Project Funding: 2007 - 2012

NRA: 2006 NASA: Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science   

Funded by NASA

Abstract:
Three primary determinants of biodiversity include habitat structure, climatic stability, and productivity. Natural and anthropogenic disturbances alter all of these determinants and may therefore play a large role in influencing patterns of biodiversity. We propose to measure and predict the effects of disturbance on biodiversity in the conterminous U.S. through remote sensing techniques and long-term, broad-scale datasets. Our analysis will encompass three broad disturbance types (extreme weather, fire, and anthropogenic disturbance) and their effects on aspects of avian biodiversity (species richness, similarity of the avian community, and abundance of selected species). The Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) provides historic, annual data on avian biodiversity across the U.S. We will examine avian communities before and after disturbance, and will pair BBS routes that experienced disturbance with BBS routes that remained undisturbed. To quantify the magnitude of fire, heat, and drought disturbance events, we will use MODIS fire, surface temperature, and LAI/NPP products. We will also use Landsat TM/ETM+ derived forest disturbance data (LEDAPS) to develop algorithms that quantify the magnitude of disturbance caused by storms, clearcuts, fragmentation, and housing development. To relate disturbance to biodiversity, we will develop new statistical procedures that not only answer our research questions, but also represent a major advance in statistics by testing several new model selection approaches, some of which (Bayesian hierarchical modeling) have never been applied in biodiversity or remote sensing studies. Understanding determinants of biodiversity pattern is a major scientific challenge of our times. This project has the potential to substantially contribute to the understanding of processes underlying biodiversity pattern, to the nascent of field of remote sensing of biodiversity, and to society at large struggling to protect biodiversity in the face of increasing human land use and land cover change.

Publications:

Albright, T. P., Pidgeon, A. M., Rittenhouse, C. D., Clayton, M. K., Flather, C. H., Culbert, P. D., Radeloff, V. C. 2011. Heat waves measured with MODIS land surface temperature data predict changes in avian community structure. Remote Sensing of Environment. 115(1), 245-254. DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2010.08.024

ALBRIGHT, T. P., PIDGEON, A. M., RITTENHOUSE, C. D., CLAYTON, M. K., FLATHER, C. H., CULBERT, P. D., WARDLOW, B. D., RADELOFF, V. C. 2009. Effects of drought on avian community structure. Global Change Biology. 16(8), 2158-2170. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.02120.x

Albright, T. P., Pidgeon, A. M., Rittenhouse, C. D., Clayton, M. K., Wardlow, B. D., Flather, C. H., Culbert, P. D., Radeloff, V. C. 2010. Combined effects of heat waves and droughts on avian communities across the conterminous United States. Ecosphere. 1(5), art12. DOI: 10.1890/es10-00057.1

Allstadt, A. J., Vavrus, S. J., Heglund, P. J., Pidgeon, A. M., Thogmartin, W. E., Radeloff, V. C. 2015. Spring plant phenology and false springs in the conterminous US during the 21st century. Environmental Research Letters. 10(10), 104008. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/10/10/104008

Bateman, B. L., Pidgeon, A. M., Radeloff, V. C., Allstadt, A. J., Resit Akcakaya, H., Thogmartin, W. E., Vavrus, S. J., Heglund, P. J. 2015. The importance of range edges for an irruptive species during extreme weather events. Landscape Ecology. 30(6), 1095-1110. DOI: 10.1007/s10980-015-0212-6

Bateman, B. L., Pidgeon, A. M., Radeloff, V. C., Flather, C. H., VanDerWal, J., Akcakaya, H. R., Thogmartin, W. E., Albright, T. P., Vavrus, S. J., Heglund, P. J. 2016. Potential breeding distributions of U.S. birds predicted with both short-term variability and long-term average climate data. Ecological Applications. 26(8), 2720-2731. DOI: 10.1002/eap.1416

Bateman, B. L., Pidgeon, A. M., Radeloff, V. C., VanDerWal, J., Thogmartin, W. E., Vavrus, S. J., Heglund, P. J. 2015. The pace of past climate change vs. potential bird distributions and land use in the United States. Global Change Biology. 22(3), 1130-1144. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13154

Bragina, E. V., Ives, A. R., Pidgeon, A. M., Kuemmerle, T., Baskin, L. M., Gubar, Y. P., Piquer-Rodriguez, M., Keuler, N. S., Petrosyan, V. G., Radeloff, V. C. 2015. Rapid declines of large mammal populations after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Conservation Biology. 29(3), 844-853. DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12450

