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Priority list of biodiversity metrics to observe from space

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 5, pages 896–906 (2021)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 25 October 2021

An Author Correction to this article was published on 19 July 2021

An Author Correction to this article was published on 24 May 2021

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Abstract

Monitoring global biodiversity from space through remotely sensing geospatial patterns has high potential to add to our knowledge acquired by field observation. Although a framework of essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) is emerging for monitoring biodiversity, its poor alignment with remote sensing products hinders interpolation between field observations. This study compiles a comprehensive, prioritized list of remote sensing biodiversity products that can further improve the monitoring of geospatial biodiversity patterns, enhancing the EBV framework and its applicability. The ecosystem structure and ecosystem function EBV classes, which capture the biological effects of disturbance as well as habitat structure, are shown by an expert review process to be the most relevant, feasible, accurate and mature for direct monitoring of biodiversity from satellites. Biodiversity products that require satellite remote sensing of a finer resolution that is still under development are given lower priority (for example, for the EBV class species traits). Some EBVs are not directly measurable by remote sensing from space, specifically the EBV class genetic composition. Linking remote sensing products to EBVs will accelerate product generation, improving reporting on the state of biodiversity from local to global scales.

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Fig. 1: Ranking and scoring approach for example remote sensing products.
Fig. 2: Flow chart for the scoring and ranking of remote sensing biodiversity products.
Fig. 3: Example prioritization of three remote sensing biodiversity products.

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Acknowledgements

This project has received support from the European Space Agency GlobDiversity project, the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement 834709), the NextGEOSS project (grant agreement 730329, H2020-EU.3.5.5) and e-Shape (grant agreement 820852, H2020-EU.3.5.5). The project workshops were supported by the GEO BON Secretariat at iDiv (DFG-FZT 118, project 202548816) (Leipzig, Germany), the European Space Agency (Frascati, Italy) and the University of Twente (Enschede, the Netherlands). W.D.K. acknowledges financial support from the Faculty of Science, Research Cluster Global Ecology, University of Amsterdam. F.E.M.-K. received support from NASA grants NNX14AP62A, 80NSSC20K0017 and NA19NOS0120199. The contribution of M.E.S. is supported by the UZH URPP GCB. P.V. acknowledges the IBC-Carbon Project funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) at the Academy of Finland (grant number 312559) and the Finnish Ecosystem Observatory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands

    Andrew K. Skidmore, Elnaz Neinavaz, Abebe Ali, Roshanak Darvishzadeh, Marcelle C. Lock & Tiejun Wang

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Andrew K. Skidmore & Marcelle C. Lock

  3. Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Nicholas C. Coops

  4. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wollo University, Dessie, Ethiopia

    Abebe Ali

  5. Remote Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Michael E. Schaepman & Claudia Roeoesli

  6. European Space Research Institute (ESRIN), European Space Agency, Frascati, Italy

    Marc Paganini

  7. Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    W. Daniel Kissling

  8. Biodiversity Centre, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Helsinki, Finland

    Petteri Vihervaara

  9. Institute of Geographical Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Hannes Feilhauer

  10. Remote Sensing Center for Earth System Research, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Hannes Feilhauer

  11. NatureServe, Arlington, VA, USA

    Miguel Fernandez

  12. George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Miguel Fernandez

  13. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, Germany

    Néstor Fernández

  14. Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Néstor Fernández

  15. Google, Zurich, Switzerland

    Noel Gorelick

  16. Tour du Valat, Arles, France

    Ilse Geijzendorffer

  17. Earth Observation Center (EOC), Remote Sensing Technology Institute, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

    Uta Heiden & Stefanie Holzwarth

  18. Department of Visitor Management and National Park Monitoring, Bavarian Forest National Park Administration, Grafenau, Germany

    Marco Heurich

  19. Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Marco Heurich

  20. GBIF Secretariat, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Donald Hobern

  21. College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St Petersburg, FL, USA

    Frank E. Muller-Karger

  22. Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium

    Ruben Van De Kerchove

  23. Computational Landscape Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Leipzig, Germany

    Angela Lausch

  24. Geography Department, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Angela Lausch

  25. Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    Pedro J. Leitão

  26. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Pedro J. Leitão

  27. Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands

    Caspar A. Mücher

  28. UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK

    Brian O’Connor

  29. Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Duccio Rocchini

  30. Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

    Duccio Rocchini

  31. Earth Science Division, NASA, Washington DC, USA

    Woody Turner

  32. Unilever Europe B.V., Rotterdam, the Netherlands

    Jan Kees Vis

  33. Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Wuerzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Martin Wegmann

  34. Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management, Geographisches Institut, Universität Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Vladimir Wingate

Authors
  1. Andrew K. Skidmore
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  2. Nicholas C. Coops
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  3. Elnaz Neinavaz
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  4. Abebe Ali
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  5. Michael E. Schaepman
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  6. Marc Paganini
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  7. W. Daniel Kissling
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  8. Petteri Vihervaara
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  9. Roshanak Darvishzadeh
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  10. Hannes Feilhauer
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  11. Miguel Fernandez
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  12. Néstor Fernández
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  13. Noel Gorelick
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  14. Ilse Geijzendorffer
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  15. Uta Heiden
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  16. Marco Heurich
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  17. Donald Hobern
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  18. Stefanie Holzwarth
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  19. Frank E. Muller-Karger
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  20. Ruben Van De Kerchove
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  21. Angela Lausch
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  22. Pedro J. Leitão
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  23. Marcelle C. Lock
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  24. Caspar A. Mücher
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  25. Brian O’Connor
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  26. Duccio Rocchini
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  27. Claudia Roeoesli
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  28. Woody Turner
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  29. Jan Kees Vis
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  30. Tiejun Wang
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  31. Martin Wegmann
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  32. Vladimir Wingate
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Contributions

A.K.S. contributed to conceptualization, supervision, validation, visualization and analysis, as well as writing of the original draft preparation, review and editing. E.N. and A.A. contributed to conceptualization, investigation, analysis, writing, reviewing and editing. N.C.C., M.E.S., W.D.K. and R.D. contributed to conceptualization, visualization and analysis, as well as writing, reviewing and editing. M.P., P.V., H.F., M.F., N.F., N.G., I.G., U.H., M.H., D.H., S.H., F.E.M.-K., R.V.D.K., A.L., P.J.L., M.C.L., C.A.M., B.O., D.R., C.R., W.T., J.K.V., T.W., M.W. and V.W. contributed to conceptualization, analysis and reviewing the draft.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew K. Skidmore.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks Jeannine Cavender-Bares and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Tables 1–4.

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Skidmore, A.K., Coops, N.C., Neinavaz, E. et al. Priority list of biodiversity metrics to observe from space. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 896–906 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01451-x

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