PhD Scholar
The use of satellite-borne data to investigate the relationship between vegetation-related bird habitat resources and bird species diversity, abundance and distribution: a case study in the Great Western Woodlands of southern Western Australia
E-mail: peter.lee@anu.edu.au

For the purpose of conserving the largest temperate woodland in the world, I use remotely sensed data sets to predict bird diversity, abundance and distribution on the basis of vegetation structure-based habitat resources. In southern Western Australia, there remains around 16 million hectares of continuous temperate woodland, located from the east of the Wheatbelt to the west of the Nullarbor Plain named the Great Western Woodlands (GWW). The structure and productivity of vegetation strongly affect bird habitats. So, satellite data sets are used for providing possible sources of land cover maps to efficiently analyse vegetational attributes in terms of bird habitat resources. By combining GLAS data for vegetation height and vertical structure with three other satellite imageries including MODIS, ASTER and PALSAR for productivity in time series, patterning and biomass of the GWW, it might be possible to generate a three dimensional vegetation structure map at a temporal scale in order to gain novel understandings of this research region. The chief aims are to (1) develop a methodology for producing a map for identifying bird habitat resources in the GWW from satellite data, and (2) predict bird species diversity, abundance and distribution.