Remotely sensed indicators and open-access biodiversity data to assess bird diversity patterns in Mediterranean rural landscapes
Ribeiro, Inês (Universidade de Lisboa)
Proença, Vânia (Universidade de Lisboa)
Serra Ruiz, Pere (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geografia)
Palma, Jorge (Universidade de Lisboa)
Domingo-Marimon, Cristina (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Pons, Xavier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geografia)
Domingos, Tiago (Universidade de Lisboa)

Date:	2019
Abstract:	Biodiversity monitoring at simultaneously fine spatial resolutions and large spatial extents is needed but limited by operational trade-offs and costs. Open-access data may be cost-effective to address those limitations. We test the use of open-access satellite imagery (NDVI texture variables) and biodiversity data, assembled from GBIF, to investigate the relative importance of variables of habitat extent and structure as indicators of bird community richness and dissimilarity in the Alentejo region (Portugal). Results show that, at the landscape scale, forest bird richness is better indicated by the availability of tree cover in the overall landscape than by the extent or structure of the forest habitats. Open-land birds also respond to landscape structure, namely to the spectral homogeneity and size of open-land patches and to the presence of perennial vegetation amid herbaceous habitats. Moreover, structure variables were more important than climate variables or geographic distance to explain community dissimilarity patterns at the regional scale. Overall, summer imagery, when perennial vegetation is more discernible, is particularly suited to inform indicators of forest and open-land bird community richness and dissimilarity, while spring imagery appears to be also useful to inform indicators of open-land bird richness.
Grants:	European Commission 641762 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2014/SGR-1491 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2015-69888-P
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Biodiversity ; Community ecology
Published in:	Scientific reports, Vol. 9 (May 2019) , art. 6826, ISSN 2045-2322

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-43330-3
PMID: 31048757

13 p, 2.3 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Grupo de Investigación Métodos y Aplicaciones en Teledetección y Sistemas de Información Geográfica (GRUMETS)
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles