Título

Waterhole detection using a vegetation index in desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis cremnobates) habitat

Autor

Jonathan Gabriel Escobar Flores

SARAHI SANDOVAL ESPINOZA

JORGE TORRES RODRIGUEZ

SERGIO ALVAREZ CARDENAS

Patricia Galina Tessaro

Nivel de Acceso

Acceso Abierto

Licencia

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Referencia de publicación

doi: DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211202

ISSN/ISSN: 1932-6203

URL/URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0211202

Materias

Ovis canadensis cremnobates, habitat - (AUTOR) BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA - (CTI) CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA - (CTI) BIOLOGÍA ANIMAL (ZOOLOGÍA) - (CTI) ECOLOGÍA ANIMAL - (CTI) ECOLOGÍA ANIMAL - (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 hábitat 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."

Editor

Public Library of Science

Fecha de publicación

2019

Tipo de publicación

Artículo

Versión de la publicación

Versión publicada

Recurso de información

http://cibnor.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/handle/1001/1820

Formato

application/pdf

Fuente

PLOS ONE

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 CIBNOR

Descargas

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