Fabio Corsi

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Julian D Reynolds

Trinity College Dublin

Don Ross

University College Cork

Oliver P Richmond

The University of Manchester

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Jon R Sayers

The University of Sheffield

Gwen Robbins Schug

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Kevin Arbuckle

Swansea University

Simon Springer

The University of Newcastle

Gomaa Dawod

National Water Research center

Ian G Baird

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Papers by Fabio Corsi

Characterization and cartography of some Mediterranean soft-bottom benthic communities (Ligurian Sea, Italy)

Scientia Marina, 1998

Abstract Soft-bottom benthic communities were studied along the Western coast of the Ligurian Sea... more

Spatial and Activity Patterns of Wild Boars in Tuscany, Italy

Journal of Mammalogy, 1994

... Their po-tential impact on ecosystems can be partic-ularly critical in situations involving e... more

A databank for the conservation and management of the African mammals

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Distribution of medium- to large-sized African mammals based on habitat suitability models

Biodiversity and Conservation, 2008

The knowledge of the areas inhabited by a species within its distribution range and the connectio... more The knowledge of the areas inhabited by a species within its distribution range and the connections among patches are critical pieces of information for successful conservation actions. The internal structure of the extent of occurrence (EO) of a species is almost always unknown, even for “well-known” flagship species. We developed a methodology to infer the area of occupancy (AO) within the EO of a species using the limited available data. We present here the results of a three years project funded by European Union to develop high-resolution models of habitat suitability for 281 medium- to large-sized African mammals across the whole continent. The existing literature was reviewed and all data on the geographic distribution and environmental preferences of the selected species were collected. For each species, these data were then expressed in terms of key variables available as GIS layers at a resolution of 1 km2 over the entire African continent. The AO of each species was obtained merging the information on the ecological needs of the species and the values of ecological variables over the region identified as EO. The habitat suitability models were evaluated through direct field work in four countries (Morocco, Cameroon, Uganda, Botswana) chosen as representatives of the environmental and species diversity of Africa. More than 81% of models had positive true skill statistics (TSS) values, indicating models performing better than random. Rigorous modeling procedures supported by ad-hoc field evaluation allowed the production of high-resolution habitat suitability models useful for conservation applications.

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Applications of existing biodiversity information: capacity to support decision making

ITC Dissertation. 114, Oct 2004

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ESTIMATION OF LEAF AREA INDEX AND CHLOROPHYLL FOR A MEDITERRANEAN GRASSLAND USING HYPERSPECTRAL DATA

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Assessment of underwater light climate for Lake Dahuchi using field spectral data and Landsat TM

International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2010

A remote sensing approach is proposed in this paper for monitoring instantaneous underwater light... more A remote sensing approach is proposed in this paper for monitoring instantaneous underwater light climate in Dahuchi Lake, China. Water constituents that are optically significant to the lake water can be retrieved through this method based on an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm with a satisfactory accuracy. In this study, the ANN was trained by spectral simulations which were generated by a water colour simulation model (WASI). An underwater light attenuation model has been built by fitting the field measurements and applied to calculate photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) at the bottom of the lake from the inputs of hyperspectral reflectance above the water surface and the water depth. Results show that this method can predict the concentration of suspended particle matter (SPM) with a high accuracy and explain more than half of the underwater PAR variation with a standard deviation of 94.8 μmol s−1 m−2. In order to test the portability of the algorithm, it has also been extended to three bands of Landsat TM image. Compared with hyperspectral inputs, ANN with broadband inputs has lower but still acceptable accuracy on SPM retrieval. The advantage of this method lies in its time-efficient and cost-efficient monitoring of underwater light climate, i.e. the simulations generated by a semi-physical model can be used for ANN training, instead of using a large number of field measurements.

Possible effects of climate change on the distribution of large mammals in sub-Saharan Africa: a modelling study

Oecologia, 2004

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Geographical information system (GIS) applied to fisheries data: The case of Italian demersal resources

in Lleonart J. (ed.). Dynamique des populations marines Zaragoza : CIHEAM Cahiers Options Méditer... more

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Mapping shrub and tree species richness from hyperspectral imagery using a matched filtering unmixing technique

Science of The Total Environment, 2010

Dependence of large mammals in sub-Saharan Africa on water and water management : a literature review : report to the WWF

European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 2004

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African Mammals Databank - Methodology

… following Africa's lead in setting priorities

Nature, 2000

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Structure and spatio-temporal dynamics of artisanal fisheries around a Mediterranean marine protected area

Ices Journal of Marine Science, 2010

2010. Structure and spatio-temporal dynamics of artisanal fisheries around a Mediterranean marine... more

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Forest recovery in a tropical landscape: what is the relative importance of biophysical, socioeconomic, and landscape variables?

Landscape Ecology, 2009

Socioeconomic changes in many areas in the tropics have led to increasing urbanization, abandonme... more Socioeconomic changes in many areas in the tropics have led to increasing urbanization, abandonment of agriculture, and forest re-growth. Although these patterns are well documented, few studies have examined the drivers leading to landscape-level forest recovery and the resulting spatial structure of secondary forests. Land cover transitions from agricultural lands to secondary forest in the island of Puerto Rico have been ongoing since the 1940s. This study is a glimpse into this landscape level trend from 1991 to 2000. First, we relied on Landsat images to characterize changes in the landscape structure for forest, urban, and agricultural land classes. We found that although forest cover has increased in this period, forest has become increasingly fragmented while the area of urban cover has spread faster and become more clustered. Second, we used logistic regression to assess the relationship between the transition to forest and 21 biophysical, socioeconomic, and landscape variables. We found that the percentage of forest cover within a 100 m radius of a point, distance to primary roads and nature reserves, slope, and aspect are the most important predictors of forest recovery. The resulting model predicts the spatial pattern of forest recovery with accuracy (AUC-ROC = 0.798). Together, our results suggest that forest recovery in Puerto Rico has slowed down and that increasing pressure from urbanization may be critical in determining future landscape level forest recovery. These results are relevant to other areas in the tropics that are undergoing rapid economic development.

