Assessment of ecosystem functioning from space: Advancements in the Habitats Directive implementation

Requena‐Mullor, Juan M.; Reyes, Andrés; Escribano, Paula; Cabello, Javier

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.12.036

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…The results of the inverse of the Jaccard coefficient to obtain the dissimilarity or functional changes between years in the composition of EFTs over the 2001-2018 period (Fig. 5b), showed an altitudinal pattern where the dissimilarity between EFTs was lower in the oro and cryoromediterranean levels, as well as in the mesomediterranean oak groves (functional stability already shown by other authors, i. e. Requena-Mullor et al, 2018). This pattern of dissimilarity increased towards lower levels, finding the highest values of dissimilarity (or 270 greater change) in areas where changes in land use and management are major (Zamora et al, 2016), such as autochthonous pine forests on dolomites, coniferous repopulations and meso-and thermomediterranean holm oaks.…”

supporting

confidence: 60%

“…The areas with the lowest EFT 290 richness were located in the oro and crioromediterranean levels, and in the eastern semi-arid thermomediterranean extreme, where the harsh soil and climatic conditions (Peinado et al, 2019) diminish floristic diversity although their endemicity increases (Fernández Calzado et al, 2012). The lowest values of EFT richness (richness 4-5) were found in the supramediterranean oak groves, (as in Dionisio et al, 2012;Requena-Mullor et al, 2018) EFT rarity was highest in the crioromediterranean level, overlapping the area with the highest concentration of endemisms (Cañadas et al, 2014;Peñas et al, 2019) (Fig. 5d).…”

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confidence: 98%

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A remote sensing-based dataset to characterize the ecosystem functioning and functional diversity of a Biosphere Reserve: Sierra Nevada (SE Spain)

Cazorla

Cabello

Reyes

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Conservation Biology faces the challenge of safeguarding the ecological processes that sustain biodiversity. Characterization and evaluation of these processes can be carried out through attributes or functional traits related to the exchanges of matter and energy between vegetation and the atmosphere. Nowadays, the use of satellite imagery provides useful methods to produce a spatially continuous characterization of ecosystem functioning and processes at regional scales. Our dataset characterizes the patterns of ecosystem functioning in Sierra Nevada (Spain) from the vegetation greenness dynamics captured through the spectral vegetation index EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) since 2001 to 2018 (product MOD13Q1.006 from MODIS sensor). First, we provided three Ecosystem Functional Attributes (EFAs) (i.e., descriptors of annual primary production, seasonality, and phenology of carbon gains), as well as their integration into a synthetic mapping of Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs). Second, we provided two measures of functional diversity: EFT richness and EFT rarity. Finally, in addition to the yearly maps, we calculated interannual summaries, i.e., means and inter-annual variabilities. Examples of research and management applications of these data sets are also included to highlight the value of EFAs and EFTs to improve the understanding and monitoring ecosystem processes across environmental gradients. The datasets are available in two open-source sites (PANGAEA: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.904575 (Cazorla et al. 2019) and http://obsnev.es/apps/efts_SN.html), and bring to scientists, managers and the general public valuable information on the first characterization of the functional diversity at ecosystem level developed in a Mediterranean hotspot. Sierra Nevada represents an exceptional ecology laboratory of field conditions, where a long-term monitoring (LTER) program was established 10 years ago. The data availability on biodiversity, climate, ecosystem services, hydrology, land-use changes and management practices from Sierra Nevada, will allow to explore the relationships between these other environmental data and ecosystem functional data that we provide in this work.

