Remote Sensing For Ecology And Conservation

The work of conservation biology has grown from local studies of single species into a discipline concerned with mapping and managing biodiversity on a global scale. Remote sensing, using satellite and aerial imaging to measure and map the environment, increasingly provides a vital tool for effective collection of the information needed to research and set policy for conservation priorities. The perceived complexities of remotely sensed data and analyses have tended to discourage scientists and managers from using this valuable resource. This text focuses on making remote sensing tools accessible to a larger audience of non-specialists, highlighting strengths and limitations while emphasizing the ways that remotely sensed data can be captured and used, especially for evaluating human impacts on ecological systems.

The work of conservation biology has grown from local studies of single species into a discipline concerned with mapping and managing biodiversity on a global scale. Remote sensing, using satellite and aerial imaging to measure and map the environment, increasingly provides a vital tool for effective collection of the information needed to research and set policy for conservation priorities. The perceived complexities of remotely sensed data and analyses have tended to discourage scientists and managers from using this valuable resource. This text focuses on making remote sensing tools accessible to a larger audience of non-specialists, highlighting strengths and limitations while emphasizing the ways that remotely sensed data can be captured and used, especially for evaluating human impacts on ecological systems.

The ability to anticipate the impacts of global environmental changes on natural resources is fundamental to designing appropriate and optimised adaptation and mitigation strategies. However, this requires the scientific community to have access to reliable, large-scale information on spatio-temporal changes in the distribution of abiotic conditions and on the distribution, structure, composition, and functioning of ecosystems. Satellite remote sensing can provide access to some of this fundamental data by offering repeatable, standardised, and verifiable information that is directly relevant to the monitoring and management of our natural capital. This book demonstrates how ecological knowledge and satellite-based information can be effectively combined to address a wide array of current natural resource management needs. By focusing on concrete applied examples in both the marine and terrestrial realms, it will help pave the way for developing enhanced levels of collaboration between the ecological and remote sensing communities, as well as shaping their future research directions. Satellite Remote Sensing and the Management of Natural Resources is primarily aimed at ecologists and remote sensing specialists, as well as policy makers and practitioners in the fields of conservation biology, biodiversity monitoring, and natural resource management.

Explains how satellite remote sensing informs and helps deliver successful conservation management through case studies, which highlight practitioner experience.

This is a book about how ecologists can integrate remote sensing and GIS in their daily work. It will allow ecologists to get started with the application of remote sensing and to understand its potential and limitations. Using practical examples, the book covers all necessary steps from planning field campaigns to deriving ecologically relevant information through remote sensing and modelling of species distributions. All practical examples in this book rely on OpenSource software and freely available data sets. Quantum GIS (QGIS) is introduced for basic GIS data handling, and in-depth spatial analytics and statistics are conducted with the software packages R and GRASS. Readers will learn how to apply remote sensing within ecological research projects, how to approach spatial data sampling and how to interpret remote sensing derived products. The authors discuss a wide range of statistical analyses with regard to satellite data as well as specialised topics such as time-series analysis. Extended scripts on how to create professional looking maps and graphics are also provided. This book is a valuable resource for students and scientists in the fields of conservation and ecology interested in learning how to get started in applying remote sensing in ecological research and conservation planning.

In recent years, the conservation of tropical forests has received worldwide publicity whereas effective forest management, particularly for timber extraction, has attracted little attention and gained some notoriety. The overall aim of the present paper was to examine how environmental micro-variation in the Chiquibul Forest Reserve of Belize can influence species distribution and thereby inform management strategy. The paper deals first with the background to forest management in Belize, then considers the methodology used in the present study and fin~~ly assesses the preliminary results. The specific objectives are: (1) to assess the effects of changing scale on the variability of selected individual soil properties in forest plots within the same vegetation class; and (2) to examine the variation in soil properties and tree species distribution, and to integrate environmental and ecological data over a range of scales. BACKGROUND Whereas the global and regional distribution of tropical forests is broadly governed by climatic and altitudinal variation, individual forest tracts need to consider a range of other, locally important factors to explain species distribution and change. With very high species diversity, tropical forests present a major challenge in the attempt to unravel controlling factors in distribution and growth (Swaine et aI. 1987). Research that attempts to explain diversity has looked at species distribution according to a range of factors, with a general recognition that soil fertility plays a significant if ill defined role (Swaine 1996).

The book will provide an overview of the practical application of remote sensing for the purposes of nature conservation as developed by ecologists in collaboration with remote sensing specialists, providing guidance on all phases from the planning of remote sensing projects for conservation to the interpretation and validation of the images.

The Latest Advances in Remote Sensing for Biodiversity This state-of-the-art volume provides fundamental information on and practical applications of remote sensing technologies in wildlife management, habitat studies, and biodiversity assessment and monitoring. The book reviews image analysis, interpretation techniques, and key geospatial tools, including field-based, aerial, and satellite remote sensing, GIS, GPS, and spatial modeling. Remote Sensing for Biodiversity and Wildlife Management emphasizes transdisciplinary collaboration, technological innovations, and new applications in this emerging field. Landmark case studies and illustrative examples of best practices in biodiversity and wildlife management remote sensing at multiple scales are featured in this pioneering work. COVERAGE INCLUDES: Management information requirements Geospatial data collection and processing Thermal, passive and active microwave, and passive and active optical sensing Integrated remote sensing, GIS, GPS, and spatial models Remote sensing of ecosystem process and structure Proven methods for acquiring, interpreting, and analyzing remotely sensed data Habitat suitability and quality analysis Mapping anthropogenic disturbances and modeling species distribution Biodiversity indicators, including species richness mapping and productivity modeling Habitat quality and dynamics Indicators and processes Invasive alien species Species prediction models Food and resources Biodiversity monitoring Fragmentation and spatial heterogeneity