基于SolVES模型的关中-天水经济区生态系统文化服务评估

随着人类对于生态系统服务的需求持续增加,生态系统服务的评估逐渐成为研究热点。其中文化服务因其自身的无形性常在研究中被忽视且难以衡量。选取关中-天水经济区为研究区域,应用Sol VES模型并生成5种价值指数地图和价值总和地图来评估该区域生态系统的文化服务。结果表明:审美价值在秦岭山脉和城市公园等区域较高;娱乐价值在娱乐机会较多、交通便利的城市和秦岭北麓区域更高;文化与历史价值集中在历史文化底蕴深厚的城市地区;精神价值在与城市距离较近、有山川分布的森林公园更高。Sol VES模型在大范围区域的应用取得了较好的效果同时为政府进行生态建设和规划提供了科学依据。     

From instantaneous to continuous: Using imaging spectroscopy and in situ data to map two productivity-related ecosystem services

Spatially well-informed decisions are essential to sustain and regulate processes and ecosystem services (ES), and to maintain the capacity of ecosystems to supply services. However, spatially explicit ES information is often lacking in decision-making, or exists only as ES maps based on categorical land cover data. Remote sensing (RS) opens new pathways to map ES, in particular biophysical ES supply. We developed an observation-based concept for spatially explicit and continuous ES mapping at landscape scale following the biophysical part of the ES cascade. We used Earth observations in combination with in situ data to map ecosystem properties, functions, and biophysical ES supply. We applied this concept in a case study to map two ES: carbon dioxide regulation and food supply. Based on Earth observations and in situ data, we determined the ecosystem property Sun-Induced chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) to indicate ecosystem state and applied scaling models to estimate gross primary production (GPP) as indicator for ecosystem functioning and consequently carbon dioxide regulation and food supply as ES.Resulting ES maps showed heterogeneous patterns in ES supply within and among ecosystems, which were particularly evident within forests and grasslands. All investigated land cover classes were sources of CO₂, with averages ranging from ‐66 to ‐748 g C m^‐2 yr^‐1, after considering the harvest of total above ground biomass of crops and the storage organ, except for forest being a sink of CO₂ with an average of 105 g C m^‐2 yr^‐1. Estimated annual GPP was related to food supply with a maize grain yield average of 9.5 t ha^‐1 yr^‐1 and a sugar beet root yield of 110 t ha^‐1 yr^‐1. Validation with in situ measurements from flux towers and literature values revealed a good performance of our approach for food supply (relative RMSE of less than 23%), but also some over- and underestimations for carbon dioxide regulation. Our approach demonstrated how RS can contribute to spatially explicit and continuous ES cascade mapping and suggest that this information could be useful for environmental assessments and decision-making in spatial planning and conservation.     

SolVES模型价值转移方法对不同空间尺度的响应评估

随着人类对生态系统服务压力的不断增加,生态系统服务社会价值的评估变得至关重要。利用SolVES模型将太白山国家森林公园的社会价值转移到牛背梁国家森林公园和秦岭山地,评估两者的社会价值并探讨不同尺度下转移结果的差异。结果表明:1)牛背梁国家森林公园游憩价值指数与高程负相关,美学价值指数与高程正相关,羚牛谷山水观光游憩区的游憩价值较高,高山风光区的美学价值较高;2)秦岭山地的游憩价值与高程正相关,美学价值与高程负相关,森林公园的游憩价值较高,山地整体美学价值指数偏低;3)秦岭山地的社会价值集中于高程1000—2000m、坡度25°—35°处,而牛背梁国家森林公园的社会价值分布规律不明显;4)不同尺度下相同的转移模型输出的转移结果与环境变量的关系存在差异。SolVES模型的价值转移子模型是一个可以进行生态系统服务社会价值评估的快速有效的工具,但应根据需求精度选择合适的统计模型。     

On the importance of taking into account agricultural practices when defining conservation priorities for regional planning

