Biogeography

A new, freely available and open-source app that uses aerial survey data to map and identify wild animals, has been launched by researchers from Edith Cowan University. The app is intended to help researchers and community groups across the world to conduct wildlife imagery surveys. Known as WISDAM — Wildlife Image Survey Detection and Mapping — the ...

Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela, assistant professor of environmental studies, and a team of Colombian researchers have introduced a transformative approach to mapping bird species distribution across Colombia, harnessing community science data and innovative modeling techniques. Their latest study, published with open access in the journal Diversity and Distributions, presents high-resolution range and Area of Habitat (AOH) maps ...

A new atlas by human rights groups assessed tree cover and biodiversity hotspots on lands belonging to Afro-descendant peoples in 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), the Black Communities’ Process (PCN), the Universidad Javeriana’s Observatory for Ethnic and Peasant Territories (OTEC) and the National Coordination of Black ...

The Nature Discovery Map Scotland (NDMS) is designed to engage and empower students to maximise their school grounds and improve them for nature and climate resilience. This interactive mapping toolkit has been co-designed with teachers to help support Learning for Sustainability (LfS). This versatile toolkit can be used in many ways and on many levels ...

Forests in Galicia, northwestern Spain, are frequently ravaged by wildfires, leading to significant environmental and economic damage. The increasing virulence of these fires, exacerbated by climate change, poses a heightened risk to both natural landscapes and human populations. Traditional forestry methods to mitigate these fires are costly, prompting the exploration of alternative measures. One such ...

Powerful new digital mapping tools developed by University of Nevada, Reno researchers hold promise to improve management of rangeland, particularly public lands in the far-flung Western United States. The significant improvements in mapping of vegetation enabled by the University’s research provide managers of rangeland, ranchers as well as federal managers of public lands, with better ...

A research team has recently published a comprehensive review on the innovative integration of spectral data and phylogeographic patterns to study plant genetic variation. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of remote sensing technology in identifying and analyzing genetic variations in plants across different geographical regions. This methodology not only deepens our understanding of plant diversity ...

The Chornobyl Radiation-Ecological Biosphere Reserve has launched a geoportal with information on 38 years of activity of various departments on the territory of the exclusion zone: from research and education to accounting for land, forest and water resources, reported the Chornobyl Reserve. “Here you will find a map of modern, anthropogenic landscapes of the territory, ...

A new scientific endeavour has taken to the sky using high-tech drones and satellite images to understand better the annual spring herring spawn vital to salmon and wildlife on the West Coast. Between February and March each year, frigid ocean waters transform to a milky tropical-looking turquoise green when male herring release milt to fertilize ...

Researchers at The University of Western Australia have led the development of a new technique for accurately mapping shallow and coastal marine habitats. Dr Sharyn Hickey and Dr Stan Mastrantonis, from UWA’s School of Agriculture and Environment, School of Biological Sciences and Oceans Institute, were co-authors of the research published in the ISPRS Journal of ...

The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have collaborated to develop a nationwide mangrove map using remote sensing data, a vital tool for conservation efforts. The mangrove mapping initiative is part of the DENR’s development of a national geospatial database for its environment and natural resource accounting program. ...

Il progetto MER è la prima campagna di monitoraggio delle coste dell’Italia. L’intento è fornire dati ad altissima risoluzione volti a migliorare il processo decisionale dei governi locali per la protezione degli habitat e delle specie marine di interesse conservazionistico. A gestire il bando l’ISPRA che ha assegnato al consorzio guidato da Fugro l’azione di ...

حسن اکبری، معاون محیط زیست طبیعی و تنوع زیستی سازمان حفاظت محیط‌زیست گفت: برای نخستین بار نقشه پراکنش ۱۹ گونه جانوری شاخص حیات‌وحش کشور تهیه می‌شود که تاکنون ۵۰ درصد کار پیشرفت داشته است. جغرافیای وسیع و گسترده ایران گونه‌های جانوری زیادی را در خود جای داده است و در هر گوشه و کنار کشور ...

A estudante do Programa Doutoral em Biologia da FCUP, Diana Sousa Guedes, tem estado a mapear, com recurso a um drone, o lixo marinho das praias de Cabo Verde, num trabalho que procura perceber o impacto do plástico nas tartarugas-marinhas. O objectivo é proteger estas espécies ameaçadas de extinção, num cenário cujos resultados não são, ...

