| Biologists working at UM-St. Louis and the Missouri Botanical Gardens have used a specialized kind of DSS called a Geographic Information System to tests hypotheses in phytogeographic studies. The GIS allows for greater sophistication in studies of spatial components, such as the movement patterns of fruit-eating birds. For example, the Loiselle Lab at UM-St. Louis considered the Atlantic forests of Brazil and bird migration using a GIS. They modeled the historic distributions of birds in this region using a GIS and digitalized environmental layers from the National Atlas of Brazil. These historic distributions were compared to the present forest coverage to estimate the impact of the vast deforestation of this area. This allowed Loiselle and her colleagues to estimates the original habitat and the implications of its reduction. This, in turn, allowed them to consider a wide range of options that impacted biodiversity conservation decisions of these forests. |
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