Characterizing woodland caribou habitat in sub-boreal and boreal forests

Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are sensitive to changes in understory vegetation resulting from forest harvesting and are, therefore, of special concern for foresters and habitat biologists. Effective management of this species requires reliable habitat inventories which, because of th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chris J. Johnson, Nancy D. Alex, Roger D. Wheate, Katherine L. Parker
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2002
Subjects:
Caribou
Landsat TM
Lichen
Supervised classification
British Columbia
Canada
Caribou Range
Rangifer tarandus
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.486.1907
http://web.unbc.ca/~johnsoch/Publications/Johnson et al 2003 characterizing woodland caribou habitat.pdf
Description
Summary:Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are sensitive to changes in understory vegetation resulting from forest harvesting and are, therefore, of special concern for foresters and habitat biologists. Effective management of this species requires reliable habitat inventories which, because of the large heterogeneous areas over which caribou range, can be costly. We used Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery and digital elevation data to identify 23 vegetative cover types across the 5100 km2 range of the Wolverine caribou herd of northcentral British Columbia, Canada. The classification was augmented with available geographical information system (GIS) data for a total of 27 cover types. We achieved an overall accuracy of 76.7% based on known ground samples; however, accuracy varied according to cover type. Considering the size of the study area, the procedure we employed was relatively cost effective and efficient. We discuss the advantages of such an approach for wildlife-habitat studies reliant on large-scale vegetation maps.

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