Quantification of landscape change from satellite remote sensing

Satellite remote sensing data and methods can be used to develop maps of large areas at different times in order to assess changes in forest ecosystem patterns and processes. Such maps are useful in understanding wildlife populations and habitat, forest biodiversity, and forest productivity. They may be important in ecological monitoring programs at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and could include assessment of structural aspects of the landscape, such as forest or habitat fragmentation. Quantification and measurement of landscape structure depend on the definition of landscape classes or patches, defined on the basis of more or less homogeneous elements, which differ in some measurable way from neighbouring patches. In this paper, we review some of the issues, and provide examples using satellite remote sensing data, in the quantification of landscape structure in two Canadian forests. The link between landscape structure and biodiversity is provided through the emergence of ecological understanding of species richness, species-habitat or niches, and metapopulation dynamics.