LIFE Ilhas Barreira - D1 Project Milestone: Portfolio of UAV surveys database

The Ria Formosa Natural Park, a multi-barrier island system located in South Portugal, holds a variety of dune habitats of high ecological value. However, some of them are threatened by both human and natural pressures. An example are the grey dunes located at Barreta Island, which show clear signs of perturbation due to the settlement of two gull breeding colonies (west and east). The native grey dune vegetation coverage has been reduced within the nesting areas and replaced by ruderal species adapted to a higher nutrient content and gull physical disturbance (Talavera et al., 2022; Portela et al., 2023).

Aiming to restore the native grey dune vegetation, the LIFE Ilhas Barreira project (LIFE18 NAT/PT/000927) implemented several conservation measures. Among them were the installation of gull control and exclusion areas in the two nesting areas (details on the materials and configuration of the exclusion and control areas can be found at Deliverable C2), which were monitored using a DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral drone during a 2-year period (December 2020-December 2022).

The 5-band orthophotoimages available for download show the evolution of the vegetation coverage in these gull control and exclusion areas over the 2-year monitoring period.