Mapping the vegetation of the ultramafic outcrops of Saddle Hills (North Andaman Islands, India) using remote-sensing tools
Krishna Chaudhury A D , Suman Dutta B and Prasanta Mukherjee C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Botany, Dinabandhu Andrews College, 54, Raja S. C. Mullick Road, Garia, Kolkata 700084, India.
B Department of Botany, Serampore College, Serampore, Hooghly 712201, India.
C Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700019, India.
D Corresponding author. Email: krishna_chaudhury@yahoo.com
Australian Journal of Botany 63(4) 234-242 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT14243
Submitted: 25 September 2014 Accepted: 16 May 2015 Published: 15 June 2015
Abstract
Saddle Peak (734 m asl) is the highest peak of North Andaman in the Andaman group of islands of India and is reported to be an ultramafic massif. To map the forest vegetation and to identify the species association in this otherwise inaccessible topography, several remote-sensing (RS) tools were used. In standard false colour composite (FCC) satellite image, the area showed smooth texture and bright tone owing to uniform height of the trees and close canopy cover, caused by low variability of the spectral signature. Ratioed images were found useful for discrimination of brightness variation in the slopes between the two bands involved. Vegetation analyses revealed that thick dwarf shrubby trees cover this ultramafic outcrop on the top of Saddle Hills, termed here as ‘stunted evergreen forests.’
Additional keywords: phytosociology, RS analyses, serpentine vegetation.
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