Biodiversity and nature conservation in island ecosystems: spatiotemporal changes in Socotra archipelago (Yemen)
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Biodiversity and nature conservation in island ecosystems: spatiotemporal changes in Socotra archipelago (Yemen) Bijeesh Kozhikkodan Veettil 1,2 & Dong Doan Van 3 & Ngo Xuan Quang 4,5 Received: 21 April 2020 / Revised: 13 August 2020 / Accepted: 17 August 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Island ecosystems are particularly important to biodiversity around as they host a large number of floral communities. Socotra Island contains a number of endemic flora and fauna, which is of great ecological importance. This study investigated the spatiotemporal changes in geomorphological characteristics, shoreline, and vegetation in Socotra Island using satellite imagery between 1988 and 2019. Our results indicated that the shoreline of Socotra Island did not undergo any significant changes and the observed erosion-accretion processes were nearly balanced. High elevation areas are restricted to the surrounding areas of central massif, where endemic woody vegetation is mainly found. There has been an increase in the area covered by grassland and shrub vegetation during the study period, possibly caused by grazing and invasive species. Keywords Endemic species . Grassland remote sensing . Grazing . Island biodiversity . Plant invasion . Urban settlements
Introduction Preserving biodiversity and its restoration have been a challenging task for ecologists and the scientific community (Aliani et al. 2015). Island ecosystems around the globe are particularly important for the conservation of plant diversity (Cauípe-Castells et al. 2010). Compared to continental areas,
* Ngo Xuan Quang [email protected] Bijeesh Kozhikkodan Veettil [email protected] Dong Doan Van [email protected] 1
Institute of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Duy Tan University, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam
2
Faculty of Information Technology, Duy Tan University, Da Nang 550000, Vietnam
3
Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam
4
HUTECH Institute of Applied Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH), 475 Dien Bien Phu Street, Ward 25, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam
5
Department of Environmental Management and Technology, Institute of Tropical Biology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 85 Tran Quoc Toan, Ward 7, Disctrict 3, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam
the species diversity of vascular plants is higher in oceanic island ecosystems (Kier et al. 2009). Furthermore, mangrove vegetation is also an inevitable part of island biodiversity in the tropical regions (Lee et al. 2014). However, anthropogenic activities have negatively affected the biodiversity islands around the globe in recent decades (Sax and Gaines 2008; Kier et al. 2009), which indicates that island plant conservationists are facing a huge challenge at global level (CauípeCastells et al. 2010). Introduction of grazing animals and pyrophytic grasses are one of the serious anthropogenic activities that influence isl
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