Remote Sensing of Neotropical Migrant Breeding Bird Habitat
Scott
Goetz, Woods Hole Research Center, sgoetz@whrc.org
Daniel
Steinberg, Woods Hole Research Center, null
Matthew
Betts, Oregon State University, null
Richard
Holmes, Dartmouth University, null
Patrick
Doran, The Nature Conservancy, null
Ralph
Dubayah, University of Maryland, dubayah@umd.edu
(Presenting)
Mindy
Sun, WHRC, null
Michelle
Hofton, University of Maryland, null
A topic of considerable interest in ecological research is the degree to which vegetation structure influences the distribution and abundance of species. We tested the applicability of remote sensing, particularly novel use of waveform lidar measurements, for quantifying the habitat heterogeneity of a northern hardwoods forest in the northeastern United States. We apply these results to predict the breeding habitat quality of the black-throated blue warbler (Dendroica caerulescens). We found that using canopy vertical structure metrics provided unique information for models of habitat quality and spatial patterns of prevalence. An ensemble decision tree modeling approach (Random Forests) consistently identified lidar metrics describing the vertical distribution and complexity of canopy elements as important predictors of habitat use over multiple years. Although other aspects of habitat were important, including the seasonality of vegetation cover, the canopy structure variables provided unique and complementary information that systematically improved model predictions. We conclude that canopy structure metrics derived from waveform lidar can advance multiple aspects of biodiversity research and additional studies should be extended to other organisms and regions.
Presentation Type: Poster
Poster Session: Ecosystems Science
NASA TE Funded Awards Represented:
Dubayah, Ralph
Integrating Vegetation 3D Structure and Ecological modeling for Continental Scale Assessments of Biodiversity, Biomass and Disturbance