Is there any method to obtained the vigor of ecosystem in simple way?
What is the most applicable method for Vigor calculating by Remote sensing and Geographic Information System without Field measurement?
What factors influencing the vigor of ecosystem?
Dear Zeinab,
Although ecosystem is an complex system including a lot of functions and services, I would agree with Dr Francesco, you can just use vegetation indices (such as NDVI, SARVI, EVI/EVI2, OSAVI, GDVI.....) as a holistic index to evaluate the "vigor" of ecosystem. Actually, no matter which aspect of the system you are concerned about, e.g., soil moisture (water stress), soil fertility, biomass production, and ecosystem productivity, etc., all of these can be reflected more or less in the vegetation indices. Thus, vegetation indices are the simplest way to highlight what you are looking for. However, if you want to investigate in-depth some features/characters of the ecosystem, the suggestion of Dr Conor can be taken into account.
in RS, NDVI and/or other vegetation indexes could be the simplest way....
You can monitor many ecosystem components separately using multispectral/hyperspectral imagery, thermal imagery or LiDAR: veg, large wildlife, water, soil, drainage, etc - or use the condition of some of those to infer something else about other components. But as far as I know there is no simple RS method for something with so many complex elements.
Here is a recent summary paper that might help you.
http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/14/11/21117
Edit: Had added a broken link and fixed it
Dear Zeinab,
Although ecosystem is an complex system including a lot of functions and services, I would agree with Dr Francesco, you can just use vegetation indices (such as NDVI, SARVI, EVI/EVI2, OSAVI, GDVI.....) as a holistic index to evaluate the "vigor" of ecosystem. Actually, no matter which aspect of the system you are concerned about, e.g., soil moisture (water stress), soil fertility, biomass production, and ecosystem productivity, etc., all of these can be reflected more or less in the vegetation indices. Thus, vegetation indices are the simplest way to highlight what you are looking for. However, if you want to investigate in-depth some features/characters of the ecosystem, the suggestion of Dr Conor can be taken into account.
Hello Zeinab,
There have been some good answers so far. Along those same lines, I think it is important to first define what you mean by "ecosystem vigor." Then once that is defined, you can decide how you will measure it. There have been good suggestions to use a variety of vegetation indices as a proxy for vigor (e.g. NDVI as a proxy for productivity). Although these are well accepted indicators, there are always limitations with each of the indices.
Good luck,
Tim
Hello.
It is very important that you read the next paper (NATURE JOURNAL).
Hi
A lot of ecology or environmental papers empirically or theoretically used the concept of tipping point. For instance, there exists an expert-based paper describing Australian ecosystems close to tipping point. For evaluating where or when the tipping point may arrive is a complex exercise. Working with both now available long term series of RS data (EVI, NDVI) and time-series analysis tools is an interesting research path.
Serge
Ecosystem means diverse elements, each of them have particular "vigor" indicators, for example: from RS: NDVI for plants, Chorofile A for ponds, etc. You can also prepare Indicators based on GIS for primary productivity, resilence and health odf some features. I mean that a Ecosiystem vigor could be a summary of all these indicators.
Calculation (quantify) of ecosystem vigor (or health) - RS/GIS (LiDAR is widely used
Method to obtain ecosystem vigor - analyzing Remote Sensing results such as LiDAR
Most applicable method - Land use Land Cover (LULC) change
Factor influencing vigor - anthropogenic stressors (in most cases natural causes too)
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