Biodiversity Characterization at Landscape level using Geospatial Model

Biodiversity is generally considered at the species level although conservation of biodiversity requires management at higher level of organization, particularly at the landscape scale. A landscape approach of conservation is the most feasible as it would be impossible to protect individual species. The information on the biodiversity characteristics such as species richness and their spatial distribution, economic and the ethno-botanical importance is of great significance to any nation. Nationwide project on the biodiversity characterization at landscape level, was carried out between 1998 and 2010 to characterize and map the flowering plants richness in the natural (forests, grasslands, scrub etc.) and man-made (forest plantations) vegetation formations. The spatial database on vegetation types generated using wet and dry season satellite imagery and ancillary data such as topographic maps and the species richness through field inventory were used to generate the spatially-explicit species distribution maps and statistics. Spatial Landscape Model (SPLAM) has been developed for landscape analysis and spatial data integration. The present study is first attempt which resulted in spatial database on vegetation types, porosity, patchiness, interspersion, juxtaposition, fragmentation, disturbance regimes, ecosystem uniqueness, terrain complexity and the species richness for biodiversity conservation. The field sampling involved 19,876 geo-referenced 0.04 ha plots across India and 7215 plant species. The geospatially-tagged species database, created in the project, provides information on the endemic, rare, endangered, threatened and medicinally/economically important species. The database, disseminated to large number of organizations has found extensive applications in policy planning, operational management, biodiversity conservation, bio-prospecting and the climate change studies.