Conserving biodiversity in managed landscapes requires the definition of spatial conservation priorities. The systematic conservation planning tools which are used to define these conservation priorities, assess the vulnerability of different locations by combining two different elements: some measurement of the biological assets in question, and some measurement of the key processes which threaten these biological assets. For instance, in cumulative impact mapping, maps of individual human activities that impact ecosystems (hereafter referred to as ‘stressor’ for individual maps and ‘cumulative stressor’ for combined maps) are overlaid with maps of ecosystem vulnerability, in order to estimate the overall ecological impact of human activities on natural ecosystems. These tools are appealing because they are easy to use and inform regional land planning. However, given that once these spatial conservation priorities are defined they potentially have far-reaching consequences, there is a need to test their robustness and reliability. Here we propose to investigate how the uncertainties related to the estimation of a cumulative stressor layer affect the definition of spatial conservation priorities. We conduct a sensitivity analysis of the different ways of estimating major stressors related to human activities (transport, urbanization and population) with a specific focus on agriculture. We show that spatial conservation priorities are little sensitive to most of the parameters and input data used to estimate the cumulative stressor map. In particular, they are not very sensitive to changes in spatially overlapping stressors, i.e. those which overlap spatially with other stressors. However, our analyses also reveal that spatial conservation priorities are highly sensitive to how the agriculture stressor is defined. These results highlight the importance of better understanding how agricultural activities impact biodiversity and establishing how more accurate information on agricultural practices can be used to define spatial conservation priorities.     

Crowdsourcing indicators for cultural ecosystem services: A geographically weighted approach for mountain landscapes

Integrating cultural dimensions into the ecosystem service framework is essential for appraising non-material benefits stemming from different human–environment interactions. This study investigates how the actual provision of cultural services is distributed across the landscape according to spatially varying relationships. The final aim was to analyse how landscape settings are associated to people's preferences and perceptions related to cultural ecosystem services in mountain landscapes. We demonstrated a spatially explicit method based on geo-tagged images from popular social media to assess revealed preferences. A spatially weighted regression showed that specific variables correspond to prominent drivers of cultural ecosystem services at the local scale. The results of this explanatory approach can be used to integrate the cultural service dimension into land planning by taking into account specific benefiting areas and by setting priorities on the ecosystems and landscape characteristics which affect the service supply. We finally concluded that the use of crowdsourced data allows identifying spatial patterns of cultural ecosystem service preferences and their association with landscape settings.     

Vulnerability of the global terrestrial ecosystems to climate change

Climate change has far‐reaching impacts on ecosystems. Recent attempts to quantify such impacts focus on measuring exposure to climate change but largely ignore ecosystem resistance and resilience, which may also affect the vulnerability outcomes. In this study, the relative vulnerability of global terrestrial ecosystems to short‐term climate variability was assessed by simultaneously integrating exposure, sensitivity, and resilience at a high spatial resolution (0.05°). The results show that vulnerable areas are currently distributed primarily in plains. Responses to climate change vary among ecosystems and deserts and xeric shrublands are the most vulnerable biomes. Global vulnerability patterns are determined largely by exposure, while ecosystem sensitivity and resilience may exacerbate or alleviate external climate pressures at local scales; there is a highly significant negative correlation between exposure and sensitivity. Globally, 61.31% of the terrestrial vegetated area is capable of mitigating climate change impacts and those areas are concentrated in polar regions, boreal forests, tropical rainforests, and intact forests. Under current sensitivity and resilience conditions, vulnerable areas are projected to develop in high Northern Hemisphere latitudes in the future. The results suggest that integrating all three aspects of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity, and resilience) may offer more comprehensive and spatially explicit adaptation strategies to reduce the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems.     

