Leveraging Earth Observation to support genetic diversity monitoring 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 challenging to measure at relevant scales such as the range of a species or the extent of an ecosystem. Conservationists, ecosystem managers, researchers, and Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) all require accessible tools for reliable and efficient assessment of genetic diversity, relevant for knowledge, policy and decision-making. Here, we describe how Earth Observation (EO) makes essential contributions to enable the scalable assessment and monitoring of genetic diversity. We introduce a stepwise workflow for integrating EO into existing genetic diversity monitoring strategies as part of biodiversity conservation efforts. We furthermore describe how available EO data can be made accessible to support calculation of genetic diversity indicators and to inform management and monitoring decisions, as well as to support research on the genetic diversity of populations. We argue that by leveraging EO data to obtain information about local habitat and ecosystem extent, quality and diversity, it becomes possible to scalably monitor genetic diversity at the scale of populations.