Climate Change Impact on Quiver Trees in Arid Namibia and South Africa

摘要

To study the Quiver tree's response to recent climatic changes, samples of Quiver trees were collected from their distributional range in arid Namibia and South Africa. However, data uncertainty accompanied the sample collections as well, due to missing data in 2002 and 2008 data, and only a subset is surveyed in 2008. In this paper, we utilize the partially collected Quiver tree's sample data, 2002 and 2008 datasets, particularly, the total density of trees to evaluate the climate change impact on the Quiver tree's population. Based on our observations, we propose the habitat measure to catch up the closeness of the Quiver tree's population, which is later defining the habit distance of the tree's population. Once the missing values are completed, the evaluation of climate change can be performed. The predicted values together with the real sample values are very useful in examining climate change impact on the Quiver trees.