A multiscale analysis of ecosystem services supply in the NW Iberian Peninsula from a functional perspective

In recent years, the assessment of ecosystem services (ES) supply has been based on the use of Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) data as proxies for spatial representation of ecosystems. Nevertheless, some shortcomings of this method, such as uncertainties derived from generalization of the ecosystem types and assumptions of invariance across spatial scales, indicate the need for new approaches. Such approaches could be aimed at improving knowledge of the relationships between ecosystem services and landscape structure and the spatial characteristics of ES patterns. In this study, we propose an integrative approach that involves the generation and analysis of continuous maps representing the supply of five ES potentially related to the amount of biomass. Five remote sensing images of the Northwestern Iberian Peninsula, obtained with Landsat-5 TM, were used to generate a proxy for net primary production by combining the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of each image to calculate a ΣNDVI index that could act as a potential indicator of some ecosystem services. This information was combined with three variables – terrain slope, population density and occurrence of protected areas – to produce spatial models for the five ES and eventually a series of five supply maps. Food, materials and energy provision services showed a clustered pattern, with high supply values in flat zones and areas with high population densities. In contrast, mass flow and climate regulation services were more widely distributed throughout the study area. The five ecosystem service patterns were analyzed at different scales by two methods: lacunarity and four term local quadrat variance (4TLQV) analysis. These methods revealed differences in the spatial pattern: lacunarity analysis was useful for detection of scale thresholds at the local level, whereas 4TLQV was more sensitive to scale thresholds at larger spatial levels. Thus, the variance analysis yielded higher values for larger windows sizes, particularly for provisioning services. The results demonstrated the suitability of the proposed approach for the spatially explicit modeling of ecosystem services, avoiding the uncertainty of other assessments such as those based on LULC data, and for the exploratory analysis of ES supply from a spatial point of view.     

基于SolVES模型的生态系统服务社会价值评估——以吴淞炮台湾湿地森林公园为例

人类活动对生态系统不同服务的多样化需求日益增长,传统的生态系统服务价值评估实践多以经济学方法为主,较少关注社会属性和空间异质性.本文选取上海市吴淞炮台湾湿地森林公园作为研究对象,采用SolVES模型对其美学、生物多样性、文化、娱乐等服务的社会价值进行量化和空间分析.结果表明: 公园的热点区域集中在草坪乐园、吴淞炮台纪念广场、临江观景台等视野开阔或临近水景观的区域;游客对公园内美学、历史、生物多样性、娱乐、文化、康体健身价值较为偏好;水景观和路网布局影响游客对不同社会价值的偏好程度,美学、生物多样性、娱乐和康体健身价值高低与距水体远近在一定范围内呈显著负相关关系,美学和康体健身价值高低与距道路远近呈显著负相关关系;游憩频率影响游客对生物多样性价值和康体健身价值的感受及偏好;SolVES模型在评估中小尺度生态系统服务社会价值方面具有较好的可行性.     

Spatially balanced sampling and ground‐level imagery for vegetation monitoring on reclaimed well pads

Land reclamation associated with natural gas development has become increasingly important to mitigate land surface disturbance in western North America. Since well pads occur on sites with multiple land use and ownership, the progress and outcomes of these efforts are of interest to multiple stakeholders including industry, practitioners and consultants, regulatory agents, private landowners, and the scientific community. Reclamation success criteria often vary within, and among, government agencies and across land ownership type. Typically, reclamation success of a well pad is judged by comparing vegetation cover from a single transect on the pad to a single transect in an adjacent reference site and data are collected by a large number of technicians with various field monitoring skills. We utilized “SamplePoint” image analysis software and a spatially balanced sampling design, called balanced acceptance sampling, to demonstrate how spatially explicit quantitative data can be used to determine if sites are meeting various reclamation success criteria and used chi‐square tests to show how sites in vegetation percent cover differ from a statistical standpoint. This method collects field data faster than traditional methods. We demonstrate how quantitative and spatially explicit data can be utilized by multiple stakeholders, how it can improve upon current reference site selection, how it can satisfy reclamation monitoring requirements for multiple regulatory agencies, how it may help improve future seed mix selection, and discuss how it may reduce costs for operations responsible for reclamation and how it may reduce observer bias.     

