The conservation impact of botanical drones: Documenting and collecting rare plants from vertical cliffs and other hard-to-reach areas
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A high percentage of island floras are at risk of extinction and have been reduced to relic populations, often in remote hard-to-reach areas. Uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS aka drones) are now being utilized to assist in the survey and collection of rare plants in inaccessible areas or vertical cliff habitats. Here, we test the application of this technology for conservation of 23 plant taxa in three oceanic island hotspots: Hawaiʻi, Madeira and the Republic of Palau. We collect high-resolution imagery using a small UAS to document the distribution and abundance of vascular flowering plants. Location information is then used to map and assess plant populations. Depending on the terrain, collections are completed using either traditional rope techniques or newly developed remote drone-based collection methods. Over the course of 6 years, we have greatly expanded our knowledge of rare and endangered species, while increasing survey efficiency and staff safety. Most importantly, this work has had a large impact on the conservation of critically endangered plants. Although using drones for botanical conservation comes with limits and challenges, we see great potential in the continued employment of these techniques wherever plants are growing on cliffs or in other hard-to-reach areas.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | e12318 |
| Tidsskrift | Ecological Solutions and Evidence |
| Vol/bind | 5 |
| Udgave nummer | 1 |
| Antal sider | 12 |
| ISSN | 2688-8319 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2024 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:
We thank the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund for the continued support of drone conservation projects (#182518008, #192521645, #202523866, #222530567). We thank Outreach Robotics for the collaborative testing of the Mamba on Kauai as reported in La Vigne et al. (2022). To conservation staff at the State of Hawaii—Division of Forestry and Wildlife, the Plant Extinction Prevention Program and the National Tropical Botanical Garden, we appreciate your hard work and commitment to preventing plant extinction. We thank the reviewers for their thoughtful and helpful suggestions which greatly improved the paper.
Funding Information:
We thank the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund for the continued support of drone conservation projects (#182518008, #192521645, #202523866, #222530567). We thank Outreach Robotics for the collaborative testing of the Mamba on Kauai as reported in La Vigne et al. ( 2022 ). To conservation staff at the State of Hawaii—Division of Forestry and Wildlife, the Plant Extinction Prevention Program and the National Tropical Botanical Garden, we appreciate your hard work and commitment to preventing plant extinction. We thank the reviewers for their thoughtful and helpful suggestions which greatly improved the paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors. Ecological Solutions and Evidence published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.
ID: 388544048