Mapping foliar nutrition using WorldView-3 and WorldView-2 to assess koala habitat suitability

Huiying Wu, Noam Levin, Leonie Seabrook, Ben D. Moore, Clive McAlpine

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Conservation planning and population assessment for widely-distributed, but vulnerable, arboreal folivore species demands cost-effective mapping of habitat suitability over large areas. This study tested whether multispectral data from WorldView-3 could be used to estimate and map foliar digestible nitrogen (DigN), a nutritional measure superior to total nitrogen for tannin-rich foliage for the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus). We acquired two WorldView-3 images (November 2015) and collected leaf samples from Eucalyptus woodlands in semi-arid eastern Australia. Linear regression indicated the normalized difference index using bands “Coastal” and “NIR1” best estimated DigN concentration (% dry matter, R2 = 0.70, RMSE = 0.19%). Foliar DigN concentration was mapped for multi-species Eucalyptus open woodlands across two landscapes using this index. This mapping method was tested on a WorldView-2 image (October 2012) with associated koala tracking data (August 2010 to November 2011) from a different landscape of the study region. Quantile regression showed significant positive relationship between estimated DigN and occurrence of koalas at 0.999 quantile (R2 = 0.63). This study reports the first attempt to use a multispectral satellite-derived spectral index for mapping foliar DigN at a landscape-scale (100s km2). The mapping method can potentially be incorporated in mapping and monitoring koala habitat suitability for conservation management.
Original languageEnglish
Article number215
Number of pages17
JournalRemote Sensing
Volume11
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords

  • artificial satellites in remote sensing
  • ecological mapping
  • eucalyptus
  • koala
  • nitrogen in animal nutrition

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Mapping foliar nutrition using WorldView-3 and WorldView-2 to assess koala habitat suitability'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this