Abstract. Landsat 7's recent malfunctioning will result in significant gaps in long-term satellite monitoring of Earth, affecting not only the research of the Earth science community but also conservation users of these data. To determine whether or how important Landsat monitoring is for conservation and natural resource management, we reviewed the Landsat program's history with special emphasis on the development of user groups. We also conducted a bibliographic search to determine the extent to which conservation research has been based on Landsat data. Conservation biologists were not an early user group of Landsat data because a) biologists lacked technical capacity -computers and software -to analyze these data; b) Landsat's 1980s commercialization rendered images too costly for biologists' budgets; and c) the broad-scale disciplines of conservation biology and landscape ecology did not develop until the mid-to-late 1980s. All these conditions had changed by the 1990s and Landsat imagery became an important tool for conservation biology. Satellite monitoring and Landsat continuity are mandated by the Land Remote Sensing Act of 1992. This legislation leaves open commercial options. However, past experiments with commercial operations were neither viable nor economical, and severely reduced the quality of monitoring, archiving and data access for academia and the public. Future satellite monitoring programs are essential for conservation and natural resource management, must provide continuity with Landsat, and should be government operated.
The Caribbean region is one of the Wve leading biodiversity hotspots in the world. Analysis of the spatial structure of critical habitats and how it aVects endemic species in this region is essential baseline information for biodiversity monitoring and management. We quantiWed and evaluated the spatial structure and connectivity of depression forests on Mona Island and their potential impact on Mona Island rock iguana habitat, as a framework to assess spatial distribution, connectivity, and the issue of scale in small and widely dispersed habitats. Using IKONOS imagery, we mapped and delineated depression forests at four diVerent scales (minimum mapping units: <100, 100, 500, and 1,000 m), and calculated landscape metrics describing their spatial structure, and connectivity, for each 906 Biodivers Conserv (2009) 18:905-917 1 C map resolution. Our approach resulted in a more detailed map than previously described maps, providing better information on habitat connectivity for iguanas. The comparison of the island landscape mapped at diVerent scales provided evidence on how changing scales aVect the output of spatial metrics and may have a signiWcant impact when planning decisions and assigning conservation priorities. It also highlighted the importance of adequate ecological scales when addressing landscape management and conservation priorities. The analysis of landscapes at multiple scales provided a mechanism to evaluate the role of patch detection and its eVect on the interpretation of connectivity and spatial structure of suitable areas for species with small and widely dispersed habitats. These methodologies can be applied other species, in diVerent environments, with similar limitations related to connectivity and habitat availability.
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