CanopyApp

The Brazilian Cerrado is a biodiversity hotspot that has suffered significant vegetation loss in the states that make up the so-called MATOPIBA region in recent years an area currently experiencing soybean cultivation expansion in Brazil. This expansion can change the environmental conditions of freshwater streams, as they receive the impacts of activities occurring in their drainage basin. In this study, we assessed how anthropogenic activities impact the conservation status and environmental heterogeneity of streams and how these modifications affect the proportion between abundance and species richness among the suborders of Odonata (Anisoptera and Zygoptera). We also assessed whether conserved streams had a greater number of specialist species when compared to altered streams. To assess these objectives, we collected data from 24 streams within matrices presenting a gradient in their integrity and vegetation cover conditions. Altered areas showed a tendency higher to heterogeneity compared to preserved streams. As expected, we observed that the proportion of abundance and species richness of Zygoptera was higher in preserved streams, while for Anisoptera, it was higher in altered streams. Despite altered sites having higher environmental heterogeneity, we failed to register of a greater number of specialist species in these areas. This implies that the presence of riparian forests is essential for maintaining habitat integrity supporting the maintenance of species that are more sensitive to changes in environmental gradients. Implications for insect conservation: We underscore the significance of permanent protection areas in maintaining the habitat integrity of streams and preserving the diversity of Odonata species, particularly for Zygoptera.

Mountain bogs are among the rarest natural communities in the Southern Appalachians. For the past several years, UNC Asheville faculty and students have been collecting data on a wide variety of parameters such as water levels, water quality, soils, vegetation surveys, and GPS locations of key features in these bogs. A better understanding of these parameters will ultimately lead to better management decisions in the future. Bog management involves linking and being able to analyze biotic and abiotic processes and components of the bog ecosystem. One of these key processes is evapotranspiration, the process by which plants draw water from the ground and transpire it into the atmosphere. Trees and underbrush are often manually removed from bogs to reduce evapotranspiration, open the canopy, and restore more natural conditions. Quantifying canopy cover in mountain bogs will help determine the amount of vegetation to remove. However, methods for determining canopy cover are often either cheap but labor intensive or faster but expensive. As a result, there are few methods that are both readily-accessible and reliable. The purpose of this study is twofold. The first goal is to investigate free and inexpensive cell phone applications or 'apps' that can be used to process canopy cover images and determine which, if any, produce reliable data. The second goal is to evaluate ESRI ArcGIS classified imagery to determine canopy cover and then test both the 'apps' and GIS-based process against traditional densiometer readings which have been used for decades.