He has previously taught at Reading University and the University of Sierra Leone. He is currently the Chair of the International Geographical Union's Biogeography Study Group. He specializes in the application of remote sensing to a wide range of ecological and biogeographical problems in both dryland and humid tropical environments. He currently has research programs concerning these topics in Jordan, Bolivia, Argentina, and Peru. He has edited two books, Environmental Change in Drylands, with Ken Pye, Wiley (1994) and Vegetation Mapping, with Roy Alexander (1999) and has written two books on biomass assessment in sub-Saharan Africa published by Earthscan (1989) and The World Bank (1995).

Patrick E. Osborne lectures in Environmental Management at the University of Stirling, Scotland, UK, and is co-director of the Masters’ program. He was previously the Head of Ecology at the National Avian Research Center in Abu Dhabi where he directed research on conservation issues and compiled the book The Desert Ecology of Abu Dhabi (1996). He has traveled extensively and worked in Europe, Lesotho, Kenya, Mexico, the Middle East, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan. Dr. Osborne’s research interests are in spatial ecology and landscape ecology, and the uses of new technologies in conservation biology, particular birds. He is currently working on satellite tracking of birds in Spain, and modelling habitat fragmentation using satellite remote sensing. His research students are studying the effects of forest fragmentation on birds, modelling the ecological suitability of forests over time, and spatially-explicit models for habitat use by grazing geese.

Stephen J. Walsh is a Professor of Geography and Director of the Spatial Analysis Lab at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA. He is the former Amos H. Hawley Professor of Geography (1993-1996) and Director of the Spatial Analysis Unit at the Carolina Population Center (1992-1997). He is the current Chair of the GIS Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) and former (1994-1996) Chair of the Remote Sensing Specialty Group of the AAG, where he was the 1997 recipient of the Outstanding Contribution Award and Medal. He is on the editorial boards of Plant Ecology (1996-present), Journal of Geography (1995-present), The Professional Geographer (1997-present), and the Southeastern Geographer (1992-present). He has recently co-authored special issues in Journal of Vegetation Science (1994) and Geomorphology (1998). Professor Walsh’s research interests are in GIS, remote sensing, spatial analysis, physical geography, and population-environment interactions. Specific research foci are in pattern and process at the alpine treeline ecotone, biodiversity and river dynamics, and scale dependence and information scaling.

Program Overview: January 5-7, 1999 Symposium – Leicester

Patrick Osborne (Stirling University), Stephen Walsh (University of North Carolina), and Andrew Millington and Jane Wellens (University of Leicester), "Spatial analysis in biogeography and ecology: current themes and opportunities"

Ashot Khoestian and Christiana Hakopian (Yerevan State University), "Spatial transformation of ecosystems in the Republic of Armenia and their Consequences"

Trish Rice and Heather Moore (Derby University), "Landscape ecology of the Souss-Massa National Park, Southern Morocco"

Niall Burnside, Roger Smith, Stephen Waite, and Migel Watson (University of Brighton), "Landscape ecology on the South Downs, United Kingdon"

Simon Jones (University of Leicester), "NDVI-derived Phenology: Testing a commonly used tool with microclimatolgical and ground-based phenological and ecological data"

Allen Hope, William Boynton, Douglas Stow (San Diego State University) and David Douglas and Garry Drew (US Geological Survey-Anchorage, Alaska), "Inter-annual variations in vegetation seasonal growth characteristics of tundra ecosystems using satellite time-series data"

Jane Read, Sandra Guzman, and Julie Denslow (Louisiana State University), "Dynamic forest landscapes: documenting land cover history of secondary forests in a humid tropical forest environment using time-series remote sensing data"

Jane Wellens (University of Leicester), "Humid tropical forest-savanna boundary dynamics over the past 25 years in Northern Bolivia"

Albert Aweto (University of Ibadan), "Spatial distribution of savanna enclaves of the Urhono Plains, Southwestern Nigeria"

Niall Burnside and Stephen Waite (University of Brighton), "A comparative study of the distribution of the radiate and non-radiate capitulum morphs of Senecio vulgaris L. within Sussex"

Michel Richter (Institut fur Geographie), "Zonal features of phytodiversity and of regenerative processes"

Mircea Voiculescu (University of the West), "Altitudinal variation of the climate limit of the forests in the Fagaras Mountains"

Irina Pokrovskaya and Grigori Tertitsky (Russian Academy of Sciences), "Spatial structure of bird, mammal, and amphibian assemblages in the treeline ecosystem of the Western Siberian Plain"

Guenater Grimm (University of Oxford), "Development of vegetation pattern in primary succession on Glacier Forelands in Southern Norway"

Panayiotis Boukis and Andrew Millington (University of Leicester) and Barry Wyatt (Monks Wood), "An optimum foraging strategy for botanists"

Tom De Groeve (Universite Laval), "Super ground truth: a new model to deal with uncertainty in forest inventory maps induced by subjectively interpreted boundaries"

