Spatially explicit modeling and prediction of shrub cover increase near Umiujaq, Nunavik
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract A circumpolar increase in shrub growth and cover has been underway in Arctic and subarctic ecosystems for the last few decades, but there is considerable spatial heterogeneity in this shrubification process. Although topography, hydrology, and edaphic factors are known to influence shrubification patterns, a better understanding of the landscape‐scale factors driving this phenomenon is needed to accurately predict its impacts on ecosystem function. In this study, we generated land cover change models in order to identify variables driving shrub cover increase near Umiujaq (Québec, Canada). Using land cover maps from 1990/1994 and 2010, we modeled observed changes using two contrasting conceptual approaches: binomial modeling of transitions to shrub dominance and multinomial modeling of all land cover transitions. Models were used to generate spatially explicit predictions of transition to shrub dominance in the near future as well as long‐term predictions of the abundance of different land cover types. Model predictions were validated using both field data and current Landsat‐derived trends of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) increase in the region in order to assess their consistency with observed patterns of change. We found that both variables related to topography and to vegetation were useful in modeling land cover changes occurring near Umiujaq. Shrubs tended to preferentially colonize low‐elevation areas and moderate slopes, while their cover was more likely to increase in the vicinity of existing shrub patches. Deterministic realizations of the spatially explicit models of land cover change had a good predictive capability, although they performed better at predicting the proportion of different cover types than at predicting the precise location of the changes. Binomial models performed as well as multinomial models, indicating that neglecting land cover changes other than shrubification does not result in decreased prediction accuracy. The predicted probabilities of shrub increase in the region were consistent with patterns of change inferred from field data, but only partly supported by recent local increases in NDVI. Our findings increase the current understanding of the factors driving shrubification, while warranting further research on its impacts on ecosystem function and on the link between land cover changes and shifts in remotely sensed vegetation indices.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".