From Thesis:
Caribou habitat mapping in the Northwest Territories is a costly and time-consuming endeavour. Minimal baseline information exists on both caribou movements and land cover, and the complex relationships between the two are not well understood. Examination of the association between the spectral reflectance of satellite imagery and the locations of satellite-collared caribou in previous studies has revealed a strong relationship, suitable for predictive caribou habitat mapping without need for a land cover classification. The purpose of this study was to further explore this relationship, using MODIS Surface Reflectance 8-Day Level 3 500m imagery and Argos collared caribou locations; digital elevation data was also incorporated.
Locations for ten mountain woodland caribou of the Redstone herd were used to analyze the spectral classes of an unsupervised classification performed on a subset of two images. Neu’s method was used to determine which classes were preferred, used, and avoided by caribou. Locations were broken down into six seasons; analysis confirmed that habitat selection varied seasonally. The caribou appeared to represent two subherds with overlapping ranges; repeating the analysis for each concluded that pooling them for analysis purposes was valid.
The results of the analyses were used to create an overall classification and one for each of the six seasons, identifying areas of preferred and used habitat within the study area. Results were extrapolated to a larger area encompassing the Mackenzie and Selwyn Mountains. Evaluation through comparison of identified areas of preferred habitat to those described in previous studies showed the classification was successful at identifying overall and wintering habitat; the results for other seasons varied. Further refinement of this technique will provide wildlife managers with an effective method of habitat assessment at the landscape scale.
Monday, 04 May 2015 14:44
Predicting Mountain Woodland Caribou Habitat in the Mackenzie and Selwyn Mountains through Correlation of Argos Collar Locations and MODIS Spectral Reflectance
Additional Info
- Project: Predicting Mountain Woodland Caribou Habitat in the Mackenzie and Selwyn Mountains through Correlation of Argos Collar Locations and MODIS Spectral Reflectance
- Dataset Title: Predicting Mountain Woodland Caribou Habitat in the Mackenzie and Selwyn Mountains through Correlation of Argos Collar Locations and MODIS Spectral Reflectance
- Data Series: unknown
- Orginator: Tracy Creighton
- Institution Type: academic
- Author: Creighton, T
- Distributor: see originator
- Reports: Creighton, T. 2006. Predicting Mountain Woodland Caribou Habitat in the Mackenzie and Selwyn Mountains through Correlation of Argos Collar Locations and MODIS Spectral Reflectance. A thesis submitted to the School of Geography, Birkbeck College, University of London in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geographic Information Science, September 2006.
- Data Type: GIS
- Délı̨nę District: no
- K’asho Got’ı̨nę District: no
- Tulı́t’a District: yes
- Time Period: unknown
- Source Date: 2006
- Version: unknown
- Access Constraints: unknown
- Use Constraints: unknown
- Completion Status: complete
- Maintenance: unknown
- Maintenance Frequency: unknown
- Metadata Available: In thesis
- Metadata Contact: Tracy Creighton, via Sahtú GIS Office (Norman Wells) (867) 587-3519
- Spatial Extent: Redstone Herd
- Traditional Knowledge: no
- Wildlife: yes
- Habitat: yes
- Keywords: habitat, spectral analysis, caribou, modelling
- Data Category: raster
- Format: tiff
- File Name: unknown
- Scale: unknown
- Projection: Unknown
- Downloadable: no
Phone: 867-374-4040
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