Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

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Multivolume work

Persistent identifier:: 856665355

Title:: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

Sub title:: techniques and impacts ; September 17 - 21, 1990, Victoria Conference Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Year of publication:: 1990

Place of publication:: Victoria, BC

Publisher of the original:: [Verlag nicht ermittelbar]

Identifier (digital):: 856665355

Language:: English

Document type:: Multivolume work

Volume

Persistent identifier:: 856669164

Title:: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

Sub title:: techniques and impacts; September 17 - 21, 1990, Victoria Conference Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Scope:: XIV, 912 Seiten

Year of publication:: 1990

Place of publication:: Victoria, BC

Publisher of the original:: [Verlag nicht ermittelbar]

Identifier (digital):: 856669164

Illustration:: Illustrationen, Diagramme, Karten

Signature of the source:: ZS 312(28,7,1)

Language:: English

Usage licence:: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Editor:: International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Commission of Photographic and Remote Sensing Data

Publisher of the digital copy:: Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover

Place of publication of the digital copy:: Hannover

Year of publication of the original:: 2016

Document type:: Volume

Collection:: Earth sciences

Chapter

Title:: [TP-1 GLOBAL MONITORING (1)]

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Chapter

Title:: MONITORING BIODIVERSITY AND LANDSCAPE RICHNESS WITH DIGITAL EARTH IMAGERY. Richard H. Podolsky

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

MONITORING BIODIVERSITY AND LANDSCAPE RICHNESS WITH DIGITAL EARTH IMAGERY Richard H. Podolsky The Island Institute, 60 Ocean Street, Rockland, Maine, USA 04841 ABSTRACT Measuring and monitoring biodiversity and landscape richness for large portions of the earth is becoming increasingly important due to the acceleration of human impact on ecosystems. However, methods to do so have eluded ecologists. Here I present a method to estimate landscape diversity for large sections of the earth directly from digital imagery. Landscape diversity was calculated by applying the Shannon-Weaver diversity index to data extracted from digital earth imagery. This index measures diversity by examining the “predictability” in a given data stream. The data supplied by the digital imagery to this diversity model are the area measurements for each spectral class in all or a portion of a SPOT multispectral image. Spectral classes appear to correlate well to specific habitats. Thus, the diversity of spectral classes for any point on earth is assumed to be a measure of habitat or landscape diversity. Area measurements for each habitat are extracted directly from the SPOT imagery via a pixel tallying routine mediated by GAIA software on a Macintosh II computer. Landscape diversity and richness was calculated for the 423 islands in a SPOT Multi Spectral (MS) image. Generally, patterns of island diversity yielded results consistent with island biogeography theory. For example, landscape diversity of islands correlated positively to island size and convolutedness of island shorelines. Data also yielded a positive correlation between island landscape diversity and the richness of mammal species on 18 islands. Monitoring and ultimately ensuring the biodiversity of the earth is of critical importance and it appears that digital earth image data sets and other remotely sensed data can play a vital role in this endeavor. KEY WORDS: diversity, biodiversity, landscape, island, digital, imagery, global- monitoring. INTRODUCTION The richness and diversity of ecological systems have long fascinated ecologists. This fascination has focused on both the theoretical, for example, the relationship between a given system’s diversity and its stability, and the practical implications of diversity. On the practical side, the general perception of ecologists and conservation biologists is that, all things being equal, diverse systems are more worthy of preservation relative to simpler systems (Wilson 1988). The reason for this is that diverse ecosystems appear to support richer assemblages of plants and animals than do simple ones. However, it must be pointed out that many “simple” systems support rare or endangered species whose protection is also critical. The rate of human impact on the earth’s surface has greatly accelerated in the second half of this century and is likely to accelerate further in the next 50 years. Thus we are faced with having to apply a triage approach to the question of which landscapes we should be preserving. Consequently, a methodology that quickly identifies regions of the earth with high diversity is of keen interest. The data and methodology reported here was motivated by this need for an efficient way of extracting estimates of relative diversity or richness at the landscape level. Ecologists recognize three levels of diversity: alpha diversity (also called species diversity) which measures taxon diversity within a given ecosystem or habitat; beta diversity (also called landscape diversity) which measures diversity of habitats or landscapes within an ecosystem; and gamma diversity, which is the 42

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