IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v3y2014i1p74-104d32173.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analyzing Vegetation Change in an Elephant-Impacted Landscape Using the Moving Standard Deviation Index

Author

Listed:
  • Timothy J. Fullman

    (Department of Geography, University of Florida, 3141 Turlington Hall P.O. Box 117315, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA)

  • Erin L. Bunting

    (Department of Geography, University of Florida, 3141 Turlington Hall P.O. Box 117315, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA)

Abstract

Northern Botswana is influenced by various socio-ecological drivers of landscape change. The African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) is one of the leading sources of landscape shifts in this region. Developing the ability to assess elephant impacts on savanna vegetation is important to promote effective management strategies. The Moving Standard Deviation Index (MSDI) applies a standard deviation calculation to remote sensing imagery to assess degradation of vegetation. Used previously for assessing impacts of livestock on rangelands, we evaluate the ability of the MSDI to detect elephant-modified vegetation along the Chobe riverfront in Botswana, a heavily elephant-impacted landscape. At broad scales, MSDI values are positively related to elephant utilization. At finer scales, using data from 257 sites along the riverfront, MSDI values show a consistent negative relationship with intensity of elephant utilization. We suggest that these differences are due to varying effects of elephants across scales. Elephant utilization of vegetation may increase heterogeneity across the landscape, but decrease it within heavily used patches, resulting in the observed MSDI pattern of divergent trends at different scales. While significant, the low explanatory power of the relationship between the MSDI and elephant utilization suggests the MSDI may have limited use for regional monitoring of elephant impacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy J. Fullman & Erin L. Bunting, 2014. "Analyzing Vegetation Change in an Elephant-Impacted Landscape Using the Moving Standard Deviation Index," Land, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-31, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:3:y:2014:i:1:p:74-104:d:32173
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/3/1/74/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/3/1/74/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Graeme D. Ruxton, 2006. "The unequal variance t-test is an underused alternative to Student's t-test and the Mann--Whitney U test," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 17(4), pages 688-690, July.
    2. Anselin, Luc & Bera, Anil K. & Florax, Raymond & Yoon, Mann J., 1996. "Simple diagnostic tests for spatial dependence," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 77-104, February.
    3. Han Olff & Mark E. Ritchie & Herbert H. T. Prins, 2002. "Global environmental controls of diversity in large herbivores," Nature, Nature, vol. 415(6874), pages 901-904, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John Tyler Fox & Mark E. Vandewalle & Kathleen A. Alexander, 2017. "Land Cover Change in Northern Botswana: The Influence of Climate, Fire, and Elephants on Semi-Arid Savanna Woodlands," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-23, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Doughty, Russell & Xiao, Xiangming & Wu, Xiaocui & Zhang, Yao & Bajgain, Rajen & Zhou, Yuting & Qin, Yuanwei & Zou, Zhenhua & McCarthy, Heather & Friedman, Jack & Wagle, Pradeep & Basara, Jeff & Stein, 2018. "Responses of gross primary production of grasslands and croplands under drought, pluvial, and irrigation conditions during 2010–2016, Oklahoma, USA," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 47-59.
    2. repec:rri:wpaper:201307 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Marasteanu, I. Julia & Jaenicke, Edward C., 2013. "Agglomeration and Spatial Dependence in Certified Organic Operations in the United States," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 149551, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Montes-Rojas Gabriel, 2022. "Subgraph Network Random Effects Error Components Models: Specification and Testing," Journal of Econometric Methods, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 17-34, January.
    5. Jinzhao Chen, 2015. "Interprovincial Competitiveness and Economic Growth: Evidence from Chinese Provincial Data (1992–2008)," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 388-414, August.
    6. Maria Cracolici & Teodora Uberti, 2009. "Geographical distribution of crime in Italian provinces: a spatial econometric analysis," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 29(1), pages 1-28, February.
    7. Julie Le Gallo, 2002. "Économétrie spatiale : l'autocorrélation spatiale dans les modèles de régression linéaire," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 155(4), pages 139-157.
    8. Flavia Ioana Patrascu & Ali Mostafavi, 2024. "Spatial model for predictive recovery monitoring based on hazard, built environment, and population features and their spillover effects," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 51(1), pages 39-56, January.
    9. Sheena Yu-Hsien Kao & Anil K. Bera, 2018. "Testing spatial regression models under nonregular conditions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 85-111, August.
    10. J. Paul Elhorst & Katarina Zigova, 2011. "Evidence of Competition in Research Activity among Economic Department using Spatial Econometric Techniques," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2011-04, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    11. Valerien O. Pede & Raymond J. G. M. Florax & Henri L. F. De Groot, 2007. "Technological Leadership, Human Capital and Economic Growth: a Spatial Econometric Analysis for US Counties, 1969-2003," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 87-88, pages 103-124.
    12. Travis Warziniack & Patricia Champ & James Meldrum & Hannah Brenkert-Smith & Christopher M. Barth & Lilia C. Falk, 2019. "Responding to Risky Neighbors: Testing for Spatial Spillover Effects for Defensible Space in a Fire-Prone WUI Community," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 1023-1047, August.
    13. Byron Quito & María de la Cruz del Río‐Rama & José Álvarez‐García & Ronny Correa‐Quezada, 2022. "Impact factors and space‐time characteristics of income inequality in a global sample," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1850-1868, December.
    14. Johanna Vogel, 2012. "Agglomeration and Growth: Evidence from the Regions of Central and Eastern Europe," ERSA conference papers ersa12p1089, European Regional Science Association.
    15. Patrizia Gazzola & Audrey Paterson & Stefano Amelio & Daniele Grechi & Stefano Cristina, 2023. "The role of individual social responsibility and corporate social responsibility in the tax fraud war: A comparison between the priorities of Italian and Romanian consumers," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2265-2277, September.
    16. María Ayuda & Fernando Collantes & Vicente Pinilla, 2010. "From locational fundamentals to increasing returns: the spatial concentration of population in Spain, 1787–2000," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 25-50, March.
    17. Wondmagegn Tirkaso & Atakelty Hailu, 2022. "Does neighborhood matter? Spatial proximity and farmers’ technical efficiency," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(3), pages 374-386, May.
    18. Catherine Baumont, 2009. "Spatial effects of urban public policies on housing values," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(2), pages 301-326, June.
    19. John M. Antle & Susan M. Capalbo, 2001. "Econometric-Process Models for Integrated Assessment of Agricultural Production Systems," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(2), pages 389-401.
    20. Philippe De Vreyer & Gilles Spielvogel, 2005. "Spatial externalities between Brazilian municipios and their neighbours," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 123, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    21. Monika Nováčková & Richard S. J. Tol, 2018. "Effects of sea level rise on economy of the United States," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 85-115, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:3:y:2014:i:1:p:74-104:d:32173. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.