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BioCube: Mapping and integrating remote-sensing and in-situ dimensions of biodiversity at large scales

Ryan Pavlick,  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology,  rpavlick@jpl.nasa.gov (Presenter)
Fabian Schneider,  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology,  fabian.schneider@jpl.nasa.gov
Philip Townsend,  University of Wisconsin-Madison,  ptownsend@wisc.edu
Laura Marie Berman,  University of Wisconsin-Madison,  lberman6@wisc.edu
Ting Zheng,  University of Wisconsin-Madison,  tzheng39@wisc.edu
Natalie Queally,  University of Wisconsin-Madison,  queally@wisc.edu
Zhiwei Ye,  University of Wisconsin-Madison,  ye6@wisc.edu
Kyle Ryan Kovach,  University of Wisconsin,  kyle.kovach@wisc.edu
Ethan Shafron,  University of Montana,  ethan.shafron@umt.edu
Morgan Dean,  UCLA,  morgan.dean@ucla.edu

As the need for biodiversity assessments increases in the face of accelerated global change, novel monitoring approaches that are rapid, repeatable and scalable are critical. Fortunately, new and planned imaging spectroscopy, thermal, lidar, radar, and animal telemetry satellite missions are enabling a new era for global ecology and biodiversity science, thus greatly improving the prospects for mapping and monitoring of biodiversity in space and time.

New methods to map dimensions of biodiversity including spectral diversity, canopy functional traits and their diversity, and canopy structure and its diversity are very promising. Yet, we still don’t know how such dimensions of biodiversity measured from space are related to each other, to ecosystem functioning, and to in-situ measures of plant and animal biodiversity at large spatial scales. To address this key knowledge gap, we are constructing a data cube, built on an open-source analysis framework and a common spatiotemporal grid, with layers characterizing seven major dimensions of biodiversity that can be measured from space (vegetation structure, physiology, phenology, function, composition, environmental covariates, and human impacts). This ‘BioCube’ integrates these remote sensing observations with multiple types of in-situ biodiversity observations including plant species richness, endemism, and phylogenetic diversity from field surveys across California and animal occurrence and behavior data from the Snapshot Wisconsin camera trap and citizen science network.

Here we present an overview of the BioCube initiative, the status of assembling its many data layers, and some preliminary results on the relationships between canopy structural and physiological diversity mapped across large areas of California; environmental variables including climate, soil, fire history, and topography; and the magnitude and stability of ecosystem productivity and evapotranspiration. We also present some preliminary analyses of wildlife patterns from the Snapshot Wisconsin camera trap network.

Associated Project(s): 

Poster Location ID: 1-31

Presentation Type: Poster

Session: Poster Session 1

Session Date: Tue (May 9) 5:00-7:00 PM

CCE Program: BDEC

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