ABSTRACT
Assessing the ecological condition of large geographic areas is difficult at best. Nothing can replace on-the-ground intensive sampling or surveying by experienced field personnel; however, this is obviously not feasible for areas that are much larger than a site, such as at landscape and regional scales. Remotely sensed data such as land cover maps derived from satellite imagery can provide valuable covariate information. Essentially, local detail is exchanged for spatially synoptic coverage.
