Mapping floristic communities in Southern Africa savannas, Mozambique

Abstract

The present study was carried out in Limpopo National Park (LNP) with the objective to map floristic communities that occur inside the park. Three (3) Landsat 8 satellite images were obtained by Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) tools and were pre-processed and classified, culminating in six (6) types of land use and cover. The floristic survey consisted of stratified sampling in three (3) main LNP landscapes types, namely landscape of limestone soils, landscape of rhyolite shallow soils and landscape of deep sandy soils. The final map presents 13 floristic communities identified by the names of greatest value of ecological importance (IVI) species. The community of Terminalia sericea / Combretum apiculatum / Guibourtia conjugata / Colophospermum mopane presented a larger occurrence area. Colophospermum mopane was the most representative species among the mapped communities, mostly occurring in association with other species. The overall accuracy was 74% and the Kappa index was 68%, thus giving a good rating. The mapping also showed that human occupied areas are larger than some floristic communities areas, so we suggest that these smaller communities, should be given priority actions for their conservation, especially those without human occupation.