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 ultimate purpose of conserving the largest temperate woodland in the world, I will use remotely sensed data to relate bird diversity, abundance and distribution to vegetation-based habitat characteristics in my thesis.

In southern Western Australia, there remains around 12 million hectares of continuous temperate woodland, located to the west of the Nullarbor Plain and east of the Wheatbelt. The structure and productivity of woodlands strongly affect bird habitats. So, remotely sensed data can provide possible source of land cover maps to efficiently analyse its structures. By combining satellite borne LiDAR data for vertical structure with several passive satellite imageries for patterning, it may possible to gain a novel understanding of the regions' three dimensional woodland structure.

The chief aims are;

1. to develop a methodology for identifying bird habitat resources in woodlands from remotely sensed data, and
2. to predict bird species diversity, abundance and distribution.