On the Effects of Scale for Ecosystem Services Mapping

Ecosystems provide life-sustaining services upon which human civilization depends, but their degradation largely continues unabated. Spatially explicit information on ecosystem services (ES) provision is required to better guide decision making, particularly for mountain systems, which are characterized by vertical gradients and isolation with high topographic complexity, making them particularly sensitive to global change. But while spatially explicit ES quantification and valuation allows the identification of areas of abundant or limited supply of and demand for ES, the accuracy and usefulness of the information varies considerably depending on the scale and methods used. Using four case studies from mountainous regions in Europe and the U.S., we quantify information gains and losses when mapping five ES - carbon sequestration, flood regulation, agricultural production, timber harvest, and scenic beauty - at coarse and fine resolution (250 m vs. 25 m in Europe and 300 m vs. 30 m in the U.S.). We analyze the effects of scale on ES estimates and their spatial pattern and show how these effects are related to different ES, terrain structure and model properties. ES estimates differ substantially between the fine and coarse resolution analyses in all case studies and across all services. This scale effect is not equally strong for all ES. We show that spatially explicit information about non-clustered, isolated ES tends to be lost at coarse resolution and against expectation, mainly in less rugged terrain, which calls for finer resolution assessments in such contexts. The effect of terrain ruggedness is also related to model properties such as dependency on land use-land cover data. We close with recommendations for mapping ES to make the resulting maps more comparable, and suggest a four-step approach to address the issue of scale when mapping ES that can deliver information to support ES-based decision making with greater accuracy and reliability.     

Estimating carbon carrying capacity in natural forest ecosystems across heterogeneous landscapes: addressing sources of error

Evaluating contributions of forest ecosystems to climate change mitigation requires well‐calibrated carbon cycle models with quantified baseline carbon stocks. An appropriate baseline for carbon accounting of natural forests at landscape scales is carbon carrying capacity (CCC); defined as the mass of carbon stored in an ecosystem under prevailing environmental conditions and natural disturbance regimes but excluding anthropogenic disturbance. Carbon models require empirical measurements for input and calibration, such as net primary production (NPP) and total ecosystem carbon stock (equivalent to CCC at equilibrium). We sought to improve model calibration by addressing three sources of errors that cause uncertainty in carbon accounting across heterogeneous landscapes: (1) data‐model representation, (2) data‐object representation, (3) up‐scaling. We derived spatially explicit empirical models based on environmental variables across landscape scales to estimate NPP (based on a synthesis of global site data of NPP and gross primary productivity, n=27), and CCC (based on site data of carbon stocks in natural eucalypt forests of southeast Australia, n=284). The models significantly improved predictions, each accounting for 51% of the variance. Our methods to reduce uncertainty in baseline carbon stocks, such as using appropriate calibration data from sites with minimal human disturbance, measurements of large trees and incorporating environmental variability across the landscape, have generic application to other regions and ecosystem types. These analyses resulted in forest CCC in southeast Australia (mean total biomass of 360 t C ha^?1, with cool moist temperate forests up to 1000 t C ha^?1) that are larger than estimates from other national and international (average biome 202 t C ha^?1) carbon accounting systems. Reducing uncertainty in estimates of carbon stocks in natural forests is important to allow accurate accounting for losses of carbon due to human activities and sequestration of carbon by forest growth.     

