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Ecological restoration is becoming a primary strategy to increase provisions of ecosystem services and reverse biodiversity losses. In cultural landscapes undergoing land use extensification, rewilding has been proposed as a viable approach to reverse biodiversity loss through reducing human impacts. The world's largest ecological restoration campaign is taking place on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) to combat grassland degradation and enhance the upper stream region's water retention capacity. However, little is known about whether the large-scale rewilding also benefits the unique bird assemblage of the eastern QTP. Our study aims to make science-based conservation recommendations for the Tibetan avifauna by detecting their diversity and endemism distribution patterns at the local scale. In the breeding seasons of 2014 and 2015, we carried out bird surveys and conducted a habitat mapping using three Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). We developed a comprehensive set of 2D and 3D habitat feature parameters from the high-resolution (10 cm level) UAV-derived images. Meanwhile, we employed the participatory GIS approach to acquire farm-scale human land-use data. Our results indicate that the distributions of avian diversity, endemism and abundance are not congruent across the eastern QTP, which calls for the conservation of different habitat types. Vertical and horizontal habitat heterogeneity maintain the local bird diversity with anthropogenic elements significantly enriching the overall bird abundance. Degraded pastures provided key habitats for two highly abundant endemic passerines—the White-rumped Snowfinch Onychostruthus taczanowskii and the Ground Tit Pseudopodoces humilis. At the landscape scale, historical human-nature interactions between Tibetan nomads and the alpine environment formed the landscape's patchy vegetation structure. Our results reveal that the Tibetan cultural landscape maintains the structural heterogeneity needed to achieve multiple bird conservation objectives on the eastern QTP. Restoring the cultural landscape to a ‘natural’ tall-grass or dense-shrubland state of high water-retention capacity may result in the loss of both high-abundance avian communities and endemic species diversity. Our empirical study also indicated that rewilding abandoned agricultural landscape will not necessarily lead to a desired conservation outcome, especially when the requirements of habitat specialists and endemics are not taken into account. Moreover, ecological restoration projects should evaluate the divergences between their ecosystem service and biodiversity objectives.
Li Li; Dieter Thomas Tietze; Andreas Fritz; Zhi Lü; Matthias Bürgi; Ilse Storch. Rewilding cultural landscape potentially puts both avian diversity and endemism at risk: A Tibetan Plateau case study. Biological Conservation 2018, 224, 75 -86.
AMA StyleLi Li, Dieter Thomas Tietze, Andreas Fritz, Zhi Lü, Matthias Bürgi, Ilse Storch. Rewilding cultural landscape potentially puts both avian diversity and endemism at risk: A Tibetan Plateau case study. Biological Conservation. 2018; 224 ():75-86.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLi Li; Dieter Thomas Tietze; Andreas Fritz; Zhi Lü; Matthias Bürgi; Ilse Storch. 2018. "Rewilding cultural landscape potentially puts both avian diversity and endemism at risk: A Tibetan Plateau case study." Biological Conservation 224, no. : 75-86.
In northern Argentina, the assessment of degraded forests is a big challenge for both science and practice, due to their heterogeneous structure. However, new technologies could contribute to mapping post-disturbance canopy cover and basal area in detail. Therefore, this research assesses whether or not the inclusion of partial cover unmanned aerial vehicle imagery could reduce the classification error of a SPOT6 image used in an area-based inventory. BA was calculated from 77 ground inventory plots over 3944 ha of a forest affected by mixed-severity fires in the Argentinian Yungas. In total, 74% of the area was covered with UAV flights, and canopy height models were calculated to estimate partial canopy cover at three tree height classes. Basal area and partial canopy cover were used to formulate the adjusted canopy cover index, and it was calculated for 70 ground plots and an additional 20 image plots. Four classes of fire severity were created based on basal area and adjusted canopy cover index, and were used to run two supervised classifications over a segmented (algorithm multiresolution) wall-to-wall SPOT6 image. The comparison of the Cohan’s Kappa coefficient of both classifications shows that they are not significantly different (p-value: 0.43). However, the approach based on the adjusted canopy cover index achieved more homogeneous strata (Welch t-test with 95% of confidence). Additionally, UAV-derived canopy height model estimates of tree height were compared with field measurements of 71 alive trees. The canopy height models underestimated tree height with an RMSE ranging from 2.8 to 8.3 m. The best accuracy of the canopy height model was achieved using a larger pixel size (10 m), and for lower stocked plots due to high fire severity.
