24 research outputs found
Incorporating Ecosystem Functional Diversity into Geographic Conservation Priorities Using Remotely Sensed Ecosystem Functional Types
Conservation biology must set geographic conservation priorities not only based on the compositional or structural but also on the functional
dimensions of biodiversity. However, assessing
functional diversity is challenging at the regional
scale. We propose the use of satellite-derived
Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs), defined here as
patches of land surface that share similar primary
production dynamics, to incorporate such aspects
of ecosystem functional diversity into the selection
of protected areas. We applied the EFT approach to
the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico, to characterize the regional heterogeneity of primary production dynamics in terms of EFTs; to set
conservation priorities based on EFT richness and
rarity; and to explore whether such EFT-based
conservation priorities were consistent with and/or
complementary to previous assessments focused on
biodiversity composition and structure. EFTs were
identified based on three ecosystem functional attributes derived from seasonal dynamics of the
Enhanced Vegetation Index: the annual mean
(proxy of primary production), the seasonal coefficient of variation (descriptor of seasonality), and
the date of maximum (indicator of phenology).
EFT-based priorities identified 26% of the peninsula as being of extreme or high priority and reinforced the value of the ecosystem functional
diversity of areas already prioritized by traditional
conservation assessments. In addition, our study
revealed that biodiversity composition- and structure-based assessments had not identified the full
range of important areas for EFT diversity and
tended to better capture areas of high EFT rarity
than those of high EFT richness. Our EFT-based
assessment demonstrates how remotely sensed regional heterogeneity in ecosystem functions could
reinforce and complement traditional conservation
priority setting.European Union (EU)Spanish MINECO
CGL2014-61610-EXPUniversity of Almeria (PhD contract: research training program)European Union (EU)
641762NASA 2016 GEOBON Work Programme Grant
80NSSC18K044