Spatial patterns and drivers of fire occurrence and its future trend under climate change in a boreal forest of Northeast China

Moving Windows

Variography allows us to detect spatial dependencies. What it does not detect is whether or not these dependencies are uniform throughout the whole study area. There could be large regional differences and in that case, our variogram would not be representative for the entire area! It only provides information about the spatial variability of our data.

The simple technique of the "moving windows"-statistics can help. A "window" of defined size and shape is moved over the data, the moving distance is equal to the width of the window. All data located within the window section are statistically summarized: the number and average of all points inside the window, the minimum / maximum values, the standard deviation, the coefficient of variation (= standard deviation / mean), etc. The results are again points – the centers of the moving windows and as their attributes the statistical indicators of these windows. In the case of sparse data, the window is only moved by one half of the window width to obtain more data to calculate (= moving window with overlap). The principle is shown in this animation:
 

Principle of ''Moving Windows Statistics''

Both window size and form may be varied with this method. In practice, it is used in an explorative way accordingly: an analysis is performed with windows of varying dimensions and the statistics are compared. In particular, the coefficient of variation is a significant parameter – if its values are > 1, this indicates a high variation (= high spatial variability) in this window pane.

Consider the following example of a "moving window"-statistic for the Swiss precipitation data. Regions with higher rainfall are relatively easy to spot; two of them form a kind of NE-SW axis. The size of 30x30 km and the option of overlap are chosen for the window. The size of such a window is shown as a gray square. There is also the possibility to omit windows with less than a defined number of points, e.g. 4, since with such few points no meaningful statistics can be calculated. That is why there are a few "holes". The mean values reflect the precipitation totals. However, the coefficient of variation is of particular interest because it indicates regions with larger value fluctuations. In this situation, the two highest values are located at the southern tip of Ticino.

Animal Rights

Hi bloggers, today in my last publication of the year I'm gonna talk about animal rights, because it is a topic that has always been left in the background.

I've always thought that animals should be treated with the respect they deserve by the mere fact of being living beings, just like us. It is very sad to see how living creatures are considered a commodity, with people who treat them like crap and are not interested in their suffering.

Living in a world totally free of meat consumption it is something unlikely in today's society, because is something that we have deeply rooted in our culinary culture. However this does not prevent us from treating animals with the dignity they deserve. Livestock and dairy industries must stop reducing production costs at the expense of the poor quality of life that they give their animals. It is not possible that living beings are forced to live in miserable conditions.

I think there should be more legislation regarding animal rights, because there is lack of clarity on the laws that protect them. Many people take advantage of this lack of legislation to mistreat animals and exploit them or leave them on the street once they get bored or they begin to cause problems.

To end this blog, I must say that although it is difficult for a society that does not think about the welfare of their peers can worry about animal welfare, we must begin to create awareness among people to stop being so individualistic and disconnected from reality. For my part I just hope that if any of you tomorrow finds an animal in need of your help (either by abuse, neglect, accident, etc.), do not hesitate for a second to do everything possible to help them.

Vacations wuuuuju

Ending the New Year celebrations, my sister and I decided to start 2015 traveling to the north of Chile. Early on the first day of January, we left the terminal of La Serena toward the Elqui Valley. After a couple of hours of travel we reached the last stop located in the town of Pisco, we walk around half an hour until we find a very peaceful place with an irrigation channel that would provide us water. In this place I feel totally disconnected from the hustle and problems of the urban world, at night the sky showed us the vastness of the universe with countless stars shining in the dark.
But after a couple of days we decided it was time to continue our journey, so we went back to La Serena to take course towards Caldera. Arriving at Caldera we decided to locate our tent on the sea shore, the view was beautiful. Nothing better than wake up, have breakfast and dive into the ocean waters. But the peace would be interrupted when one morning a couple of sailors fined us for camping in a sector not enabled for that, however, this don't stop us and we continue our journey. We were about three days more on a beach located south of Bahia Inglesa, where seawater was fantastic with a very pleasant temperature. Finally we headed to Pan de Azúcar National Reserve, located 30 km north of Chañaral. Arriving at Chañaral we met a very friendly man, who gave us a lot of help giving us accommodation in his house. We spent the night listening to interesting stories with his family and the next morning we went to Pan de Azúcar. In the national reserve we found a beautiful desert landscape with cactus everywhere, spectacular rock formations and white sand beaches. We end our journey with a refreshing dip which filled us with energy.

