Abstract:
This research extends upon land cover change studies by incorporating
methodological approaches, which are compatible with heterogeneous ecosystems, are able
to link landscape changes to system processes, such as climate change, and provide
potential linkages to concepts of ecological resilience. The study region in southern Africa
experienced a significant climatic shift in the 1970s, resulting in drier conditions. The state
of these ecosystems and their response to such climatic shock is quantified in terms of
vegetation amount and heterogeneity. We monitor these characteristics pre- and
post-disturbance using a Landsat image series and examine the utility of continuous
characterizations of land cover for measuring ecosystem resilience. Land cover change is
evaluated using a mean-variance analysis in concert with a spatial persistence analysis.
This investigation indicates that although the impact of the decreased precipitation is
evident in the 1980s, recovery occurred by the 1990s and 2000s. We found the continuous
methodological approach used holds potential for studying heterogeneous landscapes
within a resilience framework.
