2026-10-11T22:09:00Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33938859 2026-09-18T17:43:55Z category_39 category_734 category_106 portal_5 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

<p>Assessment Metrics.</p> Matthew J. Drouillard (25073385) Anthony R. Cummings (25073388) Persaud Moses (25073391) Fabian Moses (25073394) Catherine Auerbach (25073397) Ecology Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Science Policy unmanned aerial vehicles tropics harvest fauna resolution multispectral worldview object detection techniques indigenous peoples across convolutional neural network cluster analysis showed six different species less abundant species local moran ’ attalea maripa </ astrocaryum vulgare </ palm density compared div >< p 3 versus 22 less abundant palms swidden agriculture saw dominant species local environments swidden agriculture palm populations palm assemblage conserving palm use pathways undisturbed forest swidden disturbance sustainable land results demonstrate representing 89 representing 77 relative representation reduced representation localized region land disturbed imagery derived disturbed land disturbed forest cultural functions community diversity 6 ). 255 hectares <div><p>Indigenous peoples across the tropics harvest fauna and flora from the local environments that they helped to shape. Among the flora that are harvested are palms that are distributed across swidden agriculture landscapes. Here we draw on imagery derived from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and convolutional neural network (CNN) object detection techniques to identify individual palms within a localized region of swidden agriculture in Guyana. A total of 10,194 palms were identified from six different species over 255 hectares. Land disturbed by swidden agriculture saw a 136% increase in palm density compared to undisturbed forest (53.3 versus 22.6). Local Moran’s <i>I</i> cluster analysis showed that <i>Attalea maripa</i> was the dominant species in both undisturbed forest, representing 77.1% of palms, and swidden-disturbed land, representing 89.0% of palms. <i>Astrocaryum vulgare</i> declined in relative representation from 17.3% in undisturbed forest to 10.0% in disturbed forest, accompanied by reduced representation of other less abundant palms. These results demonstrate that swidden disturbance can increase total palm density while simplifying the palm assemblage and reducing the relative representation of less abundant species. This trade-off is important for informing more sustainable land-use pathways that maintain the livelihood and cultural functions of swidden agriculture while conserving palm-community diversity. Furthermore, 0.5-meter-resolution multispectral WorldView-2 imagery detected approximately 70% fewer palms than UAV imagery.</p></div> 2026-09-18T17:43:41Z Dataset Dataset 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000275.t001 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/_p_Assessment_Metrics_p_/33938859 CC BY 4.0