Remote sensing for biodiversity science and conservation (original) (raw)
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Remote Sensing of Plant Biodiversity
Improved detection and monitoring of biodiversity is critical at a time when the Earth’s biodiversity loss due to human activities is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. We face the largest loss of biodiversity in human history, a loss which has been called the “sixth mass extinction” (Leakey 1996; Kolbert 2014), given that its magnitude is in proportion to past extinction episodes in Earth history detectable from the fossil record. International efforts to conserve biodiversity (United Nations 2011) and to develop an assessment process to document changes in the status and trends of biodiversity globally through the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Díaz et al. 2015) have raised awareness about the critical need for continuous monitoring of biodiversity at multiple spatial scales across the globe. Biodiversity itself—the variation in life found among ecosystems and organisms at any level of biological organization—cannot practicall...
Will remote sensing shape the next generation of species distribution models?
Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 2015
Two prominent limitations of species distribution models (SDMs) are spatial biases in existing occurrence data and a lack of spatially explicit predictor variables to fully capture habitat characteristics of species. Can existing and emerging remote sensing technologies meet these challenges and improve future SDMs? We believe so. Novel products derived from multispectral and hyperspectral sensors, as well as future Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and RADAR missions, may play a key role in improving model performance. In this perspective piece, we demonstrate how modern sensors onboard satellites, planes and unmanned aerial vehicles are revolutionizing the way we can detect and monitor both plant and animal species in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems as well as allowing the emergence of novel predictor variables appropriate for species distribution modeling. We hope this interdisciplinary perspective will motivate ecologists, remote sensing experts and modelers to work togethe...
Challenges and opportunities in harnessing satellite remote-sensing for biodiversity monitoring
Ecological Informatics, 2015
The ability of remote-sensing technologies to rapidly deliver data on habitat quantity (e.g., amount, configuration) and quality (e.g., structure, distribution of individual plant species, habitat types and/or communities, persistence) across a range of spatial resolutions and temporal frequencies is increasingly sought-after in conservation management. However, several problematic issues (e.g., imagery correction and registration, image interpretation, habitat type and quality definitions, assessment and monitoring procedures, uncertainties inherent in mapping, expert knowledge integration, scale selection, analysis of the interrelationships between habitat quality and landscape structure) challenge the effective and reliable use of such data and techniques. We discuss these issues, as a contribution to the development of a common language, framework and suite of research approaches among ecologists, remote-sensing experts and stakeholders (conservation managers) on the ground, and highlight recent theoretical and applied advances that provide opportunities for meeting these challenges. Reconciling differing stakeholder perspectives and needs will boost the timely provisioning of reliable information on the current and changing distribution of biodiversity to enable effective conservation management.
Biodiversity and Conservation, 2020
The strong contribution of remote sensing has led to the development of the concept of the Remote Sensing enabled Essential Biodiversity Variables which represents a set of variables that can be monitored from space. This work synthesizes current state of research and technological development in use of remote sensing enabled essential biodiversity variables. The issue of scale, satellite observation requirements and status of remote sensing have been discussed in the context of monitoring of community composition, plant functional types, vegetation structure, canopy diversity, targeted animal groups, fragmentation, disturbances and as an input for biodiversity modelling, and Earth Observations based variables. This work highlighted existing approaches for addressing community level biodiversity and discusses in the context of Earth Observations as which are key components for biodiversity monitoring strategy. Biodiversity monitoring could be improved by using new satellite sensors and the synergy of remotely sensed data from multiple sensors which are providing hyperspatial, hyperspectral and hypertemporal observations. The use of remote sensing for operational monitoring of biodiversity is still under development as existing approaches and techniques have not holistically addressed the metrics of essential biodiversity variables.
Remote Sensing of Plant Biodiversity
Assessing patterns and processes of plant functional, taxonomic, genetic, and structural biodiversity at large scales is essential across many disciplines, including ecosystem management, agriculture, ecosystem risk and service assessment, conservation science, and forestry. In situ data housed in databases necessary to perform such assessments over large parts of the world are growing steadily. Integrating these in situ data with remote sensing (RS) products helps not only to improve data completeness and quality but also to account for limitations and uncertainties associated with each data product. Here, we outline how auxiliary environmental and socioeconomic data might be integrated with biodiversity and RS data to expand our knowledge about ecosystem functioning and inform the conservation of biodiversity. We discuss concepts, data, and methods necessary to assess plant species and ecosystem properties across scales of space and time and provide a critical discussion of outsta...
Capturing the fugitive: Applying remote sensing to terrestrial animal distribution and diversity
2007
Amongst many ongoing initiatives to preserve biodiversity, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment again shows the importance to slow down the loss of biological diversity. However, there is still a gap in the overview of global patterns of species distributions. This paper reviews how remote sensing has been used to assess terrestrial faunal diversity, with emphasis on proxies and methodologies, while exploring prospective challenges for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. We grouped and discussed papers dealing with the faunal taxa mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates into five classes of surrogates of animal diversity: (1) habitat suitability, (2) photosynthetic productivity, (3) multi-temporal patterns, (4) structural properties of habitat, and (5) forage quality. It is concluded that the most promising approach for the assessment, monitoring, prediction, and conservation of faunal diversity appears to be the synergy of remote sensing products and auxiliary data with ecological biodiversity models, and a subsequent validation of the results using traditional observation techniques. #
Biodiversity assessment by remote sensing
2003
Measuring the complexity of species in (semi) natural environments is time consuming and expensive. In this paper we summarise remote sensing techniques developed for mapping and monitoring biodiversity of herbivores and vegetation. In particular, methods involving interannual variation of NDVI with respect to mammal and bird species richness in Kenya will be described. We show it is possible to predict species richness at a regional scale using NDVI derived from NOAA satellites, and that these relationships are unimodal. Further work relating species richness to climate parameters showed that these relationships are also unimodal. We also show that climate parameters are better predictors of species richness than NDVI alone.
Satellite remote sensing to monitor species diversity: potential and pitfalls
Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 2015
Assessing the level of diversity in plant communities from field-based data is difficult for a number of practical reasons: (1) establishing the number of sampling units to be investigated can be difficult; (2) the choice of sample design can impact on results; and (3) defining the population of concern can be challenging. Satellite remote sensing (SRS) is one of the most cost-effective approaches to identify biodiversity hotspots and predict changes in species composition. This is because, in contrast to field-based methods, it allows for complete spatial coverages of the Earth's surface under study over a short period of time. Furthermore, SRS provides repeated measures, thus making it possible to study temporal changes in biodiversity. Here, we provide a concise review of the potential of satellites to help track changes in plant species diversity, and provide, for the first time, an overview of the potential pitfalls associated with the misuse of satellite imagery to predict species diversity. Our work shows that, while the assessment of alpha-diversity is relatively straightforward, calculation of beta-diversity (variation in species composition between adjacent locations) is challenging, making it difficult to reliably estimate gamma-diversity (total diversity at the landscape or regional level). We conclude that an increased collaboration between the remote sensing and biodiversity communities is needed in order to properly address future challenges and developments.