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confidence: 60%

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confidence: 98%

A remote sensing-based dataset to characterize the ecosystem functioning and functional diversity of a Biosphere Reserve: Sierra Nevada (SE Spain)

Cazorla

Cabello

Reyes

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…[14], distribution of species and communities [15], and ecosystem services, and protected areas [16]. Finally, methodologies to characterize habitats conservation status [17], [18] and stability [19] are being developed. This information is key to face important challenges posed by the HD, such as preserving habitats in the long term, understanding the likely consequences of climate change scenarios, or focusing management efforts to increase resilience.…”

Section: A Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite Remote Sensing of Ecosystem Functions: Opportunities and Challenges for Reporting Obligations of the EU Habitat Directive

Cabello

Mairota

Alcaraz‐Segura

et al. 2018

IGARSS 2018 - 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium

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The Habitats Directive (HD) and the associated Natura 2000 Network represent the major commitment of the European Union to biodiversity conservation. They are aimed at maintaining natural habitats in a favourable conservation status, which is assessed every 6 years by the member states under the legal obligation derived from HD Articles 11 and 17. Such assessment relies on habitats compositional and structural attributes, but should also consider ecosystem functions. Monitoring such functions represents an opportunity to incorporate Remote Sensing (RS) into the real-world biodiversity monitoring efforts. Here, we introduce a set of prospects and issues connected with RS aided monitoring of ecosystem functions and services within the framework of the reporting obligations of HD.

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“…Land cover change studies that define reforestation as a transition from non‐forest to forest pixels (Aide et al 2013, Sloan 2015, Schwartz et al 2017), oversimplify the ecological dynamics of secondary succession, an inherently continuous process (Song et al 2002, Caughlin et al 2016 b , Coops and Wulder 2019). In contrast, vegetation indices (VI), such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), present a continuous proxy for ecosystem structure and function (Pettorelli et al 2005, Requena‐Mullor et al 2018). VIs are straightforward to calculate from satellite reflectance data and have been widely applied to track recovery in disturbed ecosystems (Kennedy et al 2012, Dutrieux et al 2016, Frazier et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring tropical forest succession at landscape scales despite uncertainty in Landsat time series

Caughlin

Barber

Asner

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

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Forecasting rates of forest succession at landscape scales will aid global efforts to restore tree cover to millions of hectares of degraded land. While optical satellite remote sensing can detect regional land cover change, quantifying forest structural change is challenging. We developed a state-space modeling framework that applies Landsat satellite data to estimate variability in rates of natural regeneration between sites in a tropical landscape. Our models work by disentangling measurement error in Landsat-derived spectral reflectance from process error related to successional variability. We applied our modeling framework to rank rates of forest succession between 10 naturally regenerating sites in Southwestern Panama from about 2001 to 2015 and tested how different models for measurement error impacted forecast accuracy, ecological inference, and rankings of successional rates between sites. We achieved the greatest increase in forecasting accuracy by adding intra-annual phenological variation to a model based on Landsatderived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The best-performing model accounted for inter-and intra-annual noise in spectral reflectance and translated NDVI to canopy height via Landsat-lidar fusion. Modeling forest succession as a function of canopy height rather than NDVI also resulted in more realistic estimates of forest state during early succession, including greater confidence in rank order of successional rates between sites. These results establish the viability of state-space models to quantify ecological dynamics from time series of space-borne imagery. State-space models also provide a statistical approach well-suited to fusing high-resolution data, such as airborne lidar, with lower-resolution data that provides better temporal and spatial coverage, such as the Landsat satellite record. Monitoring forest succession using satellite imagery could play a key role in achieving global restoration targets, including identifying sites that will regain tree cover with minimal intervention.

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Assessment of ecosystem functioning from space: Advancements in the Habitats Directive implementation

Cited by 11 publications

References 54 publications

A remote sensing-based dataset to characterize the ecosystem functioning and functional diversity of a Biosphere Reserve: Sierra Nevada (SE Spain)

A remote sensing-based dataset to characterize the ecosystem functioning and functional diversity of a Biosphere Reserve: Sierra Nevada (SE Spain)

Satellite Remote Sensing of Ecosystem Functions: Opportunities and Challenges for Reporting Obligations of the EU Habitat Directive

Monitoring tropical forest succession at landscape scales despite uncertainty in Landsat time series

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