Abstract

SEGURA-CASTRUITA, M. Angel et al. Mapping the occurrence probability of Atriplex canescens in an arid region of México. Agrociencia [online]. 2014, vol.48, n.6, pp.639-652. ISSN 2521-9766.

The four-wing salt bush (Atriplex canescens Pursh, Nutt) is a natural forage plant in arid regions of the world and is important for feeding goats in those regions. However, there is little information on its spatial distribution that considers knowledge of soil and topography that would be useful for its management. For this reason, the objectives of this study were to design a methodological scheme to map the probabilistic distribution of A. canescens in function of edaphic and topographical data reported on maps published by the Mexican government agencies and to verify the accuracy of the thematic maps obtained. The data on vegetation, soil and topography were related by a logistic regression model to estimate probability of occurrence of A. canescens, and these values were interpolated for mapping. The results showed that A. canescens is found mainly in soils of the Calcisols, Solonchaks and Solonets groups and that phosphorus and potassium contents significantly influence the presence of this species. Thus, when considering these two elements in the logistic regression model for mapping the probability of A. canescens occurrence, the maps can achieve an accuracy of 76.2 %. For this reason, it is concluded that the methodological scheme, in which edaphic and topographical data from government agency maps and logistic regression are used, is useful in constructing A. canescens distribution maps.

Keywords : Four-wing salt bush; logistic regression; geo-statistics.

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