Standardizing Ecosystem Morphological Traits from 3D Information Sources

Abstract

3D-imaging technologies provide measurements of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems' structure, key for biodiversity studies. However, the practical use of these observations globally faces practical challenges. Firstly, available 3D data are geographical biased, with significant gaps in the tropics. Secondly, no data source provides, by itself, global coverage at a suitable temporal recurrence. Thus, global monitoring initiatives, such as assessment of essential biodiversity variables (EBVs), will necessarily have to involve the combination of disparate datasets. We propose a standardised framework of ecosystem morphological traitsheight, cover and structural complexitythat could enable monitoring of globally-consistent EBVs at regional scales, by flexibly integrating different information sourcessatellites, aircrafts, drones or ground data -, allowing global biodiversity targets relating to ecosystem structure to be monitored and regularly reported.

Identifying fine‐scale habitat preferences of threatened butterflies using airborne laser scanning

“…The fine‐scale habitat suitability of invertebrates is typically driven by various aspects of vegetation structure, including vertical vegetation complexity (e.g., the density of specific strata), horizontal heterogeneity (e.g., canopy roughness) or the horizontal structure of vegetation at the landscape scale (e.g., the extent of edges and open spaces; Bakx et al., 2019; Davies & Asner, 2014; Glad et al., 2020; Simonson et al., 2014). Despite many local field studies on butterfly–habitat relationships, the generality of these relationships remains unclear because quantifying vegetation structure across broad spatial extents has often been limited by the difficulty to obtain detailed, high‐resolution data in a standardized, comparable and spatially contiguous way (Davies & Asner, 2014; Kissling et al., 2017; Valbuena et al., 2020). Moreover, the development of standardized and spatial contiguous variables and datasets of ecosystem height, cover and vegetation structural complexity covering broad spatial extents is only recently becoming an important focus of biodiversity science and monitoring, for example in the context of essential biodiversity variables (EBVs; Valbuena et al., 2020).…”

Leveraging Google Earth Engine User Interface for Semiautomated Wetland Classification in the Great Lakes Basin at 10 m With Optical and Radar Geospatial Datasets

“…This may be due to confusion with forested land and wetlands in the region, This confusion may be avoided in future wetland classification endeavors with the development of the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) satellite LiDAR mission and NASA-ISRO L-band SAR (NISAR). NISAR and GEDI promise to usher in a new age of wetland mapping by revealing structural and topographical features relevant to wetland formation and differences among wetland types that are not distinguishable with C-SAR [14], [32], [33].…”

Insect Cultural Services: How Insects Have Changed Our Lives and How Can We Do Better for Them

“…These outputs are of great significance to understanding species distributions and evidencing conservation interventions. By utilising standardised frameworks, insights from LiDAR and other technologies can be used for the global reporting of biodiversity targets, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals or Aichi targets [ 19 ]. Further developments are being made to automate video monitoring for the observation of plant–pollinator interactions, a technology which could aid in identifying and mitigating pollinator declines [ 20 ].…”