Landscape Structure and Wildlife Patterns - Essay Example

Strathearn, Perthshire is a broad river flood plain under mixed agricultural land use where substantial data were collected in 1998-2000 during a biodiversity study funded by the Scottish executive. Surveys of plants and animals were carried out within fields or unenclosed semi-natural habitats across the site. Various land cover data were collected within 1km diameter circles around the sample location so that relationships between landscape and species diversity could be investigated. On the second map you will see my 1km circle situated near the river.

We where provided with information on the land covers in 1km diameter circles around sites where wildlife were surveys during 1999. I used a geographic information system (GIS) to derive measures of landscapes structure that can be compared with selected wildlife data from field survey. The graph showing the comparison between area woodland and the count of wild life shows significant variation in the presence of same species in the wood land of same area at different locations. The density of these species shows similar trends to a greater extend.

In an area below 60000, the availability of plant spp. ranges between 0 and 5 in some woodland while in others it ranges between 5 and 15. The trend is similar at a higher woodland area ranging between 105000 and 130000. There is an absence of woodland area ranging between 53000 and 105000 in the catchment area. The graph. -0.018597634spring oil seed rape-0.13902295Wheat-1.167727571d. wildlife land cover graphs from the grouped data for the river catchment, i have choose to 3 they are attached, need a brief paragraph on each. Figure 3. Landscape structure and wildlife patternThe graph showing the comparison between area woodland and the count of wild life shows significant variation in the presence of same species in the wood land of same area at different locations.

The density of these species shows similar trends to a greater extend. In an area below 60000, the availability of plant spp. ranges between 0 and 5 in some woodland while in others it ranges between 5 and 15. The trend is similar at a higher woodland area ranging between 105000 and 130000. There is an absence of woodland area ranging between 53000 and 105000 in the catchment area. Figure 4. Landscape structure and wildlifeThe graph shows similar pattern between the availability of birds and plant spp.

in an area with diversity in landscape structure. The availability of number of individual is uniform with the diversity.Figure 5. Crop diversity compared to bird speciesThe comparison between crop/pasture diversity and bird species shows that the number of bird species increases with increase in crop/pasture diversity. The graph shows a linear trend between the diversity in crop/pasture and the presence of bird species in the area. The availability of bird species highly varies within similar diverse crop/pasture areas.

This could be assumed due to variation in type of cop/pasture available in the area. Figure 6. Diversity crops/pastures compared to plant speciesThe graph showing the tend between crop/pasture diversity and availability of plant species shows that there is no