Project Funding: 2018 - 2021

NRA: 2016 NASA: Group on Earth Observations Work Programme   

Funded by NASA

Abstract:
Biodiversity and the many ecosystem functions and services it underpins are undergoing significant changes worldwide scientifically rigorous information is needed to monitor their status and trends. Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) capture key constituent components of biodiversity change. Facilitated by the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) efforts are now underway to conceptualize, develop and deliver these essential components to enable a more focused, integrated and effective biodiversity monitoring and provision of national indicators in support of assessment and policy. The EBV class ‘Species Populations addresses the most fundamental aspects of biodiversity change, the variation of species geographic distributions and abundances in space and time. A GEO BON Working Group is currently advancing the concept frameworks, methods and infrastructure for a generalizable capture of spatial and temporal variation in species populations and support the delivery of EBV and indicator products for policy and management at national and global scales. Proposal PI Jetz and Co-PI McGeoch are the Co-Leads of the GEO BON Species Populations Working group, and the goal of the proposed work is to explore, demonstrate, and deliver key advances for species population EBVs and indicators enabled by remote sensing coupled to novel in-situ data sources. Species occurrence and abundance data are spatially and temporally sparse and biased, limiting appropriate EBV development based on just this ‘in situ’ information to small spatial extents and few species. Remote sensing, especially global products at high resolution and now extensive temporal coverage such as MODIS and Landsat, provide a powerful complement. Remotely sensed products, when coupled with growing in situ species data, and with models increasingly capable of handling disparate input data, are enabling predictions about species population change for unsampled locations at national and global scales and for an increasing number of species. In the proposed work, we will undertake select activities to advance the use of remote-sensing data for species distribution and abundance modelling. We are strategically including partners (as Co-Is and named Collaborators) with ongoing projects in this area that allow us to combine a range of activities and achieve synergies. We are also able to benefit from GEO BON partner Map of Life (https://mol.org, PI Jetz, Co-I Guralnick) as modelling and web- infrastructure that ensure the effective and continued delivery of results to GEO BON and national and global stakeholders. First, we will advance the use of inventory datasets such as camera trapping and plant plot survey data combined with remote sensing data, as these (in combination with broadly-available incidental point records) enable the use of more sophisticated models for assessing change in occurrence and abundance. Second, using these data we will improve and demonstrate modelling methods that are particularly well-suited for assessing population change when combined with remote sensing. Third, we will build on these two efforts to deliver a range of spatial and, as possible, spatio-temporal EBV products for select species in North America (birds, mammals), South Africa (Proteas), and globally (select terrestrial vertebrates), including in particular select invasive species. Fourth, we will use these EBVs to provide improved information for indicators that have been endorsed by the CBD (https://www.cbd.int) and (as core indicator) by IPBES (http://www.ipbes.net). Our proposal thus responds to the key GEO BON call elements, including advancement of EBV methodology, EBV and indicator production, and provision of information relevant for BONs. The proposed project is endorsed by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group, and the South African Environmental Observation Network.

Publications:

Cohen, J., Jetz, W. 2023. Diverse strategies for tracking seasonal environmental niches at hemispheric scale. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 32(9), 1549-1560. DOI: 10.1111/geb.13722

Ellis-Soto, D., Merow, C., Amatulli, G., Parra, J. L., Jetz, W. 2021. Continental-scale 1 km hummingbird diversity derived from fusing point records with lateral and elevational expert information. Ecography. 44(4), 640-652. DOI: 10.1111/ecog.05119

Hansen, A. J., Noble, B. P., Veneros, J., East, A., Goetz, S. J., Supples, C., Watson, J. E. M., Jantz, P. A., Pillay, R., Jetz, W., Ferrier, S., Grantham, H. S., Evans, T. D., Ervin, J., Venter, O., Virnig, A. L. S. 2021. Toward monitoring forest ecosystem integrity within the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Conservation Letters. 14(4). DOI: 10.1111/conl.12822

Hoskins, A. J., Harwood, T. D., Ware, C., Williams, K. J., Perry, J. J., Ota, N., Croft, J. R., Yeates, D. K., Jetz, W., Golebiewski, M., Purvis, A., Robertson, T., Ferrier, S. 2020. BILBI: Supporting global biodiversity assessment through high-resolution macroecological modelling. Environmental Modelling & Software. 132, 104806. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104806

Jetz, W., McGeoch, M. A., Guralnick, R., Ferrier, S., Beck, J., Costello, M. J., Fernandez, M., Geller, G. N., Keil, P., Merow, C., Meyer, C., Muller-Karger, F. E., Pereira, H. M., Regan, E. C., Schmeller, D. S., Turak, E. 2019. Essential biodiversity variables for mapping and monitoring species populations. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 3(4), 539-551. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-0826-1

Jetz, W., McGowan, J., Rinnan, D. S., Possingham, H. P., Visconti, P., O'Donnell, B., Londono-Murcia, M. C. 2021. Include biodiversity representation indicators in area-based conservation targets. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 6(2), 123-126. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01620-y

Karger, D. N., Kessler, M., Lehnert, M., Jetz, W. 2021. Limited protection and ongoing loss of tropical cloud forest biodiversity and ecosystems worldwide. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 5(6), 854-862. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01450-y

Karger, D. N., Wilson, A. M., Mahony, C., Zimmermann, N. E., Jetz, W. 2021. Global daily 1 km land surface precipitation based on cloud cover-informed downscaling. Scientific Data. 8(1). DOI: 10.1038/s41597-021-01084-6

