Ecological Applications of Drone-Based Remote Sensing

Dear Colleagues,

The last decade has seen an exponential increase in the application of remote sensing to ecological monitoring research, in a diverse range of fields. While cost and availability have traditionally constrained the use of remote sensing in research projects, recent technological development has seen drones (UAVs, UAS, RPAS) become increasingly popular sensing tools that have greatly expanded research capacity. Significant translation research has seen drones transition from tools of predominantly agricultural application to their being employed with increasing novelty to address complex ecological questions, particularly in the monitoring of biological communities and in assessing the trajectory of ecological recovery. Drones are becoming smaller, cheaper, and capable of mounting a wider variety of sensors to collect a greater diversity and volume of data. However, despite the trend of drone-mounted sensors being used in novel ways to monitor a wide variety of environmental factors, they remain often applied to highly specific aims or questions and do not consider the wide potential for capturing associated ecological data.
Activities directed at returning ecological functioning to degraded ecosystems are being undertaken at increasing scale around the world, as we must achieve a net gain in the extent and function of indigenous ecosystems in coming decades if ambitious global targets relating to sustainable development and biodiversity preservation are to be met. However, ecological restoration is a complex process requiring detailed subsequent monitoring over long time periods to ensure that predetermined goals are being met and to inform adaptive management in situations where trajectories are unsatisfactory. Given the increasing spatial and temporal scales of ecological recovery projects, the demand for more rapid and accurate methods of predicting restoration trajectory is growing.
This Special Issue aims to present a selection of studies experimentally applying drones to ecological research questions, particularly in the context of conservation, rehabilitation, and ecological restoration. Significantly more research is required to improve the potential of UAVs as ecological monitoring tools. Many areas of application remain predominantly unexplored, for example, examination of the capacity to monitor at very fine scales; accurate assessments of the health and performance of non-agricultural plants; monitoring and tracking of the development of individual plants; reliable classification of species from complex native plant communities; and assessments of fauna behaviour and ecology.

Dr. Adam T. Cross
Guest Editor

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