Dawson Island

Dawson Island forms part of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, 100 km south of the city of Punta Arenas in Chile. Throughout history, this island it has been the scene of terrible actions, conducted by despotisms characters who felt right and duty to submit another human being for the simple fact of being or thinking differently to what they wanted to impose. Taking into account the historical context that surrounds the island, is more than necessary to allow free access to Dawson Island to those who want to know even more about the hidden history of the island. It is achieved in this way honor the memory of those who were victims of hatred, misunderstanding and arrogance. It would be great carry out the construction and implementation of a memorial museum, a museum that delivers information about the selknam tribe, victims of genocide during the massacres perpetrated by landowners ranchers; and about political leaders of the Popular Unity government, who were confined to a concentration camp where they were tortured. Finally I just hope that events like those that occurred in Dawson not ever happen again. That's why we need to know our history,  to learn from the terrible mistakes that have been committed in the past, draw lessons and not make them again.

JOBS

Hello cursed insects, hehehe, just kidding :p, today I'm gonna talk about the jobs. I'll start with what in my opinion would be the best job.

Well is difficult to me to determine which is the best job, but I think one of the best works is to be a documentary of the nature, because in a job like this you must delve into beautiful landscapes and appreciate nature at its finest. I think being able to be alone in a marvelous place, listen to the silence and feel part of the nature should be one of the most beautiful experiences of the world. In addition, with this work you are making known to the rest of the community a world often unknown, helping to generate awareness among people to appreciate the place in which they live and thus contribute to protecting the planet (and you get paid :p).

In the other hand, life is full of bad jobs: jobs where people are exploited and forced to work in enslaving workdays in return for which they receive twopenny wages, staying away from their families and losing valuable moments of life that will never return. However, I think there is a specific job that turns out to be by far the worst of all, not because of poor working conditions or by low wages, but by the nature of their work: and it is to be a cop. The main task of the police is to protect the interests of the ruling class, cracking down on anyone who dares to oppose the plans of those who took over our country, forgetting their real work of protecting the people. Eventually they end up being the lackeys of those who keep us in misery. Anyway we should not generalize, there are undoubtedly exceptional cases of police officers who perform their duties of protecting the defenseless.

Shile Canpion

The America Football Cup happened in Chile a few weeks ago it was in my understanding like the bread and circus used in Rome to distract the people from the many problems facing the country.
It was embarrassing to see the president of Chile, Michelle Bachellet, attending the stadium to watch all the matches of the Chilean team and tacking a "selfie" with the Chilean team, while teachers and students around all the country protest by improvements in the educational system. The news used the most of the time to cover irrelevant details of Copa America like if the whole country revolved around football, once again silencing the voice of the people. It also bothers me that the celebrations turn into madness: people getting drunk on the streets, making noise with their horns and bugles, acting as if the world where about to end.
On the other hand I'm glad that Chile won for first time in its history a football competition, many people who have sad lives forget all their problems for a couple of hours and that's good, we all need a break. But no big deal, Chile has won several competitions in other sports just as important and exciting than football.
I like soccer because it is an exciting sport which can be practiced by people of any social class, you just need a ball (or even a plastic bottle) and a pair of stones or trees to play, but today the professional football has become a very lucrative business and when money becomes the main factor, everything goes to hell.
Finally, I hope Chile keeps winning sports competitions because it is a great way to encourage children to be physically active, leading to a country full of happy and healthy people.

Disaster in the north of Chile,

The last monday, the government of Chile said that seventen people have died and twenty are still missing after torrential rains caused flooding in a northern desert town called Chañaral.
The intense rains last week swelled rivers and led to flash-flooding that also caused power outages and blocked roads. President Michelle Bachelet’s spokesman announced on Monday that the government will provide nearly six billion pesos to the flood-hit areas.
The precipitation in the northern city of Antofagasta was a stark example of abnormal rain in the Atacama desert, which is one of the driest on Earth. From Wednesday to Thursday morning, about 24mm fell in Antofagasta, an area that typically receives only about 1,7mm of rain in a year, according to Chilean meteorological service.
Communities in Chile’s northern desert regions have been digging houses and cars out of the mud and working to reopen roads. The military has been deployed and the government said it has sent 700 tonnes in aid, including food, mattresses and medicine. 
But some people said that this is not enough, for example a Diaguita indigenous leader who has been helping those affected said that the people are overwhelmed and tempers are high because the help is insufficient. Others said that the military is assisting, but the people feel left behind because of the lack of help from others sectors.
Deputy interior minister Mahmud Aleuy has called the flooding “the worst rain disaster to fall on the north in 80 years”.
Some families had to wait on their roofs for rescue by helicopter. I know people, very good people who lived in Chañaral, they helped me and treated me very well when I visited Pan de Azucar national reserve and I couldn't have contact with them. I just hope that they are fine and can be recovered.
I have to say that the land regulation is very poorly made because the people aren't warned about the inminent danger of build in flood areas. The system doesn't take care about the safety of low-income people and this is not something that only happens in Chile, it happens in all the capitalist countries.