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Spatial-explicit assessment of current and future conservation options for the endangered Corsican Red Deer ( Cervus elaphus corsicanus ) in Sardinia

Biodiversity and Conservation, 2009

The Corsican red deer, a sub-species of the European red deer endemic to Sardinia and Corsica, wa... more The Corsican red deer, a sub-species of the European red deer endemic to Sardinia and Corsica, was abundant on both islands at the beginning of 1900. It went extinct in Corsica and reached a minimum of 100 individuals in Sardinia by 1970. Numbers have recovered in Sardinia with more than 1,000 rutting males now present; in the 1980s the deer was reintroduced to Corsica, but the Sardinian population remains fragmented. We developed a potential distribution model in Sardinia using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis. To assess the deer's protection status we compared the model with the existing and proposed conservation areas and investigated diVerent conservation scenarios in relation to the expansion of its current range and resilience to future changes in land use and predicted trends of desertiWcation. According to our results over 70% of Sardinia is unsuitable to the deer, nevertheless high suitability areas (Mediterranean forests away from main roads) are available throughout the island, particularly in the south and in the central-eastern part. Existing protected areas do not provide for the conservation of the deer but public owned forests, where hunting is prohibited, extend some level of protection, and the protected areas proposed by the Regional administration, if implemented, will be increasing this protection. Three main areas have emerged as conservation priorities to guarantee adequate conservation potential in the future. Our approach provides valuable data to inform conservation policy, and could be easily replicated in other parts of the Mediterranean.

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Distribution of medium- to large-sized African mammals based on habitat suitability models

Biodiversity and Conservation, 2008

The knowledge of the areas inhabited by a species within its distribution range and the connectio... more The knowledge of the areas inhabited by a species within its distribution range and the connections among patches are critical pieces of information for successful conservation actions. The internal structure of the extent of occurrence (EO) of a species is almost always unknown, even for ''well-known'' flagship species. We developed a methodology to infer the area of occupancy (AO) within the EO of a species using the limited available data. We present here the results of a three years project funded by European Union to develop high-resolution models of habitat suitability for 281 mediumto large-sized African mammals across the whole continent. The existing literature was reviewed and all data on the geographic distribution and environmental preferences of the selected species were collected. For each species, these data were then expressed in terms of key variables available as GIS layers at a resolution of 1 km 2 over the entire African continent. The AO of each species was obtained merging the information on the ecological needs of the species and the values of ecological variables over the region identified as EO. The habitat suitability models were evaluated through direct field work in four countries (Morocco, Cameroon, Uganda, Botswana) chosen as representatives of the environmental and species diversity of Africa. More than 81% of models had positive true skill statistics (TSS) values, indicating models performing better than random. Rigorous modeling procedures supported by ad-hoc field evaluation allowed the production of high-resolution habitat suitability models useful for conservation applications.

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Caracterización y cartografía de algunas comunidades bentónicas de fondos blandos (Mar de Liguria, Italia)

Scientia Marina, 1998

Abstract Soft-bottom benthic communities were studied along the Western coast of the Ligurian Sea... more

Use of satellite images for regional modelling of conservation areas for wolves in the Carpathian Mountains, central Europe

This study analysed the spatial structure of the Carpathian Mountains, in Central Europe, conside... more This study analysed the spatial structure of the Carpathian Mountains, in Central Europe, considering it a unit that extends across national boundaries, and assessing the suitability of areas were wolves could be conserved. Physical characteristics of the area were extracted from NOAA-AVHRR NDVI. A set of 9 images from different periods of the year was used to parameterise the phenological variability of the area. Digital maps of road networks, human settlements and a DEM were integrated in a GIS. Locations of wolf presence were used to extract "optimal" environmental characteristics that served as reference for estimating the degree of suitability over the whole area. Results show that most of the Carpathian Mountains are highly suitable for the wolf and that highly suitable areas are actually inhabited by the present population of wolf. These are also the area most phenologically stable.

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Spatial distribution of fishing effort: modellisation through deductive modelling

Spatial distribution of fishing effort within fishing grounds is an important piece of informatio... more Spatial distribution of fishing effort within fishing grounds is an important piece of information to assess the status of the fishery. Not only to address issues related to the exploitation of the resource applying traditional approaches developed within the field of fisheries biology; but also to address the growing concern which arises from the application of the IUCN threat criteria (IUCN, 1994) to fish populations. Unfortunately there are no satisfactory direct means to investigate the behaviour of a fishing fleet. And although some investigation is being conducted on new ways of controlling the movements of the fishing fleet (e.g. GPS localisation, remote sensing, aerial surveys) most of these efforts are still at their early stages. Recent proposals for a conceptual framework of GIS distribution models (e.g. Stoms et al., 1992; Norton and Possingham, 1993; Corsi et al., 1999) suggest that in situations of limited data availability a deductive modelling approach can provide interesting results, obviously within the constraints of the assumptions which underlay the model itself.

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