Geospatial Assessment of Forest Fragmentation and its Implications for Ecological Processes in Tropical Forests

Abstract

The study assessed the patterns of spatio-temporal configuration imposed on a forest landscape in Southwestern Nigeria due to fragmentation for the period 1986 – 2010 in order to understand the relationship between landscape patterns and the ecological processes influencing the distribution of species in tropical forest environment. Time-series Landsat TM and ETM satellite images and forest inventory data were pre-processed and classified into four landuse/landcover categories using maximum likelihood classification algorithm. Fragstats software was used for the computation of seven landscape and six class level metrics to provide indicators of fragmentation and landscape connectivity from the classified images.

Keywords

• deforestation
• conservation
• fragmentation
• connectivity
• biodiversity
• forest fragmentation
• biodiversity
• connectivity
• habitat loss
• landscape structure