Bragina, E. V., Radeloff, V. C., Baumann, M., Wendland, K., Kuemmerle, T., Pidgeon, A. M. 2015. Effectiveness of protected areas in the Western Caucasus before and after the transition to post-socialism. Biological Conservation. 184, 456-464. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2015.02.013

Brandt, J. S., Wood, E. M., Pidgeon, A. M., Han, L., Fang, Z., Radeloff, V. C. 2013. Sacred forests are keystone structures for forest bird conservation in southwest China's Himalayan Mountains. Biological Conservation. 166, 34-42. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2013.06.014

BUTSIC, V., RADELOFF, V. C., KUEMMERLE, T., PIDGEON, A. M. 2012. Analytical Solutions to Trade-Offs between Size of Protected Areas and Land-Use Intensity. Conservation Biology. 26(5), 883-893. DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01887.x

Coops, N. C., Waring, R. H., Wulder, M. A., Pidgeon, A. M., Radeloff, V. C. 2009. Bird diversity: a predictable function of satellite-derived estimates of seasonal variation in canopy light absorbance across the United States. Journal of Biogeography. 36(5), 905-918. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.02053.x

Culbert, P. D., Radeloff, V. C., Flather, C. H., Kellndorfer, J. M., Rittenhouse, C. D., Pidgeon, A. M. 2013. The influence of vertical and horizontal habitat structure on nationwide patterns of avian biodiversity. The Auk. 130(4), 656-665. DOI: 10.1525/auk.2013.13007

Culbert, P. D., Radeloff, V. C., St-Louis, V., Flather, C. H., Rittenhouse, C. D., Albright, T. P., Pidgeon, A. M. 2012. Modeling broad-scale patterns of avian species richness across the Midwestern United States with measures of satellite image texture. Remote Sensing of Environment. 118, 140-150. DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2011.11.004

Estes, A. B., Kuemmerle, T., Kushnir, H., Radeloff, V. C., Shugart, H. H. 2012. Land-cover change and human population trends in the greater Serengeti ecosystem from 1984-2003. Biological Conservation. 147(1), 255-263. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2012.01.010

Gorzo, J. M., Pidgeon, A. M., Thogmartin, W. E., Allstadt, A. J., Radeloff, V. C., Heglund, P. J., Vavrus, S. J. 2016. Using the North American Breeding Bird Survey to assess broad-scale response of the continent's most imperiled avian community, grassland birds, to weather variability. The Condor. 118(3), 502-512. DOI: 10.1650/condor-15-180.1

Martinuzzi, S., Allstadt, A. J., Bateman, B. L., Heglund, P. J., Pidgeon, A. M., Thogmartin, W. E., Vavrus, S. J., Radeloff, V. C. 2016. Future frequencies of extreme weather events in the National Wildlife Refuges of the conterminous U.S. Biological Conservation. 201, 327-335. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.07.007

Mutiibwa, D., Vavrus, S. J., McAfee, S. A., Albright, T. P. 2015. Recent spatiotemporal patterns in temperature extremes across conterminous United States. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 120(15), 7378-7392. DOI: 10.1002/2015jd023598

Neumann, W., Martinuzzi, S., Estes, A. B., Pidgeon, A. M., Dettki, H., Ericsson, G., Radeloff, V. C. 2015. Opportunities for the application of advanced remotely-sensed data in ecological studies of terrestrial animal movement. Movement Ecology. 3(1). DOI: 10.1186/s40462-015-0036-7

Newbold, T., Hudson, L. N., Arnell, A. P., Contu, S., De Palma, A., Ferrier, S., Hill, S. L. L., Hoskins, A. J., Lysenko, I., Phillips, H. R. P., Burton, V. J., Chng, C. W. T., Emerson, S., Gao, D., Pask-Hale, G., Hutton, J., Jung, M., Sanchez-Ortiz, K., Simmons, B. I., Whitmee, S., Zhang, H., Scharlemann, J. P. W., Purvis, A. 2016. Has land use pushed terrestrial biodiversity beyond the planetary boundary? A global assessment. Science. 353(6296), 288-291. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf2201

PIDGEON, A. M., FLATHER, C. H., RADELOFF, V. C., LEPCZYK, C. A., KEULER, N. S., WOOD, E. M., STEWART, S. I., HAMMER, R. B. 2014. Systematic Temporal Patterns in the Relationship Between Housing Development and Forest Bird Biodiversity. Conservation Biology. 28(5), 1291-1301. DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12291

