Seeing the forest from drones: Testing the potential of lightweight drones as a tool for long-term forest monitoring

Published Date

June 2016, Vol.198:60–69, doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.03.027

Title 

Seeing the forest from drones: Testing the potential of lightweight drones as a tool for long-term forest monitoring

• Author 

• Jian Zhang ^a,b,c,,1,
• Jianbo Hu ^d,1
• Juyu Lian ^e
• Zongji Fan ^e
• Xuejun Ouyang ^e
• Wanhui Ye ^e

• aSchool of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
• bTiantong National Forest Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, Ningbo 315114, Zhejiang, China
• cSection for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114, Aarhus C, DK-8000, Denmark
• dTianjin Research Institute of Water Transport Engineering, Ministry of Transport, Tianjin 300456, China
• eKey Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China

Received 9 November 2015. Revised 22 January 2016. Accepted 21 March 2016. Available online 18 April 2016.

Highlights

• •
  We used a lightweight drone to map in detail forest canopy structure across a 20-ha subtropical forest dynamics plot.
• •
  We examined the added benefit of incorporating drone-derived variables in explaining local variation in both stand and species measures.
• •
  Drone-derived canopy variables contributed substantially towards explaining spatial patterns in biodiversity.
• •
  Species with different light requirements responded to canopy variables supporting gap dynamics successional theories.
• •
  Lightweight drone technologies offer great potential for long-term ecological studies.

Abstract

Long-term ecological monitoring has contributed substantially towards advancements in theoretical and applied ecology. However, the costs to maintain a long-term monitoring site are enormous. Lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) have been rapidly emerging as a new tool for local-scale monitoring. To evaluate the value of drone applications in long-term ecological studies, we combined drone-derived canopy variables, detailed ground-based stem-mapping data and topographic and edaphic variables from a 20-ha forest dynamics plot in a species-rich subtropical forest. Specifically, we evaluated the relative importance of these variables in explaining local-scale variation in forest stand and species measures. We found that drone-derived canopy variables contributed substantially towards explaining local patterns of biodiversity and more specifically in supporting a gap dynamics hypothesis in structuring observed forest biodiversity. Stand basal area was positively related with canopy closure, indicating the importance of protecting old-growth forests as carbon sinks. The importance of topographic and edaphic variables was also demonstrated, supporting a niche differentiation hypothesis in structuring patterns in biodiversity. Species-level analyses illustrated that light-demanding species were more strongly correlated with canopy variables than shade-tolerant species. We provide convincing evidence that drones can add substantial value to long-term ecological monitoring by providing low cost, high resolution data. Drones should be included in the ecologist's toolbox to complement traditional field surveys.

Keywords

• Drone ecology
• Forest canopy
• Forest dynamics
• Remote sensing
• Species coexistence
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

---

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

 Table 1

Table 1.

 Table 2

Table 2.

 Table 3

Table 3.

Fig. 3.

 Table 4

Table 4.

 Table 5

Table 5.

• PDF (340K)

Appendix A

• ⁎ 
  Corresponding author at: School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.

For further details log on website :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716301100?via%3Dihub