Assessing the Permeability of Landscape Features to Animal Movement: Using Genetic Structure to Infer Functional Connectivity

Human-altered environments often challenge native species with a complex spatial distribution of resources. Hostile landscape features can inhibit animal movement (i.e., genetic exchange), while other landscape attributes facilitate gene flow. The genetic attributes of organisms inhabiting such complex environments can reveal the legacy of their movements through the landscape. Thus, by evaluating landscape attributes within the context of genetic connectivity of organisms within the landscape, we can elucidate how a species has coped with the enhanced complexity of human altered environments. In this research, we utilized genetic data from eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) in conjunction with spatially explicit habitat attribute data to evaluate the realized permeability of various landscape elements in a fragmented agricultural ecosystem. To accomplish this we 1) used logistic regression to evaluate whether land cover attributes were most often associated with the matrix between or habitat within genetically identified populations across the landscape, and 2) utilized spatially explicit habitat attribute data to predict genetically-derived Bayesian probabilities of population membership of individual chipmunks in an agricultural ecosystem. Consistency between the results of the two approaches with regard to facilitators and inhibitors of gene flow in the landscape indicate that this is a promising new way to utilize both landscape and genetic data to gain a deeper understanding of human-altered ecosystems.     

基于SolVES模型的生态系统文化服务价值评估——以浙江省武义县南部生态公园为例

文化服务是一种重要的生态系统服务类型,也是连接生态系统和社会系统的重要桥梁。以浙江省武义县南部生态公园为研究对象,以规划应用为导向,以Sol VES模型为基础,以专家调查法为补充,以价值指数(VI)评估生态系统文化服务价值,结果表明:(1)武义县南部生态公园中部及北部生态系统文化服务价值较高,东北部存在一条价值较高的生态系统文化服务带;(2)牛头山、延福寺、柳城畲族镇—十里荷花等是生态系统文化服务价值较高的热点地区;(3)受访专家认为美学、文化遗产、康养、消遣娱乐价值较为重要,教育、宗教与精神价值重要程度相对较低;(4)6种生态系统文化服务价值均与距道路、水体距离呈负相关关系,林地对应的VI范围最广,农田、水域对应的VI相对较高。将评估结果应用于武义县南部生态公园总体规划,为其提出空间布局与环境要素改善等方面的建议。通过本研究发现,SolVES模型与专家调查法相结合是一种适用于规划应用的文化服务价值评估方法,可为管理决策提供知识和技术支持。     

Aquatic biodiversity in forests: a weak link in ecosystem services resilience

The diversity of aquatic ecosystems is being quickly reduced on many continents, warranting a closer examination of the consequences for ecological integrity and ecosystem services. Here we describe intermediate and final ecosystem services derived from aquatic biodiversity in forests. We include a summary of the factors framing the assembly of aquatic biodiversity in forests in natural systems and how they change with a variety of natural disturbances and human-derived stressors. We consider forested aquatic ecosystems as a multi-state portfolio, with diverse assemblages and life-history strategies occurring at local scales as a consequence of a mosaic of habitat conditions and past disturbances and stressors. Maintaining this multi-state portfolio of assemblages requires a broad perspective of ecosystem structure, various functions, services, and management implications relative to contemporary stressors. Because aquatic biodiversity provides multiple ecosystem services to forests, activities that compromise aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity could be an issue for maintaining forest ecosystem integrity. We illustrate these concepts with examples of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem services in forests of northwestern North America, also known as Northeast Pacific Rim. Encouraging management planning at broad as well as local spatial scales to recognize multi-state ecosystem management goals has promise for maintaining valuable ecosystem services. Ultimately, integration of information from socio-ecological ecosystems will be needed to maintain ecosystem services derived directly and indirectly from forest aquatic biota.     

