Walia Special Edition on the Bale Mountains (2011) - Zoologische ...

Where sufficient ground-truthing samples were available, class clustering in the distance
dendrogram could be explained by the dominance of particular species, the degree of soil
waterlogging, the coverage of rock/open water/vegetation, vegetation height, or topography (altitude/
slope/illumination, Table 2).
Table 2. Topographic characteristics and survey sample sizes of land cover classes.
See Table 3 for class names.
Vegetation surveys
Class
Median altitude
(m)
Mean slope
(°)
Mean illumination
Cos(θ ) i
Point
samples
A 3779 16.0 0.43 6
B 3711 11.3 0.56 24
C 3654 12.7 0.57 51
D 3793 10.8 0.54 11
E 3780 8.2 0.62 39
F 3973 7.6 0.57 307
G 4088 6.6 0.61 197
H 4089 5.3 0.62 238
I 4079 5.0 0.63 432
J 4102 3.5 0.61 343
K 3506 14.5 0.68 22
L 3743 11.2 0.67 21
M 3560 18.2 0.76 4
N 3890 5.6 0.66 99
O 3808 11.6 0.70 14
P 3730 7.1 0.61 122
q 3530 8.3 0.59 140
R 3577 9.5 0.67 99
S 3694 5.9 0.62 263
T 3698 6.0 0.64 271
U 3490 5.9 0.63 831
V 3539 4.3 0.62 1148
W 3444 12.7 0.68 70
Total 4752
We recorded 16,672 plants in 45 taxa, of which 82% were identified to species level and a further
7% to genus level. Unidentified plants comprised only 1.1% of the dataset, and the remainder were
assigned to the broad classes of grasses, mosses and lichens.
Seasonal differences were observed in the degree of open water (contingency table: Χ = 35.6,
2
p < 0.001, n = 4104), with more in the wet season (3.2% cover versus 0.7% in the dry season). No
differences were found in the percent cover of earth or rock substrate between seasons. A greater
proportion of the vegetation was recorded as alive or actively growing in the wet season (76.9%
versus 43.4% in the dry season, Χ = 395.5, p < 0.001, n = 3614).
1
Differences between land cover classes
Most land cover classes could also be distinguished from their nearest neighbour using the quantitative
survey data. Exceptions were classes A, B and C from each other, classes K, L and M from each
<strong>Walia</strong>-<strong>Special</strong> <strong>Edition</strong> on the Bale Mountains 104