Peter Fisher, Lucy Bastin, and Mike Hughes (University of Leicester), "Fuzzy modelling of vegetation"

Peter Furley (University of Edinburgh), Malcomb Penn (Natural History Museum), and Neil Bird (DIFD), "Spatial variability of tropical forest trees species by key soil chemical and physical characteristics in the Maya Mountains, Chiquibul Forest Reserve, Belize"

Malcolm Murray (University of Edinburgh), "Variogram analysis of soil parameters related to tropical forests"

Program Overview: March 23-27, 1999 AAG Conference: Honolulu

Daniel G. Brown and Mark A. Bowersox (Michigan State University) and Stephen J. Walsh and Evan S. Hammer (University of North Carolina), "Relationship between the leaf area index and spectral vegetation indices at the alpine treeline"

David M. Cairns (Texas A & M University) and Alison J. Cundall (University of South Carolina), "Barriers and species persistence in a simulated grassland community"

George P. Malanson, Kathryn J. Alftine, and Matthew F. Bekker (University of Iowa), "Finding simplicity in simulations of the alpine treeline ecotone"

Brian Rizzo and H.H. Shugart (University of Virginia), "A biogeographic application of an individual-based forest stand simulator (gap model)"

Uwe Treter (University of Erlangen-Nurnberg), "Gap dynamic of Balsam Fir forests in Newfoundland"

Tom P. Evans, Glen Green, and Charlie Schweik (Indiana University), "Forest fragmentation and land cover change on private lands in southern Indiana"

Nina M. Kelly (San Diego State University), "Using landscape metrics to distinguish between nationwide and individual wetland permits in North Carolina"

Reka Aszalos (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) and Ferko Csillag (University of Toronto), "Landscape pattern of disturbed East European forests: the impact of type, age, and management"

Sarah R. Jacobs (Northern Arizona University), "Slope as a factor of accuracy of a northern Arizona land cover map"

Paul S. Anderson (Illinois State University), "Mapping rural Mozambique via distance education for obtaining GIS input"

Jefferson Fox, A. Terry Rambo, and Stephen Leisz (East-West Center), Dao Minh Troung, Nghiem Phuong Tuyen, and Le Trong Cuc (National University of Vietnam), "Shifting cultivation without deforestation: a case study from northwestern Vietnam"

Stephen Leisz and Jefferson Fox (East-West Center) and Dao Minh Truong and Le Trong Cuc (National University of Vietnam), "Characterizing landscapes using satellite imagery, local knowledge, and GPS surveys"

Stephen J. Walsh, William F. Welsh, Ronald R. Rindfuss, Barbara Entwisle (University of North Carolina) and Tom P. Evans (Indiana University), "Scaling population-environment relationships, northeast Thailand"

Ling Bian (State University of New York, Buffalo), "Developing prototype components for simulating wildlife movement"

Scott A. Mensing and Robert Elston Jr. (University of Nevada) and Gary Raines (US Geological Survey), "A GIS predictive model for locating packrat middens in the Great Basin"

Peter C. Impara (Evergreen State College), "Spatial and temporal patterns of fire in the central Oregon Coast Range"

William L. Baker (University of Wyoming) and Kurt F. Kipfmueller (University of Arizona), "Spatial ecology of forest fires in the Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming"

Ross Meentemeyer and Aaron Moody (University of North Carolina), "Modeling the spatial distribution and abundance of chaparral species in the Santa Ynez mountains, California"

Aaron Moody and Ross Meentemeyer (University of North Carolina), "Variation in chaparral species diversity related to environmental site conditions"

Janet Franklin and David Shaari (San Diego State University) and Todd Keeler-Wolf (California Department of Fish and Game), "Stratified sampling for field survey of environmental gradients to define vegetation alliances in the Mojave Desert"

Douglas Stow, William Boynton, Allen Hope, and Scott Daeschner (San Diego State University), "Arctic tundra functional types by classification of AVHRR NDVI data"

Allen Hope, Keith Pence, and Douglas Stow (San Diego State University), "Validation of satellite time-series data for Arctic biogeographical studies"

Mark E. Jakubauskas (University of Kansas) and David R. Legates (Louisiana State University), "Time-series remote sensing of landscape variability in the Southern Great Plains indicator region"

Andrew C. Millington and Simon D. Jones (University of Leicester), "Validating AVHRR for use in phenological monitoring in tropical forests and savannas"

John P. Wilson (University of Southern California), Peter A. Burrough and Pauline F.M. van Gaans (University of Utrecht), and Andrew J. Hansen (Montana State University), "Fuzzy k-means classification of DEMs to aid biodiversity assessments"

Kim E. Lowell and Danny Johnston (Universite Laval), "The Behavior of ground-based forest data relative to cartographic boundaries in a Boreal forest"

Tom DeGroeve and Kim E. Lowell (Universite Laval), "Super ground truth: a spatial uncertainty model for forest maps"

Peter Fisher, Lucy Bastin, and Mike Hughes (University of Leicester), "Fuzzy sets as a basis for modeling and mapping vegetation continua"