Cultural ecosystem services of mountain regions: Modelling the aesthetic value

Mountain regions meet an increasing demand for pleasant landscapes, offering many cultural ecosystem services to both their residents and tourists. As a result of global change, land managers and policy makers are faced with changes to this landscape and need efficient evaluation techniques to assess cultural ecosystem services. This study provides a spatially explicit modelling approach to estimating aesthetic landscape values by relating spatial landscape patterns to human perceptions via a photo-based survey. The respondents attributed higher aesthetic values to the Alpine landscape in respect to areas with settlements, infrastructure or intensive agricultural use. The aesthetic value of two study areas in the Central Alps (Stubai Valley, Austria and Vinschgau, Italy) was modelled for 10,215 viewpoints along hiking trails according to current land cover and a scenario considering the spontaneous reforestation of abandoned land. Viewpoints with high aesthetic values were mainly located at high altitude, allowing long vistas, and included views of lakes or glaciers, and the lowest values were for viewpoints close to streets and in narrow valleys with little view. The aesthetic values of the reforestation scenario decreased mainly at higher altitudes, but the whole area was affected, reducing aesthetic value by almost 10% in Stubai Valley and 15% in Vinschgau. Our proposed modelling approach allows the estimation of aesthetic values in spatial and qualitative terms for most viewpoints in the European Alps. The resulting maps can be used as information and the basis for discussion by stakeholders, to support the decision-making process and landscape planning. This paper also discusses the role of mountain farming in preserving an attractive landscape and related cultural values.     

Slow Recovery from Local Disturbances as an Indicator for Loss of Ecosystem Resilience

A range of indicators have been proposed for identifying the elevated risk of critical transitions in ecosystems. Most indicators are based on the idea that critical slowing down can be inferred from changes in statistical properties of natural fluctuations and spatial patterns. However, identifying these signals in nature has remained challenging. An alternative approach is to infer changes in resilience from differences in standardized experimental perturbations. However, system-wide experimental perturbations are rarely feasible. Here we evaluate the potential to infer the risk of large-scale systemic transitions from local experimental or natural perturbations. We use models of spatially explicit landscapes to illustrate how recovery rates upon small-scale perturbations decrease as an ecosystem approaches a tipping point for a large-scale collapse. We show that the recovery trajectory depends on: (1) the resilience of the ecosystem at large scale, (2) the dispersal rate of organisms, and (3) the scale of the perturbation. In addition, we show that recovery of natural disturbances in a heterogeneous environment can potentially function as an indicator of resilience of a large-scale ecosystem. Our analyses reveal fundamental differences between large-scale weak and local-scale strong perturbations, leading to an overview of opportunities and limitations of the use of local disturbance-recovery experiments.     

基于遥感降尺度估算中国森林生物量的空间分布

森林生物量是陆地生态系统重要的碳库,其大小与空间分布特征直接影响森林的碳汇潜力。基于空间降尺度技术,以中国第六次国家森林资源清查资料为基础,同时结合1∶100万植被分布图及同期的基于MODIS反演的NPP空间分布,定量估算了1 km分辨率下我国森林生物量的空间分布。结果表明:(1)降尺度技术能有效结合遥感数据的空间特征与地面详查资料的统计特征,从而较好地解决当前生物量估算的区域尺度转化问题;(2)我国森林生物量存在明显的空间分布规律,与水热条件的空间分布格局基本一致,表现为西部较低东部较高,大型山脉分布处较高;(3)我国森林生物量总量11.0 Pg,平均生物量74.8 Mg/hm2,其中高值区主要集中在东北大小兴安岭和长白山地区、新疆山区、西南横断山脉地区以及东南武夷山地区。     

