227
For instance, the US Endangered Species Act and International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List focus on individual species (ESA 1973;
IUCN 2001). However, an inherent challenge to managing species is that, during the
course of a play, the actors move across the stage. Geo-referenced fossils from the
paleoecological record provide evidence of how species’ geographic ranges shifted
in the past as Earth’s climate fluctuated (Williams and Jackson 2007; Veloz et al.
2012). For instance, in terms of estimating EBVs (Fernandez and Pereira, Chap. 18),
species distribution models (SDMs) are one of the most common tools for understanding how species ranges might shift over time and space (Elith and Leathwick
2009; Record and Charney 2016), but they are fraught with statistical (Record et al.
2013) and biological shortcomings (Belmaker et al. 2015; Charney et al. 2016;
Evans et al. 2016) that hamper their ability to reliably inform management. Given
the challenges of managing species whose ranges might be shifting in response to
climate change (Veloz et al. 2012), there is interest in focusing conservation efforts
on areas that are likely to support biodiversity and on the processes that generate it
(Pressey et al. 2007; Anderson and Ferree 2010; Beier and Brost 2010). Indeed, The
Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s leading nonprofit conservation organizations, has adopted the rallying cry of “conserving nature’s stage” (Beier et al. 2015).
Conserving nature’s stage entails identifying parcels of Earth that are valuable for
their geodiversity and for their capacity to support diverse life forms today and into
the future.
Geodiversity has been defined in several ways (see Table 1.2 in Gray 2013).
Some definitions of geodiversity refer to variability in soil, geological, and geomorphological features and the processes that give rise to them (Gray 2013 and references therein). Other definitions tend to have a wider scope and also include
topography, hydrology, and climate (Benito-Calvo et al. 2009; Parks and Mulligan
2010). These more inclusive definitions of geodiversity capture variability in the
entire geosphere (Hjort et al. 2012) that link to important drivers of biodiversity
(e.g., energy, water, and nutrients (Richerson and Lum 1980; Kerr and Packer
1997)). The geosphere includes the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and
cryosphere (Williams 2012) and processes within and among them and encompasses the abiotic components of Earth’s “Critical Zone,” or the portion of Earth
where biotic and abiotic processes support life on Earth’s surface (NRC 2001). Just
as the Critical Zone arises from interactions among abiotic and biotic processes,
geodiversity is not separated from biotic influences and biodiversity. A key step in
the prioritization of conservation areas using this approach is to understand the
relationships between biodiversity and geodiversity. Remotely sensed biodiversity
and geodiversity data have the potential to answer questions of scale to better inform
conservation decisions because they can provide coverage at nearly continuous
large spatial extents (i.e., regional to global) and at fine spatial and temporal resolutions (Fig. 10.1 for a spatial example). Here, we provide an overview of remotely
sensed data sources that can be used to measure geodiversity and biodiversity to
better understand biodiversity- geodiversity relationships, which is a key step in
conserving nature’s stage.
10 Remote Sensing of Geodiversity as a Link to Biodiversity
For instance, the US Endangered Species Act and International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List focus on individual species (ESA 1973;
IUCN 2001). However, an inherent challenge to managing species is that, during the
course of a play, the actors move across the stage. Geo-referenced fossils from the
paleoecological record provide evidence of how species’ geographic ranges shifted
in the past as Earth’s climate fluctuated (Williams and Jackson 2007; Veloz et al.
2012). For instance, in terms of estimating EBVs (Fernandez and Pereira, Chap. 18),
species distribution models (SDMs) are one of the most common tools for understanding how species ranges might shift over time and space (Elith and Leathwick
2009; Record and Charney 2016), but they are fraught with statistical (Record et al.
2013) and biological shortcomings (Belmaker et al. 2015; Charney et al. 2016;
Evans et al. 2016) that hamper their ability to reliably inform management. Given
the challenges of managing species whose ranges might be shifting in response to
climate change (Veloz et al. 2012), there is interest in focusing conservation efforts
on areas that are likely to support biodiversity and on the processes that generate it
(Pressey et al. 2007; Anderson and Ferree 2010; Beier and Brost 2010). Indeed, The
Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s leading nonprofit conservation organizations, has adopted the rallying cry of “conserving nature’s stage” (Beier et al. 2015).
Conserving nature’s stage entails identifying parcels of Earth that are valuable for
their geodiversity and for their capacity to support diverse life forms today and into
the future.
Geodiversity has been defined in several ways (see Table 1.2 in Gray 2013).
Some definitions of geodiversity refer to variability in soil, geological, and geomorphological features and the processes that give rise to them (Gray 2013 and references therein). Other definitions tend to have a wider scope and also include
topography, hydrology, and climate (Benito-Calvo et al. 2009; Parks and Mulligan
2010). These more inclusive definitions of geodiversity capture variability in the
entire geosphere (Hjort et al. 2012) that link to important drivers of biodiversity
(e.g., energy, water, and nutrients (Richerson and Lum 1980; Kerr and Packer
1997)). The geosphere includes the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and
cryosphere (Williams 2012) and processes within and among them and encompasses the abiotic components of Earth’s “Critical Zone,” or the portion of Earth
where biotic and abiotic processes support life on Earth’s surface (NRC 2001). Just
as the Critical Zone arises from interactions among abiotic and biotic processes,
geodiversity is not separated from biotic influences and biodiversity. A key step in
the prioritization of conservation areas using this approach is to understand the
relationships between biodiversity and geodiversity. Remotely sensed biodiversity
and geodiversity data have the potential to answer questions of scale to better inform
conservation decisions because they can provide coverage at nearly continuous
large spatial extents (i.e., regional to global) and at fine spatial and temporal resolutions (Fig. 10.1 for a spatial example). Here, we provide an overview of remotely
sensed data sources that can be used to measure geodiversity and biodiversity to
better understand biodiversity- geodiversity relationships, which is a key step in
conserving nature’s stage.
10 Remote Sensing of Geodiversity as a Link to Biodiversity