Sandra Luque

• PhD, DR HDR
• Research Director at French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)

The mapping of plant biodiversity represents a fundamental stage in establishing conservation priorities, particularly in identifying groups of species that share ecological requirements or evolutionary histories. This is often achieved by assessing different spatial diversity patterns in plant population distributions. In this paper, we present tw...

Secondary forests now dominate tropical landscapes and play a crucial role in achieving COP15 conservation objectives. This study develops a replicable national approach to identifying and characterising forest ecosystems, with a focus on the role of secondary forests. We hypothesised that dominant tree species in the forest canopy serve as reliabl...

We focus on connectivity methods used to understand and predict how landscapes and habitats facilitate or impede the movement and dispersal of species. Our objective is to compare the implication of methodological choices at three stages of the modelling framework: landscape characterisation, connectivity estimation, and connectivity assessment. Wh...

Landscape mapping has the potential to address some of the most pressing research issues of our time, including climate change, sustainable development, and human well-being. In this paper, we propose an original method that lays the foundations for landscape mapping and overcomes some of the major limitations of existing biophysical methods. Based...

The Mitigation Hierarchy is the sequence of actions (avoid-minimise-restore-compensate) to anticipate and avoid adverse impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. The avoid or prevent stage is the first and most important stage of the mitigation hierarchy in which developers anticipate adverse impacts on biodiversity before actions or decision...

Imaging spectroscopy has demonstrated its interest in characterizing the biochemical, biophysical and structural properties of vegetation, natural and agricultural soils, as well as artificial surfaces. Following the Hyperion mission, new space missions have emerged (PRISMA, EnMap), or are under study (CHIME, SBG). However, one of their main limita...

1. Open-source biodiversity databases contain a large number of species occurrence records but are often spatially biased; which affects the reliability of species distribution models based on these records. Sample bias correction techniques require data filtering which comes at the cost of record numbers, or require considerable additional samplin...

This project aims to develop a methodological framework and operationalize a spatial processing chain to identify landscape units with the deployment of multi-source scales from Remote Sensing. Landscape mapping is crucial for monitoring and understanding a wide range of processes, and for addressing challenges such as land-use planning and biodive...

We present and discuss sample bias correction methods in Species Distribution Models, the approaches used to assess their effect, and propose a new one, i.e. the Relative Overlap Index (ROI). Relying on real and virtual species, we found this new approach to better represent the effect of sample bias correction than the existing alternative approac...

We used Arapaima as a model species to model its climate suitability and the level of protection of Amazon floodplains. We used open-source high-resolutoin climate and habitat predictors and recent modelling techniques. We identified severe protection gaps (70% of suitable areas for Arapaima are unprotected). This gap is predicted to worsen with cl...

The prevention of biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes to protect ecosystem stability and functions is of major importance in itself and for the maintenance of associated ecosystem services. Intense agriculture leads to a loss in species richness and homogenization of species pools as well as the fragmentation of natural habitats and ground...

The prevention of biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes to protect ecosystem stability and functions is of major importance in itself and for the maintenance of associated ecosystem services. Intense agriculture leads to a loss in species richness and homogenization of species pools as well as the fragmentation of natural habitats and ground...

Earth observation satellite imagery is increasingly accessible, and has become a key component for vegetation mapping and monitoring. Sentinel-2 satellites acquire optical images with five days’ revisit frequency, which is an important feature to increase the probability of acquisition with reasonable cloud cover in tropical regions. Regular and re...

The Amazon floodplains represent important surfaces of highly valuable ecosystems, yet they remain neglected from protected areas. Although the efficiency of the protected area network of the Amazon basin may be jeopardized by climate change, floodplains are exposed to important consequences of climate change but are omitted from species distributi...

ContextPrioritising is likely to differ depending on the species considered for connectivity assessments, leading to a lack of consensual decisions for territorial planning.Objectives The objective was to assess the relevance of identifying priority areas for connectivity for groups of species based on common dispersal abilities. We aimed to assess...

The Amazon floodplains represent important surfaces of highly valuable ecosystems, yet they remain neglected from protected areas. While the efficiency of the protected area network of the Amazon basin may be jeopardised by climate change, floodplains are exposed to important consequences of climate change but are omitted from species distribution...

Context Prioritising is likely to differ depending on the species considered for connectivity assessments, leading to a lack of consensual decisions for territorial planning. Objectives The objective was to assess the relevance of identifying priority areas for connectivity for groups of species based on common dispersal abilities. We aimed to asse...