An empirical review of cultural ecosystem service indicators

Over millennia human well-being has benefited from ecosystems, not only through tangible goods, but also through intangible assets known as cultural ecosystem services. Despite growing research over the last decade, cultural services assessment still remains arbitrary and is largely limited to marketable services such as tourism. Evident difficulties in standardizing definitions and measurements have challenged cultural services accounting in decision making processes. However, the imminent formation of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services offers an opportunity to counterbalance this misrepresentation by establishing a scientific basis for consistently assessing cultural services. In that regard, the current review intends to facilitate discussion investigating the current state of cultural services accounting by offering an appraisal of existing evidence regarding cultural services indicator quality. The review builds on scientifically recognized frameworks to develop a holistic understanding of how cultural services indicators are conceived within ecosystem services research. Among the measures found, benefit indicators were most frequently used for assessing inspirational, educational and recreational services. A broad variety of methods for accounting cultural services was found, mainly due to the varied aims of the studies. Most of the cultural services indicators were deficient concerning their clarity of definitions, purposes and understanding of the processes to be measured and referring only marginally to tradeoffs and bundles with other services. Only 17% performed multitemporal assessments and 23% used spatially explicit information. It seems that indicator quality could be greatly enhanced by investing more effort toward involving relevant stakeholders in conceptualization and communication phases, using participatory mapping tools to enhance visibility.     

A theory for ecological survey methods to map individual distributions

Spatially explicit approaches are widely recommended for ecosystem management. The quality of the data, such as presence/absence or habitat maps, affects the management actions recommended and is, therefore, key to management success. However, available data are often biased and incomplete. Previous studies have advanced ways to resolve data bias and missing data, but questions remain about how we design ecological surveys to develop a dataset through field surveys. Ecological surveys may have multiple spatial scales, including the spatial extent of the target ecosystem (observation window), the resolution for mapping individual distributions (mapping unit), and the survey area within each mapping unit (sampling unit). We developed an ecological survey method for mapping individual distributions by applying spatially explicit stochastic models. We used spatial point processes to describe individual spatial placements using either random or clustering processes. We then designed ecological surveys with different spatial scales and individual detectability. We found that the choice of mapping unit affected the presence mapped fraction, and the fraction of the total individuals covered by the presence mapped patches. Tradeoffs were found between these quantities and the map resolution, associated with equivalent asymptotic behaviors for both metrics at sufficiently small and large mapping unit scales. Our approach enabled consideration of the effect of multiple spatial scales in surveys, and estimation of the survey outcomes such as the presence mapped fraction and the number of individuals situated in the presence detected units. The developed theory may facilitate management decision-making and inform the design of monitoring and data gathering.     

Ecosystem classification and inventory maps as surrogates for ground beetle assemblages in boreal forest

Aims We compare performance of ecosystem classification maps and provincial forest inventory data derived from air photography in reflecting ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) biodiversity patterns that are related to the forest canopy mosaic. Our biodiversity surrogacy model based on remotely sensed tree canopy cover is validated against field-collected ground data.Methods We used a systematic sampling grid of 198 sites, covering 84 km 2 of boreal mixedwood forest in northwestern Alberta, Canada. For every site, we determined tree basal area, characterized the ground beetle assemblage and obtained corresponding provincial forest inventory and ecosystem classification information. We used variation partitioning, ordination and misclassification matrices to compare beetle biodiversity patterns explained by alternative databases and to determine model biases originating from air photo-interpretation.Important findings Ecosystem classification data performed better than canopy cover derived from forest inventory maps in describing ground beetle biodiversity patterns. The biodiversity surrogacy models based on provincial forest inventory maps and field survey generally detected similar patterns but inaccuracies in air photo-interpretation of relative canopy cover led to differences between the two models. Compared to field survey data, air photo-interpretation tended to confuse two Picea species and two Populus species present and homogenize stand mixtures. This generated divergence in models of ecological association used to predict the relationship between ground beetle assemblages and tree canopy cover. Combination of relative canopy cover from provincial inventory with other geo-referenced land variables to produce the ecosystem classification maps improved biodiversity predictive power. The association observed between uncommon surrogates and uncommon ground beetle species emphasizes the benefits of detecting these surrogates as a part of landscape management. In order to complement conservation efforts established in protected areas, accurate, high resolution, wide ranging and spatially explicit knowledge of landscapes under management is primordial in order to apply effective biodiversity conservation strategies at the stand level as required in the extensively harvested portion of the boreal forest. In development of these strategies, an in-depth understanding of vegetation is key.