Estimating and mapping pteridophyte and Melastomataceae species richness in western Amazonian rainforests

摘要: We used Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data, field inventories and the k nearest neighbours (k‐nn) estimation method to estimate local species richness of pteridophytes Melastomataceae in different ecological taxonomical groups an area ca 670 km2 primary rainforest Amazonian Ecuador. tested spectral spatial features a satellite image weighting features. To validate our estimates, we leave‐one‐out cross‐validation, independent test dataset, estimates based on randomly selected neighbours. The numbers taxonomic were estimated less accurately than groups. categories also more neighbours, except for floodplain forest. Most variables produced patterns which followed edaphic topographical variation study area. showed...