Climate
Climate: The islands are located with in the tropics, and thus the climate is equal to that of a tropical forest. There is little seasonal variation in temperature, the weather is generally hot and humid. From November to February it is monsoon season, during these months the islands experience heavy rainfall. The average annual rainfall ranges from 230 cm to 500 cm.
Vegetation
Riviere L´Islette Mangrove Forest by: Marcos Veiga
Plant Diversity: On one of the Seychelles Island there is one endemic plant family, 12 endemic genera, and 72 endemic species from a flora of about 233 native plants. (White 1983, Procter 1984, Robertson, 1989). A unique group of plants include the palms, with 6 endemics classified into 6 monotypic genera. The Granitic Islands also include the unusually diverse Pandans, an old world tropic plant used for weaving, that include 8 different species, in which 5 are endemic to the island. The Granitic Islands of the Seychelles Archipelago are classified as a unique ecoregion due to their long isolation and the exceptionally high levels of endemism in both the flora and fauna. Endemism at higher taxonomic levels is particularly notable, including the families Medusagnaceae and Sooglossidae.
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index AnalysisNDVI is an index derived from broadband measurements within both the visible (r) and near-infrared (nir) portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is commonly used as a way to detect chlorophyll within live, green vegetation and the density of that vegetation. The satellite used to acquire the information on this bandwidth for analysis was from the Landsat 7 satellite, where the image acquisition date is October 14, 2000 . The index is calculated as:
NDVI = (nir - r)/(nir + r) Where r is equal to a surface reflectance of 550-700 nm (within the visible range) and nir is equal to a reflectance of 730-1000 nm (within infrared) of the electromagnetic spectrum. When calculated, -1 represents no vegetation, whereas +1 represents full vegetation. |