Fernando Rossi; Andreas Fritz; Gero Becker. Combining Satellite and UAV Imagery to Delineate Forest Cover and Basal Area after Mixed-Severity Fires. Sustainability 2018, 10, 2227 .
AMA StyleFernando Rossi, Andreas Fritz, Gero Becker. Combining Satellite and UAV Imagery to Delineate Forest Cover and Basal Area after Mixed-Severity Fires. Sustainability. 2018; 10 (7):2227.
Chicago/Turabian StyleFernando Rossi; Andreas Fritz; Gero Becker. 2018. "Combining Satellite and UAV Imagery to Delineate Forest Cover and Basal Area after Mixed-Severity Fires." Sustainability 10, no. 7: 2227.
Species–habitat relationships are of core interest in ecological studies. In this research, we explored the potential of small, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to derive a comprehensive set of habitat predictors to explain distribution variance of an alpine bird community in Jikdril county, on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). In 2014 and 2015, we carried out two breeding season bird surveys on 140 plots, from eight sample blocks in the Nyanpo Yutse region. In summer 2014, we conducted 39 flights over the eight sample blocks, and obtained 5500 images which covered 45 km2 of alpine grassland habitat. We used photogrammetry software to generate high-resolution orthophotos and digital surface models with an average pixel size of 13 cm. We derived both 3D- and 2D-UAV-based models as habitat predictors used to analyze explained variance in the local bird community at four different sample scales (plot radii of 50 m, 100 m, 150 m and 200 m). We performed canonical correspondence analyses (CCA), with a model-building approach based on permutation. Furthermore, the proportion of total variance explained by each predictor group was calculated, and analysis of results showed that UAV data derived predictors played a significant role in explaining the variance of the sampled bird community on the QTP. In particular, 3D-based predictors contributed strongly to the explanation of variance (50 m: 45.44%, 100 m: 44.60%, 150 m: 49.21%, 200 m: 36.22% of the total explained variance per sample size), followed by 2D-based predictors over the same four sample scales (50 m: 35.45%, 100 m: 34.57%, 150 m: 31.19%, 200 m: 39.48%). Our results indicate that a sample plot scale of 150–200 m radius leads to the most comprehensive explanation of variance (all predictors: 39.59%, P < 0.0001 and 39.13% P < 0.0001). UAV data provide us with fine-scale (10 cm resolution) continuous raster data on land cover, topographic and landscape features, which are hard to acquire with conventional habitat measurements. We therefore successfully demonstrate the performance of UAV-derived data in facilitating ecological research at different spatial scales.
Andreas Fritz; Li Li; Ilse Storch; Barbara Koch. UAV-derived habitat predictors contribute strongly to understanding avian species-habitat relationships on the Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation 2018, 4, 53 -65.
AMA StyleAndreas Fritz, Li Li, Ilse Storch, Barbara Koch. UAV-derived habitat predictors contribute strongly to understanding avian species-habitat relationships on the Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation. 2018; 4 (1):53-65.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAndreas Fritz; Li Li; Ilse Storch; Barbara Koch. 2018. "UAV-derived habitat predictors contribute strongly to understanding avian species-habitat relationships on the Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau." Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation 4, no. 1: 53-65.
Fabian Fassnacht; Li Li; Andreas Fritz. Mapping degraded grassland on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau with multi-temporal Landsat 8 data — where do the severely degraded areas occur? International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 2015, 42, 115 -127.
AMA StyleFabian Fassnacht, Li Li, Andreas Fritz. Mapping degraded grassland on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau with multi-temporal Landsat 8 data — where do the severely degraded areas occur? International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. 2015; 42 ():115-127.
Chicago/Turabian StyleFabian Fassnacht; Li Li; Andreas Fritz. 2015. "Mapping degraded grassland on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau with multi-temporal Landsat 8 data — where do the severely degraded areas occur?" International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 42, no. : 115-127.