Biodiversity monitoring and understanding ecological processes on a global scale is a major challenge for biodiversity conservation. Field assessments commonly used to assess patterns of biodiversity and habitat condition are costly, challenging, and restricted to small spatial scales. As ecosystems face increasing anthropogenic pressures, it is im...

Context - Prioritising connectivity conservation areas has become a main concern in landscape ecology and related ecological sciences. Prioritising is likely to differ depending on the species considered for connectivity assessments, leading to a lack of consensual decisions for territorial planning. This is the case for the establishment of a cons...

Open-source biodiversity databases contain a large amount of species occurrence records, but these are often spatially biased, which affects the reliability of species distribution models based on these records. Sample bias correction techniques include data filtering at the cost of record numbers or require considerable additional sampling effort....

This paper aims to investigate the extent to which ecosystem services maps can improve land-use planning decisions by strengthening the consideration of environmental issues. The methodology used is based on an experimental workshop simulating a participatory decision-making process for planning choices by a panel of territorial actors. The protoco...

This paper aims to investigate the extent to which ecosystem services maps can improve land-use planning decisions by strengthening the consideration of environmental issues. The methodology used is based on an experimental workshop simulating a participatory decision-making process for planning choices by a panel of territorial actors. The protoco...

GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis is a well-known decision support tool that can be used in a wide variety of contexts. It is particularly useful for territorial planning in situations where several actors with different, and sometimes contradictory, point of views have to take a decision regarding land use development. While the impact of...

This editorial article is motivated by a webinar organized by the IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) Forest Landscape Ecology Working Group (https://iufrole-wp.weebly.com/) held on June24th, 2020. We discuss here what landscape ecology has to learn from this unprecedented crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic and, s...

This editorial article is motivated by a webinar organized by the IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) Forest Landscape Ecology Working Group (https://iufrole-wp.weebly.com/) held on June 24th, 2020. We discuss here what landscape ecology has to learn from this unprecedented crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic and,...

Supplementary information - GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis is a well-known decision support tool that can be used in a wide variety of contexts. It is particularly useful for territorial planning in situations where several actors with different, and sometimes contradictory, point of views have to take a decision regarding land use deve...

The Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica, which provides highly valuable ecosystem services, is subject to increasing anthropogenic pressures, causing habitat loss or fragmentation. Whilst airborne images and acoustic data can be used for monitoring seagrass coverage at a macro-scale and over large periods of time, monitoring its health in the...

Monitoring the ecological status of natural habitats is crucial to the conservation process, as it enables the implementation of efficient conservation policies. Nowadays, it is increasingly possible to automate species identification, given the availability of very large image databases and state-of-the-art computational power which makes the trai...

With the unprecedented rate of biodiversity change in the world today, understanding how diversity gradients are maintained at mesoscales is a key challenge. Drawing on information provided by 3 comprehensive fishery surveys (conducted in different years but in the same season and with the same sampling design), we used boosted regression tree (BRT...

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a well-known decision support tool that can be used in a wide variety of contexts. It is particularly useful for territorial planning in situations where several actors with different, and sometimes contradictory, point of views have to take a decision regarding land use development. While the impact of th...

The key findings and key messages from the regional assessment for Europe and Central Asia of the interlinkages between health and biodiversity are given in this background paper, as an overview of the main conclusions in this field. In addition, this paper highlights the links between biodiversity and health at various spatial and temporal scales,...

The key findings and key messages from the regional assessment for Europe and Central Asia of the interlinkages between health and biodiversity are given in this background paper, as an overview of the main conclusions in this field. In addition, this paper highlights the links between biodiversity and health at various spatial and temporal scales,...

Mountains play a key role in the provision of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) worldwide that support societies’ quality of life. Simultaneously, mountains are threatened by multiple drivers of change. Due to the complex interlinkages between biodiversity, quality of life and drivers of change, research on NCP in mountains requires interdisci...

Underwater photogrammetry has been increasingly used to study and monitor the three-dimensional characteristics of marine habitats, despite a lack of knowledge on the quality and reliability of the reconstructions. More particularly, little attention has been paid to exploring and estimating the relative contribution of multiple acquisition paramet...

This is the database of the paper: Martín-López B, Leister I, Lorenzo Cruz P, Palomo I, Gret-Regamey A, Harrison PA, Lavorel S, Locatelli B, Luque S, Walz A. (2019) Nature’s contributions to people in mountains: a review. PLoS ONE E 14(6): e0217847. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217847

The quantitative characterization of landscape structure is critical to assess conservation, and monitor and manage biodiversity. The Mediterranean Basin is a biodiversity hotspot that illustrates the strong relationship between biodiversity and the complexity of the landscape mosaic. Our objective was to test the relevance of two textural indices...

