Global Wildlife Decline May be Halted by Satellite Conservation

First Posted: Jul 23, 2015 10:40 AM EDT

As the climate changes and as humans push in on habitat, global wildlife is declining. Now, scientists have called for urgent cooperation between conservation scientists and space agencies to help preserve ecosystems.

"With global wildlife populations halved in just 40 years, there is a real urgency to identify variables that both capture key aspects of biodiversity change and can be monitored consistently and globally," said Nathalie Pettorelli, co-author of the new study, in a news release. "Satellites can help deliver such information, and in 10 years' time, global biodiversity monitoring from space could be a reality, but only if ecologists and space agencies agree on a priority list of satellite-based data that is essential for tracking changes in biodiversity."

Biodiversity monitoring so far has been largely species-based. This means that some of the changes happening on a global scale may be missed. However, satellite imagery could help. By looking at the planet as a whole, researchers could get a better sense of which areas should be targeted for conservation.

"Satellite imagery from major space agencies is becoming more freely available, and images are much higher resolution than 10 years ago," said Andrew Skidmore, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Our ambition to monitor biodiversity from space is not being matched by actual technical capacity. As conservation and remote sensing communities join forces, biodiversity can be monitored on a global scale. High tech satellites can assist in conserving biological diversity by tracking the impact of environmental policies worldwide."

Using new technologies could be a huge boon for conservation efforts. With that said, researchers need to standardize the way they look at this information in order to track trends moving forward.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.