Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Mountain Pine Beetle Infestations to Characterize Pattern, Risk, and Spread at the Landscape Level
نویسندگان
چکیده
An understanding of spatial processes is necessary when modelling and predicting mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) behaviour. The recent availability of large area, mountain pine beetle data sets enables new approaches to studying spatial processes of infestations. Our goal is to explore observed, landscape level, spatial and spatial-temporal patterns of mountain pine beetle infestations using data collected by the Morice Forest District. A better understanding of mountain pine beetle spatial behaviour will be obtained by: investigating the nature of error and information content of the data and improving data visualization; exploring spatial and spatial-temporal patterns in observed data; comparing observed spatial patterns with modelled expectations to identify areas with unexpected patterns; and exploring the landscape characteristics of areas that are statistically different from our expectation of mountain pine beetle behaviour. We provide an introduction to our project by presenting the objectives, methods, and some preliminary results.
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