Data from: Unmanned aerial systems measure structural habitat features for wildlife across multiple scales

1.Assessing habitat quality is a primary goal of ecologists. However,
evaluating habitat features that relate strongly to habitat quality at
fine-scale resolutions across broad-scale extents is challenging. Unmanned
aerial systems (UAS) provide an avenue for bridging the gap between
relatively high spatial resolution, low spatial extent field-based habitat
quality measurements and lower spatial resolution, higher spatial extent
satellite-based remote sensing. Our goal in this study was to evaluate the
potential for UAS structure from motion (SfM) to estimate several
dimensions of habitat quality that provide potential security from
predators and forage for pygmy rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis) in a
sagebrush-steppe environment. 2.At the plant and patch scales, we compared
UAS-derived estimates of vegetation height, volume (estimate of food
availability), and canopy cover to estimates from ground-based terrestrial
laser scanning (TLS), and field-based measurements. Then, we mapped
habitat features across two sagebrush landscapes in Idaho, USA, using
point clouds derived from UAS SfM. 3.At the individual plant scale, the
UAS-derived estimates matched those from TLS for height (r2 = 0.85),
volume (r2 = 0.94), and canopy cover (r2 = 0.68). However, there was less
agreement with field-based measurements of height (r2 = 0.67), volume (r2
= 0.31), and canopy cover (r2 = 0.29). At the patch scale, UAS-derived
estimates provided a better fit to field-based measurements (r2 =
0.51-0.78) than at the plant scale. Landscape-scale maps created from UAS
were able to distinguish structural heterogeneity between key patch types.
4.Our work demonstrates that UAS was able to accurately estimate habitat
heterogeneity for a key terrestrial vertebrate at multiple spatial scales.
Given that many of the vegetation metrics we focus on are important for a
wide variety of species, our work illustrates a general remote sensing
approach for mapping and monitoring fine-resolution habitat quality across
broad landscapes for use in studies of animal ecology, conservation, and
land management.