Predicting and understanding spatio-temporal dynamics of species recovery : implications for Asian crested ibis Nipponia nippon conservation in China

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31372218) and cofunded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and the ITC Research Fund, Enschede, the Netherlands. We thank Shaanxi Hanzhong Crested Ibis National Nature Reserve for sharing the data of nest site locations. We are grateful to Brendan Wintle, Justin Travis and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on a previous version of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

LiDAR reveals a preference for intermediate visibility by a forest-dwelling ungulate species

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological SocietyAbstract 1. Visibility (viewshed) plays a significant and diverse role in animals' behaviour and fitness. Understanding how visibility influences animal behaviour requires the measurement of habitat visibility at spatial scales commensurate to individual animal choices. However, measuring habitat visibility at a fine spatial scale over a landscape is a challenge, particularly in highly heterogeneous landscapes (e.g. forests). As a result, our ability to model the influence of fine-scale visibility on animal behaviour has been impeded or limited. 2. In this study, we demonstrate the application of the concept of three-dimensional (3D) cumulative viewshed in the study of animal spatial behaviour at a landscape level. Specifically, we employed a newly described approach that combines ter-restrial and airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to measure fine-scale habitat visibility (3D cumulative viewshed) on a continuous scale in forested landscapes. We applied the LiDAR-derived visibility to investigate how visibility in forests affects the summer habitat selection and the movement of 20 GPS- collared female red deer Cervus elaphus in a temperate forest in Germany. We used integrated step selection analysis to determine whether red deer show any preference for fine-scale habitat visibility and whether visibility is related to the rate of movement of red deer. 3. We found that red deer selected intermediate habitat visibility. Their preferred level of visibility during the day was substantially lower than that of night and twilight, whereas the preference was not significantly different between night and twilight. In addition, red deer moved faster in high-visibility areas, possibly mainly to avoid predation and anthropogenic risk. Furthermore, red deer moved most rapidly between locations in the twilight. 4. For the first time, the preference for intermediate habitat visibility and the adap-tion of movement rate to fine-scale visibility by a forest-dwelling ungulate spe-cies at a landscape scale was revealed. The LiDAR technique used in this study offers fine-scale habitat visibility at the landscape level in forest ecosystems, which would be of broader interest in the fields of animal ecology and behaviour.publishedVersio

LiDAR reveals a preference for intermediate visibility by a forest-dwelling ungulate species

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological SocietyAbstract 1. Visibility (viewshed) plays a significant and diverse role in animals' behaviour and fitness. Understanding how visibility influences animal behaviour requires the measurement of habitat visibility at spatial scales commensurate to individual animal choices. However, measuring habitat visibility at a fine spatial scale over a landscape is a challenge, particularly in highly heterogeneous landscapes (e.g. forests). As a result, our ability to model the influence of fine-scale visibility on animal behaviour has been impeded or limited. 2. In this study, we demonstrate the application of the concept of three-dimensional (3D) cumulative viewshed in the study of animal spatial behaviour at a landscape level. Specifically, we employed a newly described approach that combines ter-restrial and airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to measure fine-scale habitat visibility (3D cumulative viewshed) on a continuous scale in forested landscapes. We applied the LiDAR-derived visibility to investigate how visibility in forests affects the summer habitat selection and the movement of 20 GPS- collared female red deer Cervus elaphus in a temperate forest in Germany. We used integrated step selection analysis to determine whether red deer show any preference for fine-scale habitat visibility and whether visibility is related to the rate of movement of red deer. 3. We found that red deer selected intermediate habitat visibility. Their preferred level of visibility during the day was substantially lower than that of night and twilight, whereas the preference was not significantly different between night and twilight. In addition, red deer moved faster in high-visibility areas, possibly mainly to avoid predation and anthropogenic risk. Furthermore, red deer moved most rapidly between locations in the twilight. 4. For the first time, the preference for intermediate habitat visibility and the adap-tion of movement rate to fine-scale visibility by a forest-dwelling ungulate spe-cies at a landscape scale was revealed. The LiDAR technique used in this study offers fine-scale habitat visibility at the landscape level in forest ecosystems, which would be of broader interest in the fields of animal ecology and behaviour.publishedVersio

Identifying Birds' Collision Risk with Wind Turbines Using a Multidimensional Utilization Distribution Method

