Remote sensing of savanna woody species diversity: A systematic review of data types and assessment methods.

Autor: Fundisi E; Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.; Geospatial Analytics, eResearch Knowledge Centre, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa., Tesfamichael SG; Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa., Ahmed F; School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2022 Dec 01; Vol. 17 (12), pp. e0278529. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Dec 01 (Print Publication: 2022).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278529
Abstrakt: Despite savannas being known for their relatively sparse vegetation coverage compared to other vegetation ecosystems, they harbour functionally diverse vegetation forms. Savannas are affected by climate variability and anthropogenic factors, resulting in changes in woody plant species compositions. Monitoring woody plant species diversity is therefore important to inform sustainable biodiversity management. Remote sensing techniques are used as an alternative approach to labour-intensive field-based inventories, to assess savanna biodiversity. The aim of this paper is to review studies that applied remote sensing to assess woody plant species diversity in savanna environments. The paper first provides a brief account of the spatial distribution of savanna environments around the globe. Thereafter, it briefly defines categorical classification and continuous-scale species diversity assessment approaches for savanna woody plant estimation. The core review section divides previous remote sensing studies into categorical classification and continuous-scale assessment approaches. Within each division, optical, Radio Detection And Ranging (RADAR) and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) remote sensing as applied to savanna woody species diversity is reviewed. This is followed by a discussion on multi-sensor applications to estimate woody plant species diversity in savanna. We recommend that future research efforts should focus strongly on routine application of optical, RADAR and LiDAR remote sensing of physiologically similar woody plant species in savannas, as well as on extending these methodological approaches to other vegetation environments.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2022 Fundisi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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