MontObEO PROJECT

CONTEXT

Global environmental changes are rapidly affecting species distributions and habitats worldwide. A continuous update of species conservation status and extinction risk is required to support effective decisions on conservation policy and biodiversity management.

Earth’s safe operating space for humanity can be monitored through planetary boundaries. Earth systems might react in an abrupt way if a particularly sensitive threshold is crossed for certain key variables, shifting into a new state with deleterious consequences for humans. Thus, worldwide commitments are needed to maintain planet Earth inside its safe operating space.

Global conservation efforts should not prioritize exclusively target species and sites, but should provide tools for global biodiversity monitoring and planning over time.

TARGETS

We intend to provide a new framework that combines ecological models, remote sensing data, and trend analysis tools to estimate species extinction risk through spatio-temporal changes in habitat suitability. Specifically, we want to demonstrate that

(1) Reductions in habitat suitability by human actions (e.g. habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation) can be predicted by ecological models;

(2) Species living in places with great environmental changes over time (e.g. urbanized areas) are prone to higher extinction risks;

(3) Remote sensing variables are associated with species’ vulnerability to extreme weather.

In summary, we will test the reliability of SRS-ENMs for monitoring quantitatively the spatial distribution of habitat suitability as a surrogate for species’ potential extinction risk over time in response to human-induced environmental changes.

MONTESINHO NATURAL PARK

Montesinho NP is a natural area of Iberian and European importance, a crossroad for Atlantic and Mediterranean habitats. It host a great number of rare species, with many Iberian and Portuguese endemisms, due to the complexity of its geological, climatic and orographic conditions.

Montesinho NP hosts endangered habitats such as ultra-basic rocks, oak, chestnut, and riparian forests, low peatlands, matgrass lands, and hygrophilous heaths.

These habitats host an enormous number of species, such as 70% of bird species in Portugal, the Iberian wolf, deer, water mole, wildcat, otter, large horseshoe bat, Iberian viper, and other endangered and rare species.

Remote sensing coupled with ecological models are very powerful tools to monitor over time the conservation status of Montesinho NP species and rare habitats.