Renewable energy plays a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the expansion of wind farms has raised concerns about risks for bird collisions. We tested different methods used to understand whether birds' flight occurs over wind turbines and found kernel density estimators outperform other methods. Previous studies using kernel utilization distribution (KUD) have considered only the 2 horizontal dimensions (2D). However, if altitude is ignored, an unrealistic depiction of the situation may result because birds move in 3 dimensions (3D). We quantified the 3D space use of the Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) in El Estrecho natural park in Tarifa (southern Spain, on the northern shore of the Strait of Gibraltar) during 2012-2013, and, for the first time, their risk of collision with wind turbines in an area in the south of Spain. The 2D KUD showed a substantial overlap of the birds' flight paths with the wind turbines in the study area, whereas the 3D kernel estimate did not show such overlap. Our aim was to develop a new approach using 3D kernel estimation to understand the space use of soaring birds; these are killed by collision with wind turbines more often than any other bird types in southern Spain. We determined the probability of bird collision with an obstacle within its range. Other potential application areas include airfields, plane flight paths, and tall buildings. (c) 2020 The Authors. Wildlife Society Bulletin published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Wildlife Society.Peer reviewe

Potential of Sentinel-2 spectral configuration to assess rangeland quality

Sentinel-2 is intended to improve vegetation assessment at local to global scales. Today, estimation of leaf nitrogen (N) as an indicator of rangeland quality is possible using hyperspectral systems. However, few studies based on commercial imageries have shown a potential of the red-edge band to accurately predict leaf N at the broad landscape scale. We intend to investigate the utility of Sentinel-2 for estimating leaf N concentration in the African savanna. Grass canopy reflectance was measured using the analytical spectral device (ASD) in concert with leaf sample collections for leaf N chemical analysis. ASD reflectance data were resampled to the spectral bands of Sentinel-2 using published spectral response functions. Random forest (RF), partial least square regression (PLSR), and stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) were used to predict leaf N using all 13 bands. Using leave-one-out cross validation, the RF model explained 90% of leaf N variation, with a root mean square error of 0.04 (6% of the mean), which is higher than that of PLSR and SMLR. Using RF, spectral bands centered at 705 nm (red edge) and two shortwave infrared bands centered at 2190 and 1610 nm were found to be the most important bands in predicting leaf N.The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Department of Science and Technology (DST), National Research Foundation’s Thuthuka program, University of Twente’s Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (UTITC), and Wageningen University.http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/1931-3195/am2016Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Selection of HyspIRI optimal band positions for the earth compositional mapping using HyTES data

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has proposed the launch of a new space-borne sensor called HyspIRI (Hyperspectral and Infrared Imager) which will cover the spectral range from 0.4–12 μm. Two instruments will be mounted on HyspIRI platform: 1) a hyperspectral instrument which can sense earth surface between 0.4 and 2.5 μm at 10 nm intervals and 2) a multispectral infrared sensor will acquire images between 3 and 12 μm in eight spectral bands (one in Mid infrared (MIR) and seven in Thermal Infrared (TIR)). The TIR spectral wavebands will be positioned based on their importance in various applications. This study aimed to identify HyspIRI optimal TIR wavebands position for earth compositional mapping. A Genetic Algorithm coupled with the Spectral Angle Mapper (GA-SAM) was used as a spectral bands selector. High dimensional HyTES (Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer) emissivity spectra comprised of 202 spectral bands of Cuprite and Death Valley regions were used to select meaningful subsets of bands for earth compositional mapping. The GA-SAM was trained for fifteen mineral classes and the algorithms were run iteratively 50 times. High calibration (> 95%) and validation (> 90%) accuracies were achieved with a limited number (seven) of spectral bands selected by GA-SAM. The knowledge of important band positions will help the scientists of the HyspIRI group to place spectral bands in regions where accuracies of earth compositional mapping can be enhanced

Bioarchaeological and Climatological Evidence for the Fate of Norse Farmers in Medieval Greenland

Greenland, far north land of the Atlantic, has often been beyond the limit of European farming settlement. One of its Norse settlements, colonized just before AD 1000, is — astonishingly — not even at the southern tip, but a way up the west coast, the \u27Western Settlement\u27. Environmental studies show why its occupation came to an end within five centuries, leaving Greenland once more a place of Arctic-adapted hunters