Definition and application of expert knowledge on vegetation pattern, phenology, and seasonality for habitat mapping, as exemplified in a Mediterranean coastal site

Abstract

Habitats are effective indicators of biodiversity. Remote sensing data and techniques are of great utility for their long-term monitoring. Habitat maps can be derived from land cover (LC) maps through rules obtained from expert knowledge and integrated with in situ data. Spatial (vegetation pattern) and temporal (phenology and water seasonality) relationships were explored and documented to infer reliable rules for LC (according to the Food and Agricultural Organization Land Cover Classification System (FAO-LCCS) taxonomy) to habitat (Annex I to the 92/43 EEC Directive and EUNIS) class translation. A coastal site in southern Italy was considered as study site for the definition and validation of such rules. Phenological data of the plant communities were collected on the basis of vegetation plots randomly distributed within the study site. Water seasonality was extracted from periodical observation of the water surface. Vegetation pattern was analyzed by means of vegetation survey along transects. The potentiality of rules, based on this specific expert knowledge, was tested in an experimental setting for habitat mapping. The overall accuracy of the habitat map was 75.1%. Such a result supports the usefulness of prior expert knowledge for habitat mapping from LCCS classes and disambiguation on one-to-many relations between LC/LU and habitat types.

Capturing Coastal Dune Natural Vegetation Types Using a Phenology-Based Mapping Approach: The Potential of Sentinel-2

“…Among these, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) [19,20] is a good proxy of canopy biomass [21], and its application for environmental monitoring is highly appreciated [22,23]. Furthermore, the monthly variation of NDVI values across an entire year proved to be a sound surrogate of ecosystem phenology [18,24,25], which allows for discriminating contiguous vegetation cover types featuring different seasonality [26][27][28].…”

Temporal Variability of MODIS Phenological Indices in the Temperate Rainforest of Northern Patagonia

“…Phenology is defined defined as the study of the timing of periodic biological (e.g., seasonal cycles in primary production) and non-biological events as climate change and increasing human activities [4,17]. For example studies have documented the effects of recent climate change on the phenology, e.g, advanced the spring and delayed the arrival of winter with consequences for ecological processes, agriculture, forestry, human health, and the global economy [18].…”

Contribution of free satellite time-series images to mapping plant communities in the Mediterranean Natura 2000 site: the example of Biguglia Pond in Corse (France)

“…This mapping approach for plant communities has several advantages compared to approaches based on expert decision rules of vegetation physiognomy and environmental criteria (Adamo et al, 2016): (i) it highlights floristic variations within a habitat (Feilhauer et al, 2014); (ii) allows the conservation status of a habitat to be assessed (Angelini et al, 2018); and (iii) avoids one-to-many correspondences between a vegetation physiognomy and habitats (Tomaselli et al, 2016). The disadvantage of this approach, however, is the need for reference data at the syntaxonomic level, which unfortunately remains rare (Campagnaro et al, 2019).…”