The delimitation of bioregions helps to understand historical and ecological drivers of species distribution. In this work, we performed a network analysis of the spatial distribution patterns of plants in south of France (Languedoc‐Roussillon and Provence‐Alpes‐Côte d'Azur) to analyze the biogeographical structure of the French Mediterranean flora...

Interactions between people and ecological systems, through leisure or tourism activities, form a complex socio-ecological spatial network. The analysis of the benefits people derive from their interactions with nature—also referred to as cultural ecosystem services (CES)—enables a better understanding of these socio-ecological systems. In the age...

File containing the manuscript supporting information. This file includes one table (Table A: Summary statistics of the case study sites) and 9 figures (Fig A: Screenshot of the interactive web application; Fig B: Positions of the geolocated Flickr photographs; Fig C: Influence of the parameters in the identification of the Flickr user’s place of r...

The European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action ESMERALDA aimed at developing guidance and a flexible methodology for Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) to support the EU member states in the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy’s Target 2 Action 5. ESMERALDA’s key tasks included network cr...

The preservation of biodiversity has become a major challenge for sustainable development at national, European (Natura 2000 and Habitats Directive) and international levels (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2011-2020). To address the current conservation needs; there’s a need to operationalise methods to assess the distribution of natural resou...

The open access availability of satellite images from new sensors characterized by various spatial and temporal resolutions provides new challenges and possibilities for biodiversity conservation. Methodologies aiming at characterizing vegetation type, phenology, and function can now benefit from metric spatial resolution imagery combined with an i...

Landscape heterogeneity is a key factor for understanding ecosystems function and is often associated to high biodiversity. Yet, its characterization for biodiversity monitoring still remains challenging, especially for very heterogeneous landscapes mosaics. In this work, we study the potential of Fourier-based Textural Ordination (FOTO) applied on...

Remote sensing tools (RS) can contribute to a better understanding of the diversity of natural and semi-naturals habitats, their spatial distribution, and their conservation status. RS can also provide a generic set of derived indicators to support local to regional habitat monitoring. Here we propose a set of synthetic continuous textural indices...

Interactions between people and ecological systems, through leisure or tourism activities, form a complex socio-ecological spatial network. The analysis of the benefits people derive from their interactions with nature - also referred to as cultural ecosystem services (CES) - enables a better understanding of these socio-ecological systems. In the...

Deliverable D3.3 EU Horizon 2020 ESMERALDA Project, Grant agreement No. 642007. The aims of The Report are: 1) to gather the latest knowledge of biophysical mapping and assessment of the ecosystem services, including methods, data, tools, and software commonly used; 2) based on the above findings, to suggest a harmonised methodology describing ho...

Aim. We performed a network analysis of the spatial distribution patterns of plant species using a network approach in order to analyse the biogeographical structure of the French Mediterranean flora. Location. South of France (Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur). Methods. We used a network approach to identify and characterize bio...

The delimitation of bioregions helps to understand historical and ecological drivers of species distribution. In this work, we performed a network analysis of the spatial distribution patterns of plants in south of France (Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence-Alpes-C\^ote d'Azur) to analyze the biogeographical structure of the French Mediterranean flo...

This report provides an overview of the main social methods for mapping and assessment of ecosystem services. It addresses the challenge of improving the applicability of these methods with specific examples, particularly with respect to the MAES process and the ESMERALDA case studies. In this context, the term “mapping” is used to mean the descrip...

The ecosystem service (ES) concept is becoming mainstream in policy and planning, but operational influence on practice is seldom reported. Here, we report the practitioners' perspectives on the practical implementation of the ES concept in 27 case studies. A standardised anonymous survey (n=246), was used, focusing on the science-practice interact...

The Ecosystem Services (ES) concept highlights the varied contributions the environment provides to humans and there are a wide range of methods/tools available to assess ES. However, in real-world decision contexts a single tool is rarely sufficient and methods must be combined to meet practitioner needs. Here, results from the OpenNESS project ar...

The operational challenges of integrated ecosystem service (ES) appraisals are determined by study purpose, system complexity and uncertainty, decision-makers' requirements for reliability and accuracy of methods, and approaches to stakeholder-science interaction in different decision contexts. To explore these factors we defined an information gap...

To inspire landscape ecologists in developing research for a more sustainable future, we highlight some of the key points raised during the 5th international Forum on Landscape Sustainability Science (2017). We emphasize challenges that have been identified in sustainability science that we consider particularly relevant for landscape sustainabilit...