Li, R., Ranipeta, A., Wilshire, J., Malczyk, J., Duong, M., Guralnick, R., Wilson, A., Jetz, W. 2021. A cloud-based toolbox for the versatile environmental annotation of biodiversity data. PLOS Biology. 19(11), e3001460. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001460

Lu, M., Jetz, W. 2023. Scale-sensitivity in the measurement and interpretation of environmental niches. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 38(6), 554-567. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.01.003

Lu, M., Jetz, W. 2023. Scale-sensitivity in the measurement and interpretation of environmental niches. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 38(6), 554-567. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.01.003

Lu, M., Vasseur, D., Jetz, W. 2019. Beta Diversity Patterns Derived from Island Biogeography Theory. The American Naturalist. 194(3), E52-E65. DOI: 10.1086/704181

Lu, M., Winner, K., Jetz, W. 2021. A unifying framework for quantifying and comparing n-dimensional hypervolumes. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 12(10), 1953-1968. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13665

McGeoch, M. A., Arle, E., Belmaker, J., Buba, Y., Clarke, D. A., Essl, F., Garcia-Berthou, E., Groom, Q., Henriksen, M. V., Jetz, W., Kuhn, I., Lenzner, B., Meyer, C., Pagad, S., Pili, A., Roige, M., Seebens, H., Tingley, R., Vicente, J. R., Wilson, J. R., Winter, M. Policy-relevant indicators for invasive alien species assessment and reporting DOI: 10.1101/2021.08.26.457851

McGeoch, M., Jetz, W. 2019. Measure and Reduce the Harm Caused by Biological Invasions. One Earth. 1(2), 171-174. DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2019.10.003

McGeoch, M., Jetz, W. 2019. Measure and Reduce the Harm Caused by Biological Invasions. One Earth. 1(2), 171-174. DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2019.10.003

Moura, M. R., Ceron, K., Guedes, J. J. M., Sica, Y. V., Hart, J., Dorman, W., Gonzalez-del-Pliego, P., Ranipeta, A., Catenazzi, A., Werneck, F. P., Toledo, L. F., Upham, N. S., Tonini, J. F. R., Colston, T. J., Guralnick, R., Bowie, R. C. K., Pyron, R. A., Jetz, W. A phylogeny-informed characterization of global tetrapod traits addresses data gaps and biases DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.04.531098

Moura, M. R., Ceron, K., Guedes, J. J. M., Sica, Y. V., Hart, J., Dorman, W., Gonzalez-del-Pliego, P., Ranipeta, A., Catenazzi, A., Werneck, F. P., Toledo, L. F., Upham, N. S., Tonini, J. F. R., Colston, T. J., Guralnick, R., Bowie, R. C. K., Pyron, R. A., Jetz, W. A phylogeny-informed characterization of global tetrapod traits addresses data gaps and biases DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.04.531098

Moura, M. R., Jetz, W. 2021. Shortfalls and opportunities in terrestrial vertebrate species discovery. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 5(5), 631-639. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01411-5

Oliver, R. Y., Iannarilli, F., Ahumada, J., Fegraus, E., Flores, N., Kays, R., Birch, T., Ranipeta, A., Rogan, M. S., Sica, Y. V., Jetz, W. 2023. Camera trapping expands the view into global biodiversity and its change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 378(1881). DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0232

Oliver, R. Y., Iannarilli, F., Ahumada, J., Fegraus, E., Flores, N., Kays, R., Birch, T., Ranipeta, A., Rogan, M. S., Sica, Y. V., Jetz, W. 2023. Camera trapping expands the view into global biodiversity and its change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 378(1881). DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0232

Oliver, R. Y., Meyer, C., Ranipeta, A., Winner, K., Jetz, W. 2021. Global and national trends, gaps, and opportunities in documenting and monitoring species distributions. PLOS Biology. 19(8), e3001336. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001336

Oliver, R. Y., Meyer, C., Ranipeta, A., Winner, K., Jetz, W. Global and national trends in documenting and monitoring species distributions DOI: 10.1101/2020.11.03.367011

Rinnan, D. S., Reygondeau, G., McGowan, J., Lam, V., Sumaila, R., Ranipeta, A., Kaschner, K., Garilao, C., Cheung, W. L., Jetz, W. Targeted, collaborative biodiversity conservation in the global ocean can benefit fisheries economies DOI: 10.1101/2021.04.23.441004

Rinnan, D. S., Sica, Y., Ranipeta, A., Wilshire, J., Jetz, W. Multi-scale planning helps resolve global conservation needs with regional priorities DOI: 10.1101/2020.02.05.936047

Simkin, R. D., Seto, K. C., McDonald, R. I., Jetz, W. 2022. Biodiversity impacts and conservation implications of urban land expansion projected to 2050. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119(12). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2117297119

Simkin, R. D., Seto, K. C., McDonald, R. I., Jetz, W. 2022. Biodiversity impacts and conservation implications of urban land expansion projected to 2050. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119(12). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2117297119

Slingsby, J. A., Moncrieff, G. R., Wilson, A. M. 2020. Near-real time forecasting and change detection for an open ecosystem with complex natural dynamics. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. 166, 15-25. DOI: 10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2020.05.017

Williams, H. M., Siegrist, J., Wilson, A. M. 2020. Support for a relationship between demography and modeled habitat suitability is scale dependent for the purple martin Progne subis. Journal of Animal Ecology. 90(2), 356-366. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13369

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

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