Pidgeon, A. M., Radeloff, V. C., Flather, C. H., Lepczyk, C. A., Clayton, M. K., Hawbaker, T. J., Hammer, R. B. 2007. ASSOCIATIONS OF FOREST BIRD SPECIES RICHNESS WITH HOUSING AND LANDSCAPE PATTERNS ACROSS THE USA. Ecological Applications. 17(7), 1989-2010. DOI: 10.1890/06-1489.1

Radeloff, V. C., Beaudry, F., Brooks, T. M., Butsic, V., Dubinin, M., Kuemmerle, T., Pidgeon, A. M. 2012. Hot moments for biodiversity conservation. Conservation Letters. 6(1), 58-65. DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-263x.2012.00290.x

Radeloff, V. C., Williams, J. W., Bateman, B. L., Burke, K. D., Carter, S. K., Childress, E. S., Cromwell, K. J., Gratton, C., Hasley, A. O., Kraemer, B. M., Latzka, A. W., Marin-Spiotta, E., Meine, C. D., Munoz, S. E., Neeson, T. M., Pidgeon, A. M., Rissman, A. R., Rivera, R. J., Szymanski, L. M., Usinowicz, J. 2015. The rise of novelty in ecosystems. Ecological Applications. 25(8), 2051-2068. DOI: 10.1890/14-1781.1

RITTENHOUSE, C. D., PIDGEON, A. M., ALBRIGHT, T. P., CULBERT, P. D., CLAYTON, M. K., FLATHER, C. H., HUANG, C., MASEK, J. G., RADELOFF, V. C. 2010. Avifauna response to hurricanes: regional changes in community similarity. Global Change Biology. 16(3), 905-917. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.02101.x

Rittenhouse, C. D., Pidgeon, A. M., Albright, T. P., Culbert, P. D., Clayton, M. K., Flather, C. H., Huang, C., Masek, J. G., Stewart, S. I., Radeloff, V. C. 2010. Conservation of Forest Birds: Evidence of a Shifting Baseline in Community Structure. PLoS ONE. 5(8), e11938. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011938

Rowhani, P., Lepczyk, C. A., Linderman, M. A., Pidgeon, A. M., Radeloff, V. C., Culbert, P. D., Lambin, E. F. 2008. Variability in Energy Influences Avian Distribution Patterns Across the USA. Ecosystems. 11(6), 854-867. DOI: 10.1007/s10021-008-9165-9

Ryu, H. Y., Shoemaker, K. T., Kneip, E., Pidgeon, A. M., Heglund, P. J., Bateman, B. L., Thogmartin, W. E., Akcakaya, H. R. 2016. Developing population models with data from marked individuals. Biological Conservation. 197, 190-199. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.02.031

SHCHUR, A., BRAGINA, E., SIEBER, A., PIDGEON, A. M., RADELOFF, V. C. 2017. Monitoring selective logging with Landsat satellite imagery reveals that protected forests in Western Siberia experience greater harvest than non-protected forests. Environmental Conservation. 44(2), 191-199. DOI: 10.1017/s0376892916000576

St-Louis, V., Pidgeon, A. M., Kuemmerle, T., Sonnenschein, R., Radeloff, V. C., Clayton, M. K., Locke, B. A., Bash, D., Hostert, P. 2014. Modelling avian biodiversity using raw, unclassified satellite imagery. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 369(1643), 20130197. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0197

Wood, E. M., Brandt, J. S., Pidgeon, A. M., Radeloff, V. C. 2014. Habitat-occupancy associations and tree-species use patterns by breeding birds in Tibetan sacred forests. Biodiversity and Conservation. 24(1), 129-148. DOI: 10.1007/s10531-014-0795-2

Wood, E. M., Pidgeon, A. M., Radeloff, V. C., Helmers, D. P., Culbert, P. D., Keuler, N. S., Flather, C. H. 2015. Long-term avian community response to housing development at the boundary of US protected areas: effect size increases with time. Journal of Applied Ecology. 52(5), 1227-1236. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.12492

Wood, E. M., Pidgeon, A. M., Radeloff, V. C., Helmers, D., Culbert, P. D., Keuler, N. S., Flather, C. H. 2014. Housing development erodes avian community structure in U.S. protected areas. Ecological Applications. 24(6), 1445-1462. DOI: 10.1890/12-1992.1

2011 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Poster(s)

• Timing and geography structure heat wave and drought effects on avian community dynamics   --   (Thomas Albright, Chadwick Rittenhouse, Anna Pidgeon, Patrick Culbert, Murray Clayton, Curtis Flather, Brian Wardlow, Volker Radeloff)   [abstract]

More details may be found in the following project profile(s):

• NASA Biological Diversity & Ecological Conservation (BDEC) Project Profile