Remote sensing of geodiversity as a link to biodiversity

Abstract

Two common approaches to conserving biodiversity are conserving the actors (species) and conserving the stage (habitat). Many management efforts focus on conserving the actors, but a major challenge to this strategy is uncertainty surrounding how species’ geographic ranges might shift in response to global change, including climate and land use change. The Nature Conservancy has moved to conserving the stage, with the aim of maintaining the processes that generate and support biodiversity. This strategy requires knowing how biodiversity responds to geodiversity-the abiotic features and processes that define the stage. Here we explore how remote sensing illuminates the relationship between biodiversity and geodiversity. We introduce a variety of geodiversity measures and discuss how they can be combined with biodiversity data. We then explore the relationship between biodiversity and geodiversity with tree biodiversity data from the US Forest Inventory and Analysis Program and geodiversity data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission as a case study and proof of concept. We find that whereas beta diversity was not well explained by geodiversity, both alpha and gamma diversities were positively related to geodiversity. We also outline the challenges and opportunities of using remote sensing to understand the relationship between biodiversity and geodiversity.