I have calculated the IVI or the frequency, dominance etc. of the various species found in a Forest Management Unit. Now can we represent these on the FMU map using GIS technology? I just pondered over it but couldn't find any solution.
Yes, we can. You need to obtain the coordinates (lat/lon or easting/northing) of the sites where these species were monitored (=sampled). And then assign your indices values to the corresponding sample sites. The output would be something similar to the following:
Longitudes Latitudes IVI Frequency .......
x1 y1 z1 f1
x2 y2 z2 f2
................
And then any GIS software can map them. Quantum GIS can read the coordinates from a .csv file, ArcGIS from .xls file and R from both.
A sample R script assuming the file name to be 'species.csv'.
library(sp)
Species
I wouldn't suggest to apply any direct spatial interpolation method before checking whether there is any spatial pattern or not. I would recommend to perform trend surface analysis and Mantel test before you proceed. If there is any spatial pattern, it's also important to identify what actually describes such spatial variability. There is a recent good paper on it if you are interested:
Peres-Neto, P. R.; Legendre, P., Estimating and controlling for spatial structure in the study of ecological communities. Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 2010, 19, (2), 174-184.
Hope that helps.
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