The preservation of biodiversity has become a major challenge for sustainable development at national, European (Natura 2000 and Habitats Directive) and international levels (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2011-2020). To address the current conservation needs, there is a need to operationalise methods to assess the distribution of natural reso...

As the ecosystem service concept has become more widely recognised, so the number of biophysical, socio-cultural and monetary methods available to assess ecosystem services has increased. There is relatively little guidance on how to select and combine these methods into hybrid approaches that address policy purposes. Based on experiences from 27 c...

Special Issue on the use of ES in planning and decision making that can contribute to improve the quality of land use and management proposals by addressing synergies, trade-offs and conflicts between economic, environmental and social goals, and unveiling hidden effects, such as those associated with regulating services at local and global scales

The ecosystem service (ES) concept is acknowledged for its potential to support decision-making on various scales. Still, it lacks in practical implementation, particularly concerning spatial planning and land management – key aspects that lead to criticism in its applicability. ES in planning and decision-making can contribute to improve the quali...

1. Biodiversity includes multiscalar and multitemporal structures and processes, with different levels of functional organization, from genetic to ecosystemic levels. One of the mostly used methods to infer biodiversity is based on taxonomic approaches and community ecology theories. However, gathering extensive data in the field is difficult due t...

Nine Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) were developed within the OpenNESS project specifically for modelling ecosystem services for case study applications. The novelty of the method, its ability to explore problems, to address uncertainty, and to facilitate stakeholder interaction in the process were all reasons for choosing BBNs. Most case studies...

Spatial planning has to deal with trade-offs between various stakeholders’ wishes and needs as part of planning and management of landscapes, natural resources and/or biodiversity. To make ecosystem services (ES) trade-off research more relevant for spatial planning, we propose an analytical framework, which puts stakeholders, their land-use/manage...

The promise that ecosystem service assessments will contribute to better decision-making is not yet proven. We analyse how knowledge on ecosystem services is actually used to inform land and water management in 22 case studies covering different social-ecological systems in European and Latin American countries. None of the case studies reported in...

Context Human and natural systems interact at multiple scales which are context specific in relation to ecosystem service supply. Scenic beauty is recognised as a cultural ecosystem service whose aesthetic value is perceived at a holistic landscape level. Objectives In this study we provide methodological advancements for assessing the relationshi...

ContextContext Bats are considered as an ecological indicator of habitat quality due to their sensitivity to human-induced ecosystem changes. Hence, we will focus the study on two indicator species of bats as a proxy to evaluate structure and composition of the landscape to analyze anthropic pressures driving changes in patterns. Objectives This st...

The Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV) concept proposed by GEO BON, Space Agencies, and the Earth Observation research community at large aims to support efforts for biodiversity monitoring. GOFC-GOLD and GEO BON propose a new sourcebook to promote the best operational monitoring practices for the relevant EBVs based on scientific literature, a...

Covering nearly a third of the earth's land surface, forests provide multiple ecosystem services (ES). Forests have supported people's livelihoods throughout history, particularly when crops failed. However, these biologically-rich systems are increasingly threatened, largely as a result of different human activity, such as land-use change, defores...

Effective, timely and informed conservation and sustainable development decisions require consistently produced and trustworthy biodiversity data, derived from in-situ and remotely sensed sources and scalable from the local to global. Producing such data requires clear monitoring objectives driven by user needs and a coordinated approach to allow f...

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) bind elements between social and ecological concepts. They are seen as nature’s intangible benefits related to human perceptions, attitudes and beliefs. People obtain spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation and aesthetic experiences from ecosystems (Table 1). People’s perceptions can dif...

Authors In addition to the core editors, a number of international experts in remote sensing, and biodiversity field measurement have contributed to the development of the Sourcebook and are thankfully acknowledged for their support. This Sourcebook is the result of a joint voluntary effort from more than 70 contributing authors from different inst...

Remote sensing has become increasingly important in vegetation mapping. Early applications pertained to aerial photography, but more recently satellite imagery with a huge range of spatial and temporal resolutions is in use that increases the applicability's from entire ecosystems to specific vegetation types. Some mapping projects apply remote sen...

This Special Issue features research that was presented during two key international events. The first event was a conference by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), held in Tartu (Estonia) in 2015, with the theme 'Sustaining Ecosystem Services in Forested Landscapes'. The second event was a symposium organized during t...

Standardised and harmonised biodiversity data and monitoring methods are required in order to assess how tropical forest biodiversity is evolving at the global scale, and what the drivers of change are. Collaborative efforts towards the development of such harmonised monitoring methods are carried out by national and regional forest agencies, the s...