Biodiversity of the world: a study from space

The Earth is undergoing an accelerated rate of native ecosystem conversion and degradation (Nepstad et al. 1999; Myers et al. 2000; Achard et al. 2002) and there is increased interest in measuring, modeling, and monitoring biodiversity using remote sensing from spaceborne sensors (Nagendra 2001; Kerr and Ostrovsky 2003; Turner et al. 2003; Secades et al. 2014). Biodiversity can be defined as the variation of life forms (genetic, species) within a given ecosystem, region or the entire earth. Terrestrial biodiversity, rare, and threatened species tends to be highest near the equator and generally decreases towards the poles because of decreases in temperature and precipitation (Figure 20.1). However, the distribution of biodiversity is complex and based on a number of environmental and anthropogenic factors over different spatial scales (Whittaker et al. 2001; Field et al. 2009; Jenkins et al. 2013).