Applications of unmanned aerial vehicles in Antarctic environmental research

Antarctica plays a fundamental role in the Earth's climate, oceanic circulation and global ecosystem. It is a priority and a scientific challenge to understand its functioning and responses under different scenarios of global warming. However, extreme environmental conditions, seasonality and i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific Reports
Main Authors: Tovar-Sánchez, Antonio, Román, Alejandro, Roque, David, Navarro, Gabriel
Other Authors: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (España)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2021
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Community ecology
Ecology
Environmental sciences
http://metadata.un.org/sdg/15
Protect
restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems
sustainably manage forests
combat desertification
and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Antarctic
Deception Island
Román
South Shetland Islands
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/308845
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01228-z
https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003176
https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85118630830
Description
Summary:Antarctica plays a fundamental role in the Earth's climate, oceanic circulation and global ecosystem. It is a priority and a scientific challenge to understand its functioning and responses under different scenarios of global warming. However, extreme environmental conditions, seasonality and isolation hampers the efforts to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the physical, biological, chemical and geological processes taking place in Antarctica. Here we present unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as feasible, rapid and accurate tools for environmental and wildlife research in Antarctica. UAV surveys were carried out on Deception Island (South Shetland Islands) using visible, multispectral and thermal sensors, and a water sampling device to develop precise thematic ecological maps, detect anomalous thermal zones, identify and census wildlife, build 3D images of geometrically complex geological formations, and sample dissolved chemicals (< 0.22 µm) waters from inaccessible or protected areas. This research has been funded by the Spanish Government projects PiMetAn (ref. RTI2018-098048-B-I00), EQC2018-004275-P and EQC2019-005721. A. Román is supported by the Spanish FPU Grant (Ref: FPU19/04557). This research is part of the POLARCSIC research initiatives. Peer reviewed

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