Monitoring Dimensions of Biodiversity in a Mega-Diverse Region of
Southern Africa: from Traits to Communities to Ecosystems
Abstract
The Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) of South Africa includes marine
and terrestrial biomes with species diversity rivaling mega-diverse
tropical rainforests in a compact area (300x700km). Extinction risk
studies suggest that GCFR species are among the most vulnerable to
climate change over the next 50 years. I present a scoping proposal
commissioned by NASA to develop a field campaign to measure and monitor
the distribution and abundance of biodiversity with new remotely-sensed
data and the rich historical data in this region. I will summarize the
central questions to be addressed by this field campaign and lay out the
proposed study design to integrate satellite, airborne, and in situ data
collection. Our plan centers around the collection of new hyperspectral
imagery from AVIRIS-NG, PRISM, and HyTES spectrometers combined with the
LVIS laser altimeter. These data will be collected at approximately 20 m
spatial resolution across much of the GCFR and nearby aquatic and marine
ecosystems. These data will then be combined with existing and new
observations of the spatial distribution of community composition and
functional traits to enable high resolution mapping and modeling of
several essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) including species
distributions, functional traits (including leaf properties), and
three-dimensional canopy structure. Given the wealth of available
independent in situ data available that can be brought to bear, the GCFR
is an ideal system to fully evaluate the capabilities of remote-sensing
technology to characterize biodiversity patterns across diverse
landscapes in a relatively compact geographic area. In combination with
the rich historical data and well-developed ecological understanding in
this region, these new observations will enable detailed exploration
into the drivers and mechanisms of change including the feedbacks from
changing biodiversity to regional climate, disturbance, post-fire
recovery, freshwater provisioning, and other ecosystem services.