Drones for Biodiversity Conservation

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, biodiversity loss has been taking place globally and at an unprecedented pace. There is an urgent need to collect basic data on plants’ and animals’ abundance and distribution that will eventually help to understand the changes that are taking place. Ecologists, conservationists, and wildlife managers are increasingly keen to incorporate new technologies that allow gathering field data in efficient and cost-effective ways. Drones (unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)) equipped with visible, thermal or multispectral cameras that provide high spatiotemporal resolution information have recently become popular tools for conducting surveys, assessing the state of ecosystems, and assessing the effects of environmental changes.

This Special Issue aims at bringing together scientists, developers, and advanced users who apply drone technology for biodiversity studies. We would like to invite you to contribute by submitting articles on your recent research, experimental work, reviews, and case studies related to drone applications to:

• Wildlife and plant surveys/census
• Wildlife management
• Habitat monitoring
• Invasive species
• Drones for sampling
• Combining drones with other technologies for biodiversity monitoring
• Social implications of drones’ use for biodiversity studies
• Good practices for using drones in natural areas

Dr. Margarita Mulero-Pazmany
Dr. Barbara Bollard
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.