Biologists are starting to augment eyes in the forest with eyes in the sky. But even as satellite imagery has a growing role in a field long-dominated by on-the-ground observation, the brave biologist trekking through a rainforest with binoculars and a cool hat isn't going away anytime soon.
On the ground observations are really still important. But Walter Jetz, an associate professor at Yale University, said what's growing in significance lately are notes gathered at a much higher level -- with satellites.
"It's been really not sufficiently appreciated -- how amazing a role they can indeed play," said Jetz. "These satellites were put up in space for often very different reasons."
Reasons like looking at seawater conditions or improving weather predictions, not necessarily things an ecologist like Jetz, who studies global biodiversity and habitat, would be interested in.
But when combined with field observations, Jetz said satellite data is powerful.
Recently, he and co-author Adam Wilson looked at clouds, examining 15 years of cloud cover and pairing it up with on-the-ground observations of plants and animals. From there, the pair was able to fine tune maps of cloud-covered rainforests and other humid spots, which can sometimes be costly and dangerous for ecologists to access.
The results were published in the journal PLOS Biology.
"The exciting thing here, I should add, is that not only are we able to delineate this habitat in greater detail and thereby able to asses how threatened is it in certain places," Jetz said. "But we are also able, going forward, to monitor how that habitat is doing."
View the 15 years of cloud-cover data here.
Jetz said he hopes more and more scientists -- and science agencies -- appreciate how satellites can serve ecology and conservation. He hopes biology students keep embracing new technology like camera traps and acoustic sensors, to learn more about the natural world. And that training in new technology will get more incorporated into school programs.
