Measuring B-diversity by Remote Sensing: A Challenge for Biodiversity Monitoring

Abstract

Abstract Biodiversity includes multiscalar and multitemporal structures and processes, with different levels of functional organization, from genetic to ecosystemic levels. One of the mostly used methods to infer biodiversity is based on taxonomic approaches and community ecology theories. However, gathering extensive data in the field is difficult due to logistic problems, especially when aiming at modelling biodiversity changes in space and time, which assumes statistically sound sampling schemes. In this context, airborne or satellite remote sensing allows information to be gathered over wide areas in a reasonable time. Most of the biodiversity maps obtained from remote sensing have been based on the inference of species richness by regression analysis. On the contrary, estimating compositional turnover ($β$-diversity) might add crucial information related to relative abundance of different species instead of just richness. Presently, few studies have addressed the measurement of species compositional turnover from space. Extending on previous work, in this manuscript, we propose novel techniques to measure $β$-diversity from airborne or satellite remote sensing, mainly based on: (1) multivariate statistical analysis, (2) the spectral species concept, (3) self-organizing feature maps, (4) multidimensional distance matrices, and the (5) Rao’s Q diversity. Each of these measures addresses one or several issues related to turnover measurement. This manuscript is the first methodological example encompassing (and enhancing) most of the available methods for estimating $β$-diversity from remotely sensed imagery and potentially relating them to species diversity in the field.

Publication
Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Daniel Doktor
Daniel Doktor
Senior Scientist & Group Leader of Land Cover & Dynamics

Senior Scientist

Hannes Feilhauer
Hannes Feilhauer
Professor for Remote Sensing in Geo- and Ecosystem Research

Professor

Pedro J. Leitão
Pedro J. Leitão
Postdoctoral scientist / Remote Sensing in Geo- and Ecosystem Research

My research interests include the interactions between society and biosphere. I have been working on the extraction of the global dynamics of ecosystems and society. I have an interest in using machine learning and multivariate statistics to understand the behavior of complex systems.