Demonstration of a satellite-based index to monitor habitat at continental-scales

abstract An important initial step in the conservation and sustainable management of the Earth’sbiodiversity is to implement systems to both identify and subsequently monitor compo-nents of biological diversity, along with developing a better understanding of the processesthat significantly threaten their conservation or sustainable use. Key factors in both speciesdiversity and richness are related to environmental heterogeneity which is driven bytemporal and spatial variation in the biological, physical, and chemical features of theenvironment. These environmental characteristics are manifest through the condition andchange in vegetation productivity (considered as an integrated response of vegetation toclimate and soil conditions). Earth observation is uniquely capable of synoptically coveringlargeareasoftheplanetinarepeatable,andcosteffectivemanner,andisawell-establishedtechnology for detecting terrestrial vegetation productivity. A recently developed dynamichabitat index (DHI), based on satellite observations of the fraction of radiation absorbed bythecanopy(fPAR),hasbeenshowntoeffectivelyclusterremotelysensedobservationsintoarange of habitat regimes which in turn have been related to breeding bird surveys in theCanadian Province of Ontario and across the conterminous United States. With evidencethat the index is well correlated with species diversity, we consider, in this subsequentpaper, whether such an index is a suitable candidate as a continental index to characterizeand subsequently monitor habitat conditions. To do so, we first utilise available fPAR dataavailable from 2000 to 2005 over North America, and apply the index. Using information oncontinental terrestrial ecozones and their ecological distinctiveness, we then compare andcontrast the index and utilize trajectory analysis to assess what changes have occurred inthe index overthe 6-year timeperiod andpossibleimplicationsfor continental biodiversity.The potential application of the index is the discussed.# 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 604 8226452; fax: +1 604 8229106.E-mail address: nicholas.coops@ubc.ca (N.C. Coops).