new article on African protected areas

new article on African protected areas

October 10, 2014

Wegmann et al_Phil_Trans_PA_irreplaceabilityOur new article about the “Role of African protected areas in maintaining connectivity for large mammals” has been published in a special issue on Remote Sensing in Biodiversity and Conservation.

The African protected area (PA) network has the potential to act as a set of functionally interconnected patches that conserve meta-populations of mammal species, but individual PAs are vulnerable to habitat change which may disrupt connectivity and increase extinction risk. Individual PAs have different roles in maintaining connectivity, depending on their size and location. We measured their contribution to network connectivity (irreplaceability) for carnivores and ungulates and combined it with a measure of vulnerability based on a 30-year trend in remotely sensed vegetation cover (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). Highly irreplaceable PAs occurred mainly in southern and eastern Africa. Vegetation cover change was generally faster outside than inside PAs and particularly so in southern Africa. The extent of change increased with the distance from PAs. About 5% of highly irreplaceable PAs experienced a faster vegetation cover loss than their surroundings, thus requiring particular conservation attention. Our analysis identified PAs at risk whose isolation would disrupt the connectivity of the PA network for large mammals. This is an example of how ecological spatial modelling can be combined with large-scale remote sensing data to investigate how land cover change may affect ecological processes and species conservation.


 

 

Theme Issue ‘Satellite remote sensing for biodiversity research and conservation applications’ compiled and edited by Nathalie Pettorelli, Kamran Safi, Woody Turner and Stefan Dech

you may also like:

Exploring Arctic Vegetation Patterns: PhD Fieldwork on Svalbard

Exploring Arctic Vegetation Patterns: PhD Fieldwork on Svalbard

This summer, one of our PhD students, Elio Rauth, embarked on an exciting scientific journey to the High Arctic—conducting detailed vegetation surveys on the remote archipelago of Svalbard. The aim? To better understand the intricate mosaic of Arctic plant communities...

John Friesen gives a talk at DLR

John Friesen gives a talk at DLR

On the 17th of July, Dr. John Friesen gave a inspiring talk at the seminar of the department "Georisks and Civil Security (GZS)" at the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The talk was titled "Urbanization and infrastructure in the...

EORC and EAGLE summer BBQ

EORC and EAGLE summer BBQ

We’re happy to announce that our summer BBQ is happening again on Thursday, July 24th at 4 pm! Alongside good food and a relaxed atmosphere, we’re also hosting a series of short talks highlighting exciting topics in Earth Observation and environmental science: “The...