Título
Waterhole detection using a vegetation index in desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis cremnobates) habitat
Autor
Jonathan Gabriel Escobar Flores
Colaborador
SARAHI SANDOVAL ESPINOZA (Colaborador)
Raul Valdez (Colaborador)
Eahsan Shahriary (Colaborador)
JORGE TORRES RODRIGUEZ (Colaborador)
SERGIO ALVAREZ CARDENAS (Colaborador)
PATRICIA GALINA-TESSARO (Colaborador)
Nivel de Acceso
Acceso Abierto
Identificador alterno
doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211202
Materias
Article, bighorn sheep, environmental aspects and related phenomena, environmental parameters, habitat, Mexico, nonhuman, normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference water index, water availability, waterhole, animal, bighorn sheep, - (SCOPUS) CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA - (CTI) CIENCIAS AGRARIAS - (CTI) CIENCIA FORESTAL - (CTI) CIENCIA FORESTAL - (CTI)
Resumen o descripción
In arid ecosystems, desert bighorn sheep are dependent on natural waterholes, particularly in summer when forage is scarce and environmental temperatures are high. To detect waterholes in Sierra Santa Isabel, which is the largest area of desert bighorn sheep habitat in the state of Baja California, Mexico, we used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and normalized difference water index (NDWI) from Sentinel-2 satellite images. Waterhole detection was based on the premise that sites with greater water availability, where NDVI was higher, can be identified by their density of vegetation greenness. For the detected waterholes, we estimated the escape terrain (presence of cliffs or steep, rocky slopes) around each by the vector ruggedness measure to determine their potential use by desert bighorn sheep based on the animals’ presence as documented by camera traps. We detected 14 waterholes with the NDVI of which 11 were known by land owners and 3 were unrecorded. Desert bighorn were not detected in waterholes with high values of escape terrain, i.e., flat areas. Waterhole detection by NDVI is a simple method, and with the assistance and knowledge of the inhabitants of the Sierra, it was possible to confirm the presence each waterhole in the field. © 2019 Escobar-Flores et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Editor
Emmanuel Serrano Ferron, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain
Fecha de publicación
2019
Tipo de publicación
Artículo
Versión de la publicación
Versión publicada
Recurso de información
Formato
application/pdf
Fuente
PLoS ONE, Vol.14, No.1, Pags. 1-14
Idioma
Inglés
Sugerencia de citación
Escobar-Flores JG, Sandoval S, Valdez R, Shahriary E, Torres J, Alvarez-Cardenas S, et al. (2019) Waterhole detection using a vegetation index in desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis cremnobates) habitat. PLoS ONE 14(1): e0211202. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211202
Repositorio Orígen
Repositorio Institucional CICESE
Descargas
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