Mapping of a rare plant species (Boronia deanei) using hyper‐resolution remote sensing and concurrent ground observation

Abstract

Summary Boronia deanei is one of many declared rare, and potentially threatened, species of the Australian flora that occur within freshwater swamps and riparian margins. However, a lack of knowledge regarding its ecological distribution and habitat requirements may result in vulnerability to current and planned anthropogenic activities. Identification of population boundaries, numbers and locations should be highly beneficial for developing appropriate conservation approaches. This study demonstrates (i) the potential of converging hyper‐resolution remote sensing imagery with targeted ground observations to identify individual population extents and densities and (ii) proposes methods of defining and mapping suitable habitat and potential extents for rare plant species in areas potentially exposed to multiple anthropogenic impacts.

No place to hide: Rare plant detection through remote sensing

“…Direct detection can be carried out either by visual identification or by image classification methods that allow the detection of distinctive spectral features of the target species. Specifically, Fletcher and Erskine (2012) and Rominger and Meyer (2019) indices, has proven to be an effective alternative approach for their direct detection (Liu et al, 2018). For instance, the endangered Allium tricoccum Aiton (wild leek) and the endemic Agathis australis (D.Don) Lindl.…”

“…Direct detection can be carried out either by visual identification or by image classification methods that allow the detection of distinctive spectral features of the target species. Specifically, Fletcher and Erskine (2012) and Rominger and Meyer (2019) showed the usefulness of very high spatial resolution traditional colour aerial imagery for the visual detection of the rare plant Boronia deanei Maiden & Betche (Deane's Boronia) and the endangered and gypsophile endemic plant Arctomecon humilis Coville (dwarf bear‐poppy), respectively. The uniqueness of the morphological characteristics exhibited by these two species at detection was key to their identification.…”

Identifying Species and Monitoring Understorey from UAS-Derived Data: A Literature Review and Future Directions

“…The industry has recognised the different platforms strengths and weaknesses, such that a new wave of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAS are currently attempting to bridge the gap between efficient flight and manoeuvrability (e.g., [23,24]). However, any of these UAS can be flown at user defined intervals to correspond with cues in phenology such as flowering [25] and senescence. As a result, UAS have the potential to overcome many of the difficulties faced when attempting to monitor understorey using traditional remote sensing techniques [26].…”

Remote sensing pipeline for tree segmentation and classification in a mixed softwood and hardwood system

“…Characterizing the structure and species makeup of forest systems is an important task in many disciplines. These kinds of analysis are necessary for assessing the quality of a patch of habitat for conservation of particular target taxa (Rose et al, 2015; Fletcher & Erskine, 2012), for estimating system-level properties like primary productivity or capacity for carbon sequestration (Vassallo et al, 2013), and also for landowners interested in directly managing forests for wood or fruit production (Tang & Shao, 2015). Traditional methods of characterizing forests involved expensive, laborious, and time-consuming deployment of experts on foot to manually label individual trees with location, species, and structural data (Barbosa & Asner, 2017; Marconi et al, 2018).…”