Collaborative Research: BoCP-Implementation: forecasting functional biodiversity change with satellite remote sensing and modeling

该项目将利用卫星成像和加勒比原始森林的物种定位记录来确定哪些物种面临灭绝的威胁，以及它们的消失将如何影响整个景观的生态系统功能。研究结果将有助于将有限的资源集中在保护这些高度脆弱地区最脆弱和功能重要的物种上。生物多样性对维持生命的过程至关重要，包括粮食安全、医药和公共卫生。然而，随着气候的变化，世界各地的森林正在消失，导致物种的大量损失。本研究将通过提高方法的精度和自动化程度，并将其应用于所有区域物种，来改进现有的灭绝风险评估方法。该项目还将绘制原始森林栖息地的位置图，这些栖息地是原始森林未受干扰的地区，拥有最多的生物多样性和最多的生态功能。该项目的另一个成果将是确定更好地保护生物多样性的最关键领域。对功能性生物多样性的进一步了解，将增加对生态系统如何工作以及它们在未来几十年将如何通过人类对栖息地和气候的改变以及对物种的其他威胁而发生变化的理解。了解生物多样性发生变化的方式、时间和地点将有助于社会为未来做好准备并减轻损失。该项目汇集了来自卫星遥感、分布建模、生物生物学和保护生物学的专业知识，通过开发创新的分析方法，综合解决生物多样性丧失问题。该项目将重点关注原生林，因为它比次生林具有更多的功能多样性，因为它包括更多的结构和生态专家。将制作的包括原始森林在内的高分辨率土地覆盖数据集目前很少可用。该系统会随着新的卫星图像、气候和生物多样性数据的出现而更新，非常适合于具有生物多样性的大面积地区，在这些地区，遥感和环境数据是灭绝风险信息的主要来源。该项目以加勒比地区的动植物为研究对象，以检验不同景观和时间的功能多样性变化的假设。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will use satellite imaging and species location records in primary forests of the Caribbean to determine which species are threatened with extinction and how their loss will affect ecosystem function across the landscape. The outcomes will help focus limited resources on protecting the most vulnerable and functionally important species in these highly vulnerable areas. Biodiversity is essential for the processes that support life, including food security, medicines and public health. However, with a changing climate, forests are disappearing around the world, leading to a major loss of species. This research will improve on current methods of assessing extinction risk by increasing precision and automation of methods, and by extending the application to all regional species. The project will also map the location of primary forest habitats, which are regions of original forest not previously disturbed that hold the most biodiversity with the greatest number of ecological functions. An additional outcome of the project will be to identify the most critical areas for better protection of biodiversity. Greater knowledge of functional biodiversity will increase understanding of how ecosystems work and how they will change in coming decades through human modifications of habitat and climate, and through other threats to species. Knowing how, when, and where biodiversity changes will occur will help society prepare for the future and mitigate the losses. This project brings together expertise from satellite remote sensing, distribution modeling, organismal biology, and conservation biology to integratively address biodiversity loss through the development of innovative analytical methods. The project will focus on primary forest, which has more functional diversity than secondary forests, because it includes more structure and ecological specialists. The high-resolution land cover data sets with primary forest included that will be produced are currently rarely available. The system, which updates as new satellite imagery, climatic, and biodiversity data become available, is ideally suited for large areas of biodiversity, where remote sensing and environmental data are the primary sources of information for extinction risk. This project focuses on animals and plants in the Caribbean region to test hypotheses of functional diversity change across landscapes and through time.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.