Biodiversity Conservation and Remote Sensing

Project aims

This research topic aims to investigate landscape change using field data in combination with historical (satellite) and advanced remote sensing data (UAV) to understand the implications of these changes on biodiversity. Working with local collaborators, our results will contribute to conservation efforts in remote areas of global biodiversity importance, including the Russian Federal Kytalyk Nature Reserve in the Siberian Arctic (since 2009) and the Aldabra Atoll, UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Indian Ocean (since 2011). Incorporating environmental data, we hope to increase our understanding of the processes underlying these ecological changes (e.g., permafrost thaw, sea level rise) and examine how future global change might further affect biodiversity (e.g., invasive species, decreased species diversity)

Cengiz Akandil (M.Sc. student), Annabelle Constance (Ph.D. student), Paul Haverkamp (Postdoc), Ariane Goerens (M.Sc. student), Gabriela Schaepman-Strub

Specific projects

• Mangrove biodiversity on Aldabra Atoll - Annabelle Constance
• Pond area change at Kytalyk field station, Siberia, due to permafrost thaw and shrubification - Cengiz Akandil
• Identifying nesting habitats of the critically endangered Siberian crane in a changing Arctic - Paul Haverkamp
• Threatened Arctic Vegetation Types: Conservation in the face of climate change - Ariane Goerens

Related external projects

  GlobDiversity

  Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF)

• Walton R., Baxter R., Bunbury N., Hansen D., Fleischer-Dogley F., Greenwood S., Schaepman-Strub G. (2019). In the land of giants: habitat use and selection of the Aldabra giant tortoise on Aldabra Atoll. Biodiversity and Conservation, 28(12):3183–3198. DOI: 10.1007/s10531-019-01813-91007/s10531-019-01813-9
• Haverkamp PJ., Shekeine J., de Jong R., Schaepman ME., Turnbull LA., Baxter R., Hansen D., Bunbury N., Fleischer-Dogley F., Schaepman-Strub G. (2017). Giant tortoise habitats under increasing drought conditions on Aldabra Atoll—Ecological indicators to monitor rainfall anomalies and related vegetation activity. Ecological Indicators, 80:354-362. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.05.029
• Juszak I., Iturrate-Garcia M., Gastellu-Etchegorry JP., Schaepman ME., Maximov TC., Schaepman-Strub G. (2017). Drivers of shortwave radiation fluxes in Arctic tundra across scales. Remote Sensing of Environment, 193, 86-102. DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2017.02.017
• Iturrate-Garcia M., O'Brien MJ., Khitun O., Abiven S., Niklaus PA., Schaepman-Strub G. (2016). Interactive effects between plant functional types and soil factors on tundra species diversity and community composition. Ecology and Evolution, 6(22):8126-8137. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2548