Abstract
Knowledge of temperature variation within and across beach-nesting bird habitat, and how such variation may affect the nesting success and survival of these species, is currently lacking. This type of data is furthermore needed to refine predictions of population changes due to climate change, identify important breeding habitat, and guide habitat restoration efforts. Thermal imagery collected with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provides a potential approach to fill current knowledge gaps and accomplish these goals. Our research outlines a novel methodology for collecting and implementing active thermal ground control points (GCPs) and assess the accuracy of the resulting imagery using an off-the-shelf commercial fixed-wing UAV that allows for the reconstruction of thermal landscapes at high spatial, temporal, and radiometric resolutions. Additionally, we observed and documented the behavioral responses of beach-nesting birds to UAV flights and modifications made to flight plans or the physical appearance of the UAV to minimize disturbance. We found strong evidence that flying on cloudless days and using sky-blue camouflage greatly reduced disturbance to nesting birds. The incorporation of the novel active thermal GCPs into the processing workflow increased image spatial accuracy an average of 12 m horizontally (mean root mean square error of checkpoints in imagery with and without GCPs was 0.59 m and 23.75 m, respectively). The final thermal indices generated had a ground sampling distance of 25.10 cm and a thermal accuracy of less than 1 °C. This practical approach to collecting highly accurate thermal data for beach-nesting bird habitat while avoiding disturbance is a crucial step towards the continued monitoring and modeling of beach-nesting birds and their habitat.
Highlights
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has increased across many scientific disciplines, and rapidly so among the fields of environmental biology, conservation, and ecology
Because there are no industry standard thermal ground control points (GCPs) that exist and are able to be detected by thermal sensors, and because other materials, such as aluminum, may not be distinguishable enough in this environment, we propose one of the first known use cases of an active thermal GCP in a thermal UAV
In this paper we present a practical approach to collecting high-resolution thermal data for
Summary
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has increased across many scientific disciplines, and rapidly so among the fields of environmental biology, conservation, and ecology. The proliferation of this technology has been driven in part by the relatively low cost of the systems, small size, ability to carry various imaging and non-imaging payloads, and ability to monitor environments or phenomena in a timely and responsive manner [1]. Habitat evaluation may be done using visible spectrum cameras to classify habitat by land cover type [16] or through analysis of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data to examine spatial extent of habitat type, and information on vertical components of the habitat, such as tree height [17]. One potential benefit of using UAVs in wildlife studies is the reduction in disturbances to wildlife caused by the presence of human observers [18,19,20]
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