CamAlien: High-Speed Monitoring of Invasive and Expansive Plants in Mountain Ecosystems

Le résumé fourni par la source

As a consequence of biogeographic isolation and pronounced environmental heterogeneity, mountains represent exceptional biodiversity hotspots, with numerous endemic species. However, ecosystem transformations driven by global environmental changes result in irreversible biodiversity loss and a reduction in the essential ecosystem services provided. Invasive plants, but also native expansive species, are spreading upslope along roads, forest tracks and bike or hiking trails, to further exacerbate the environment pressure. Given that restoration in alpine ecosystems is often slow and uncertain, early detection and rapid management responses to new incursions of alien species are critical. Traditional botanical monitoring, albeit reliable, is limited by time and workforce. To address these challenges, we plan to use CamAlien, a novel high-speed camera system mounted on a vehicle, that allows roadside vegetation surveys with substantially greater spatial coverage than conventional field methods. We will apply this system in the Krkonoše Mountains (Czech–Polish border, Central Europe), a bilateral national park and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, shaped by differing land-use histories: the relatively undisturbed, steep Polish side and the more intensively modified Czech side, forming a heterogeneous landscape mosaic. Images obtained by the CamAlien system will be automatically classified using Pl@ntNet model, generating high-resolution, georeferenced records suitable for near real-time detection of invasive and expansive species and their repeatable monitoring across heterogeneous mountain landscapes.

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