KIT | KIT-Bibliothek | Impressum | Datenschutz

Predicting woody species assemblages using ecophylogenetics and Earth observation data

Wellenbeck, Alexander ; Hein, Nils; Tarkhnishvili, David; Misof, Bernhard; Schmidtlein, Sebastian ORCID iD icon 1; Janiashvili, Zurab; Dzadzamia, Lasha; Feilhauer, Hannes
1 Institut für Geographie und Geoökologie (IFGG), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

Abstract:

Organizing species assemblages based on compositional characteristics enables the identification of ecologically meaningful patterns in biodiversity and supports forest diversity monitoring, conservation, and management. In this context, ecophylogenetics offers powerful opportunities by exploring how evolutionary relationships between species reflect community distributions within ecological space. Using national forest inventory data of Georgia (Sakartvelo), we classify woody species assemblages based on interspecies phylogenetic dissimilarity and evaluated whether cluster membership could be predicted from multivariate Earth observation data describing site-specific environmental conditions. Principal components of 30 explanatory variables were used to model class membership across three sample groups with increasing disturbance levels. Prediction accuracy reached 53.6 % (OOB error 46.4 %) for undisturbed samples, 67.5 % for disturbed (OOB 32.5 %), and 45.7 % for disturbed samples with neophytes (OOB 54.3 %), based on 12, 6, and 5 clusters, respectively. The decline in classification accuracy with increasing disturbance reflects compositional homogenization and a weakened alignment of the phylogenetic signal with environmental gradients. ... mehr


Verlagsausgabe §
DOI: 10.5445/IR/1000182558
Veröffentlicht am 27.06.2025
Cover der Publikation
Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT Institut für Geographie und Geoökologie (IFGG)
Publikationstyp Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Publikationsmonat/-jahr 08.2025
Sprache Englisch
Identifikator ISSN: 0378-1127, 1872-7042
KITopen-ID: 1000182558
Erschienen in Forest Ecology and Management
Verlag Elsevier
Band 589
Seiten 122763
Nachgewiesen in Dimensions
Web of Science
OpenAlex
Scopus
Globale Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung Ziel 12 – Nachhaltiger Konsum und ProduktionZiel 15 – Leben an Land
KIT – Die Universität in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
KITopen Landing Page