Using airborne lidar to characterize North European terrestrial high-dark-diversity habitats

Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund; Kevin Kuhlmann Clausen; Lars Dalby; Camilla Fløjgaard; Meelis Pärtel; Norbert Pfeifer; Markus Hollaus; Ane Kirstine Brunbjerg

doi:10.1002/rse2.314

Using airborne lidar to characterize North European terrestrial high-dark-diversity habitats

Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund^*, Kevin Kuhlmann Clausen, Lars Dalby, Camilla Fløjgaard, Meelis Pärtel, Norbert Pfeifer, Markus Hollaus, Ane Kirstine Brunbjerg

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Ecoscience - Biodiversity and Conservation

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A key aspect of nature conservation is knowledge of which aspects of nature to conserve or restore to favor the characteristic diversity of plants in a given area. Here, we used a large plant dataset with >40 000 plots combined with airborne laser scanning (lidar) data to reveal the local characteristics of habitats having a high plant dark diversity—that is, absence of suitable species—at national extent (>43 000 km2). Such habitats have potential for reaching high realized diversity levels and hence are important in a conservation context. We calculated 10 different lidar based metrics (both terrain and vegetation structure) and combined these with seven different field-based measures (soil chemistry and species indicators). We then used Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation for modelling plant dark diversity across 33 North European habitat types (open landscapes and forests) selected by the European communities to be important. In open habitat types high-dark-diversity habitats had relatively low pH, high nitrogen content, tall homogenous vegetation, and overall relatively homogenous terrains (high terrain openness) although with a rather high degree of local microtopographical variations. High-dark-diversity habitats in forests had relatively tall vegetation, few natural-forest indicators, low potential solar radiation input and a low cover of small woody plants. Our results highlight important vegetation, terrain- and soil-related factors that managers and policymakers should be aware of in conservation and restoration projects to ensure a natural plant diversity, for example low nutrient loads, natural microtopography and possibly also open forests with old-growth elements such as dead wood and rot attacks.

Original language	English
Journal	Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation
Volume	9
Issue	3
Pages (from-to)	354-369
Number of pages	16
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.314
Publication status	Published - Jun 2023

Keywords

Dark diversity
lidar
plant diversity
terrain structure
vegetation ecology
vegetation structure

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10.1002/rse2.314Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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title = "Using airborne lidar to characterize North European terrestrial high-dark-diversity habitats",

abstract = "A key aspect of nature conservation is knowledge of which aspects of nature to conserve or restore to favor the characteristic diversity of plants in a given area. Here, we used a large plant dataset with >40 000 plots combined with airborne laser scanning (lidar) data to reveal the local characteristics of habitats having a high plant dark diversity—that is, absence of suitable species—at national extent (>43 000 km2). Such habitats have potential for reaching high realized diversity levels and hence are important in a conservation context. We calculated 10 different lidar based metrics (both terrain and vegetation structure) and combined these with seven different field-based measures (soil chemistry and species indicators). We then used Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation for modelling plant dark diversity across 33 North European habitat types (open landscapes and forests) selected by the European communities to be important. In open habitat types high-dark-diversity habitats had relatively low pH, high nitrogen content, tall homogenous vegetation, and overall relatively homogenous terrains (high terrain openness) although with a rather high degree of local microtopographical variations. High-dark-diversity habitats in forests had relatively tall vegetation, few natural-forest indicators, low potential solar radiation input and a low cover of small woody plants. Our results highlight important vegetation, terrain- and soil-related factors that managers and policymakers should be aware of in conservation and restoration projects to ensure a natural plant diversity, for example low nutrient loads, natural microtopography and possibly also open forests with old-growth elements such as dead wood and rot attacks.",

keywords = "Dark diversity, lidar, plant diversity, terrain structure, vegetation ecology, vegetation structure",

author = "Moeslund, {Jesper Erenskjold} and Clausen, {Kevin Kuhlmann} and Lars Dalby and Camilla Fl{\o}jgaard and Meelis P{\"a}rtel and Norbert Pfeifer and Markus Hollaus and Brunbjerg, {Ane Kirstine}",

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Using airborne lidar to characterize North European terrestrial high-dark-diversity habitats. / Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold ; Clausen, Kevin Kuhlmann ; Dalby, Lars et al.
In: Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, Vol. 9, No. 3, 06.2023, p. 354-369.

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

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AU - Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold

AU - Clausen, Kevin Kuhlmann

AU - Dalby, Lars

AU - Fløjgaard, Camilla

AU - Pärtel, Meelis

AU - Pfeifer, Norbert

AU - Hollaus, Markus

AU - Brunbjerg, Ane Kirstine

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N2 - A key aspect of nature conservation is knowledge of which aspects of nature to conserve or restore to favor the characteristic diversity of plants in a given area. Here, we used a large plant dataset with >40 000 plots combined with airborne laser scanning (lidar) data to reveal the local characteristics of habitats having a high plant dark diversity—that is, absence of suitable species—at national extent (>43 000 km2). Such habitats have potential for reaching high realized diversity levels and hence are important in a conservation context. We calculated 10 different lidar based metrics (both terrain and vegetation structure) and combined these with seven different field-based measures (soil chemistry and species indicators). We then used Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation for modelling plant dark diversity across 33 North European habitat types (open landscapes and forests) selected by the European communities to be important. In open habitat types high-dark-diversity habitats had relatively low pH, high nitrogen content, tall homogenous vegetation, and overall relatively homogenous terrains (high terrain openness) although with a rather high degree of local microtopographical variations. High-dark-diversity habitats in forests had relatively tall vegetation, few natural-forest indicators, low potential solar radiation input and a low cover of small woody plants. Our results highlight important vegetation, terrain- and soil-related factors that managers and policymakers should be aware of in conservation and restoration projects to ensure a natural plant diversity, for example low nutrient loads, natural microtopography and possibly also open forests with old-growth elements such as dead wood and rot attacks.

AB - A key aspect of nature conservation is knowledge of which aspects of nature to conserve or restore to favor the characteristic diversity of plants in a given area. Here, we used a large plant dataset with >40 000 plots combined with airborne laser scanning (lidar) data to reveal the local characteristics of habitats having a high plant dark diversity—that is, absence of suitable species—at national extent (>43 000 km2). Such habitats have potential for reaching high realized diversity levels and hence are important in a conservation context. We calculated 10 different lidar based metrics (both terrain and vegetation structure) and combined these with seven different field-based measures (soil chemistry and species indicators). We then used Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation for modelling plant dark diversity across 33 North European habitat types (open landscapes and forests) selected by the European communities to be important. In open habitat types high-dark-diversity habitats had relatively low pH, high nitrogen content, tall homogenous vegetation, and overall relatively homogenous terrains (high terrain openness) although with a rather high degree of local microtopographical variations. High-dark-diversity habitats in forests had relatively tall vegetation, few natural-forest indicators, low potential solar radiation input and a low cover of small woody plants. Our results highlight important vegetation, terrain- and soil-related factors that managers and policymakers should be aware of in conservation and restoration projects to ensure a natural plant diversity, for example low nutrient loads, natural microtopography and possibly also open forests with old-growth elements such as dead wood and rot attacks.

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KW - vegetation ecology

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JO - Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation

JF - Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation

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