Leveraging Earth Observation to monitor genetic diversity from Space

Meredith Christine Schuman , Claudia Röösli, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Isabelle S. Helfenstein, Oliver Selmoni, Cristiano Vernesi, Katie L. Millette, Wolke Tobón-Niedfeldt, Clement Albergel, Deborah M. Leigh, Sophie Hebden, Sean M. Hoban, Santiago G. Lago, Michael E Schaepman, Linda Laikre, Ghassem R Asrar

Genetic diversity within and among populations is essential for species persistence, yet its assessment across many species, at national and regional scales, remains challenging. Conservationists, ecosystem managers, and Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) still require accessible tools for reliable and efficient monitoring at the multiple scales relevant for policy and decision-making. We describe how Earth Observation (EO) makes essential contributions to enable, accelerate, and improve genetic diversity monitoring. We introduce a stepwise workflow for integrating EO into existing genetic diversity monitoring strategies. We describe how available EO data can be made accessible in innovative ways to support calculation of the genetic diversity indicators for the GBF monitoring framework and to inform management and monitoring decisions. We then provide an outlook for integrating the forthcoming generation of EO data: Upcoming capabilities that will provide unprecedented detail to and thereby support more direct assessments of genetic diversity from Space.