Advanced Approaches to the Visualization of Data Characterizing Distribution Features of Alien Plant Species

Abstract

Results of application of different approaches to the data visualization during the study of alien plant species have been analyzed and summarized, and the prospects of their use for different purposes have been evaluated. The existing experience in the study of alien plant species shows that traditional methods used to analyze their composition and distribution patterns in different regions are informative only for determining the main tendencies reflecting global processes of a phytobiota synanthropization. At the same time, new state-of-art methods are required to reveal the latent patterns of plant migration and the processes of their naturalization. The most promising approaches to analyzing large volumes of data are multivariate statistical methods. The potential of these methods is determined by their capability to identify relationships between a wide range of floristic and biological data and environmental characteristics, which can be visualized. These methods allow us to present different data in the form of diagrams reflecting interactions between individual species or whole groups of alien plants and climatic or environmental variables. They make it possible to create models of expansion of invasive species. They reflect the current statistical distances and relationships between different objects of study, which makes it possible to identify features of the group strategy of colonization of various natural and/or technogenic habitats by alien species. These strategies depend mainly on the biological characteristics of species, level of anthropogenic transformation of a regional flora, and environmental parameters.

Plant Invasion Research in Russia: Basic Projects and Scientific Fields

“…Some of them are based on traditional empirical approaches, while others rely on statistical analysis. Visualization of results has recently become important for developing predictive models of invasions [ 166 ]. Canonical correlation correspondence methods are used in order to explain the distribution patterns of closely related species.…”

“…In addition to multivariate statistical methods, GIS-technologies, the use of satellite monitoring data and hyperspectral remote sensing bear great prospects in understanding the migration patterns of alien plant species [ 33 , 166 , 168 , 169 , 170 ].…”

Main directions of the study of plant invasions in Russia

“…New approaches synthesizing methods of botany, mathematical statistics, geo-information technologies and population genetics. Examples include the use of multivariate statistics, satellite data and hyperspectral indices of plants (TOKHTAR , TOKHTAR, 2018, EGOSHIN, 2020. A combination of conventional methods with those used in other branches of science allows for a deeper understanding of alien plant emergence and naturalization patterns (TOKHTAR & VINOGRADOVA, 2009, MOROZOVA, 2018, VESELKIN ET AL., 2020.…”

“…Conventional methods enable scholars to determine the dynamics of species dissemination in time and space. However, multivariate statistical methods are suitable for studying processes of conjugated migration of plant groups into various types of macroecotopes (TOKHTAR & VINOGRADOVA, 2009, TOKHTAR, 2018, TOKHTAR ET AL., 2020b. These methods include factor and discriminant analysis, Canonical Correspondence Analysis, cluster analysis and correspondence analysis.…”