Geographical support of research work on the study of botanical diversity
G.N. OGUREEVA, M.V. BOCHARNIKOV
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Keywords: biota, flora, vegetation, ecosystem, biome, satellite images
Abstract
This outlines the issues related to inventory, evaluation and monitoring of biodiversity, based on mapping as a developing independent research direction that allows for the spatial analysis of biota based on using a wide range of thematic maps. Examples of identifying biota diversity are considered using the cartographic method at four main levels: species richness of concrete (local) floras, phytocoenotic diversity (species richness and diversity of communities of vegetation formations), natural complexes (landscape biodiversity), and ecosystem diversity. A short historical overview of the gradual formation of theoretical and methodological principles of biodiversity mapping is given. As a result of these principles, hundreds of maps have been prepared to date, reflecting the diversity of organisms based on different approaches and methodological principles. There are maps of the floristic and faunistic diversity of the world (isoline diagrams connecting points with the same quantitative indicators for assessing the levels of floristic and faunistic species richness of a certain area); maps on a grid (raster) basis (the use of cells of a certain area with marks of presence-absence of a species or a complex of species in each of the cells); maps compiled on the basis of modeling the number of taxa depending on environmental conditions (modeling method by ecological parameters), and maps of phytocenotic diversity. Examples of the successful application of Earth remote sensing data and, above all, satellite images are shown for the creation and use of multi-scale maps that have new prospects in biodiversity studies. In the final part of the paper, an ecological-geographical approach to the identification and assessment of biodiversity has been considered. Its prospects are related to the study of biodiversity within the natural boundaries of biotic cover units of different levels on the basis of ecological units of biosphere subdivisions - regional biomes. This approach is of particular importance in the study of fundamental problems of the biodiversity geography of mountain areas.
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