Mapping peatland plant communities dynamics using multispectral indices coupled with a joint species distribution model

Abstract

Aims Climate change is altering northern peatland plant communities, shifting from Sphagnum mosses to vascular plants. This transition impacts ecological functions like carbon sequestration, making long-term vegetation monitoring at the site scale more critical than ever. However, current monitoring methods tend to focus on specific species or functional groups with limited spatial coverage. This study uses remote sensing to infer the spatial structure and temporal variations of peatland plant communities. Location Temperate peatland in Pyrenees Mountains, France (Bernadouze, Vicdessos). Methods Nine plots were selected across diverse microhabitats and sampled three times over the growing season of 2023 (May, June, and July). Plant species abundances were recorded, and 45 vegetation indices were derived from drone and Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery. Five vegetation indices were selected to fit a joint Species Distribution Model (JSDM) and a Random Forests (RF) model, and map species spatial distribution. Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) identified plant community composition, and spatiotemporal variations were quantified in relation to environmental variables. Results Plant species occurrences could be predicted from multispectral imagery using the JSDM, with drone-based inferences (mean R 2 = 0.36) outperforming Sentinel-2 (mean R 2 = 0.29). Model performance was high for abundant species ( R 2 > 0.5), whereas predictions for rare species were less accurate ( R 2 R 2 > 0.65, P R 2 = 0.40; P R 2 = 0.04; P Conclusion This study demonstrates that drone multispectral imagery can be used to predict peatland vegetation richness and community composition and capture fine-scale heterogeneity in a small and fragmented peatland site, outperforming satellite data in spatial precision. Although our model was less accurate using satellite imagery, the use of Sentinel-2 imagery enabled long-term community tracking. By combining both, our predictive modelling framework provides a promising preliminary tool to monitor climate-induced shifts in species distributions, supporting targeted conservation.

Plant phenotyping relevance

ドローンおよび衛星マルチスペクトル画像から植物種の空間分布、植生多様性、群集組成を推定する画像・モデリング手法が研究の中心であり、植物状態の測定に直接結びつく。

Code and data availability

保存済みの本文根拠を更新済みルールで再検証し、公開資産1件を確認しました。