Constellation, le dépôt institutionnel de l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi

Résumé

Organisms inhabit a space that suits their needs; the structure and spatial arrangement of habitats constrain, and can potentially become predictors of, species distribution, abundance, and richness. In recent decades, the importance of mapping habitats has been increasingly recognized in ecological research and in contexts like conservation and management. This entry looks at geomatics-based habitat mapping approaches, i.e., approaches supported by the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remotely sensed data representing potential surrogates of species distribution, and spatial analysis. Characteristics of abiotic, single species, and community habitat maps are introduced and linked to three common approaches to habitat mapping: abiotic, top-down (unsupervised), and bottom-up (supervised) habitat mapping. Important considerations for habitat mapping, including scale and data quality, are also discussed: habitat maps are very sensitive to the decisions made by map producers, which highlights the need to remain critical of mapping outputs. Perspectives on the future of habitat mapping are provided, as geomatics-based habitat mapping is a relatively recent and rapidly evolving field. Advances in spatial sciences will help habitat map producers address the current challenges of their field and develop new approaches to improve understanding of habitat structure and function through habitat maps across all types of ecosystems.