In review
Innovative Uses of Remote Sensing in Biodiversity Conservation
Editors
Patricia Gandini
Diogo Provete
Scope
Innovative Uses of Remote Sensing in Biodiversity ConservationThe use of remote sensing techniques are changing how biodiversity is measured. Recent developments have allowed ecologists to estimate biodiversity facets, such as functional diversity, from satellite images, the so-called spectral diversity. The use of satellite imagery to accurately estimate key biodiversity components may have profound implications for how we monitor biodiversity at a global scale, improve our ability to predict how biodiversity will change in the face of climate change, and help us monitor restoration efforts. At the same time, the field of bioacoustics has begun to use passive (or autonomous) acoustic recorders to monitor biodiversity from a distance. The development of affordable recording devices allowed scientists to establish a network of acoustic monitoring to estimate species richness and abundance of several species at a time. This approach has also allowed long-term monitoring projects to become more common and widespread in the globe.
This special issue will highlight exciting work that has used some form of remote sensing to monitor biodiversity, allowing us to evaluate landscape changes due to climate change and human impact. We encourage submissions of primary research papers, especially those that propose new methodological approaches, including new methods that deal with artificial intelligence to analyse big data sets generated by remote sensing techniques, and literature reviews that help us advance key conceptual issues in the field.
Submissions to this Special Issue are now closed. Additional submissions may be considered on a case-by-case basis, however this is fully at the discretion of the Special Issue editors. Please contact communities@peerj.com for further information.
Topics
- Remote sensing for evaluating habitat and landscape changes due to climate change and human impact
- How to deal with big data sets in the analysis of remote sensing
- Uses of remote sensing for monitoring biodiversity from space
- Estimating functional diversity of plants from space
- Acoustic monitoring networks for monitoring biodiversity
- Affordable autonomous recording devices
- Surveying biodiversity with sounds
- The promises of Ecoacoustics
FAQs
When will this Special Issue be published?
Articles will be added into this Special Issue on a rolling basis once published. Check back regularly for new research!
Using InVEST to evaluate water yield services in Shangri-La, Northwestern Yunnan, China
Water yield is an ecosystem service that is vital to not only human life, but also sustainable development of the social economy and ecosystem. This study used annual average precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, plant available water content, soil depth, biophysical parameters, Zhang parameter, and land use/land cover (LULC) as input data for the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Service Tradeoffs (InVEST) model to estimate the water yield of Shangri-La City from 1974 to 2015. The spatiotemporal variations and associated factors (precipitation, evapotranspiration, LULC, and topographic factors) in water yield ecosystem services were then analyzed. The result showed that: (1) The water yield of Shangri-La City decreases from north and south to the center and showed a temporal trend from 1974 to 2015 of an initial decrease followed by an increase. Areas of higher average water yield were mainly in Hutiaoxia Town, Jinjiang Town, and Shangjiang Township. (2) Areas of importance for water yield in the study area which need to be assigned priority protection were mainly concentrated in the west of Jiantang Town, in central Xiaozhongdian Town, in central Gezan Township, in northwestern Dongwang Township, and in Hutiaoxia Town. (3) Water yield was affected by precipitation, evapotranspiration, vegetation type, and topographic factors. Water yield was positively and negatively correlated with precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, respectively. The average water yield of shrubs exceeded that of meadows and forests. Terrain factors indirectly affected the ecosystem service functions of water yield by affecting precipitation and vegetation types. The model used in this study can provide references for relevant research in similar climatic conditions.