Onde estão as espécies do litoral brasileiro? Buscando conhecer melhor a biodiversidade marinha brasileira, o Programa BioGeoMar acaba de lançar a campanha de ciência cidadã BioBlitz Verão 2024. Nela, o público é convidado a explorar, identificar e registrar a vida dentro e fora da água, sejam animais ou plantas, encontrados em praias, mergulhos ou em ...

For a study published in the Journal of Remote Sensing, a team of scientists led by Xihan Mu from Beijing Normal University has made a leap forward in environmental monitoring and ecological research. They have created seamless maps of Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) over China at 30-meter resolution and semimonthly intervals, covering the years 2010-2020. ...

A newly released Avian Data Monitoring Portal brings together more than a decade of aerial survey photos along the northern Gulf of Mexico to provide an easily searchable database for researchers, natural resource managers, and the public. Found at avianmonitoring.com, the portal will help coastal managers, coastal restoration engineers, researchers, and others not only see ...

A new study supported by One Earth and published in Nature Communications sheds light on a critical environmental issue: the balance between human well-being and biodiversity conservation. The research, conducted by an international team of researchers, reveals that conserving approximately half of the global land area is essential to maintain the majority of nature’s contributions ...

In the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest lies the world-renowned Iguazu Falls. On one side of the towering cascades is the Iguazú National Park of Argentina, on the other is the Iguaçu National Park of Brazil. Greened by over 2,000 plant species, the landscape is home to an array of creatures, including the charismatic jaguar. And ...

This marked the culmination of the project “Mapping Coastal and Submarine Habitats in the Adriatic Sea under National Jurisdiction,” spearheaded by the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of the Republic of Croatia (MINGOR) in collaboration with a consortium of over 200 experts. Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries said that the project aimed to enhance ...

A few years ago, a couple of Google employees reached out to a Minnesota scientist with an unusual proposal: What if they could teach computers to spot beaver habitats from space? “They wanted to know if I thought it was possible to find beaver wetlands from aerial imagery myself, and then if that could be ...

Biodiversity continues to decline globally, but nowhere is the loss more pronounced than in Aotearoa New Zealand, which has the highest proportion of threatened indigenous species in the world. Planning large-scale biodiversity restoration projects – whether they’re run by NGOs, governments or Indigenous groups – requires high-quality data. Despite the rising demand, however, accessible biodiversity ...

The University of Córdoba is participating in the creation of the first database that harmonizes the recording of disturbances caused by insects and diseases in forests in 8 European countries by combining remote sensing, satellite images and field data. Forest damage caused by insects and diseases is increasing in many parts of the world due ...

Over the next few weeks, NASA aircraft will fly over South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region and collect ultraviolet, visual, thermal and other imagery of its terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. These preliminary images will be publicly available and posted online here within hours of the aircraft landing each day. Combined with satellite imagery and field ...

Un enfoque que destaca la conservación de la diversidad floral natural como base para la alimentación de las abejas melíferas, es el que tiene el proyecto “Sensores remotos y apicultura natural regenerativa”, que desde 2022 desarrollan investigadores de INIA Quilamapu en la región de Ñuble. El investigador y director del proyecto, Marcelino Claret, indicó que ...

Cal Poly Humboldt students and faculty across various disciplines are embarking on an ambitious project to map out vegetation in the Klamath Mountains. This data will have many applications, including understanding how vegetation regenerates after fires, and how plant communities are being affected by a drying and warming climate. In the long term, this project ...

According to Leesburg Tree Commission Chair Earl Hower, the lanternfly slowly spread throughout the mid-Atlantic states since it was first discovered in Pennsylvania in 2014. In the last two years, it has been found more commonly in D.C., Maryland and Northern Virginia. There’s a new invasive species locator map to see where the lanternflies are ...

Locusts can destroy grain crops and pastures, threatening people’s livelihoods. In an international project, researchers from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have now developed methods to help detect locust outbreaks as early as possible and take action against them. Earth observation images acquired by satellites play a central role ...

A team of experts is working to better understand the spread of blue-green algae in Alberta lakes by combining satellite technology with near-simultaneous water sampling. The project, funded through Alberta Innovates, is a collaboration between several groups, including Alberta Lake Management Society (ALMS), the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI), and researcher Rolf Vinebrooke from the ...

Using satellite images, scientists at the British Antarctic Survey were able to see that sea ice in the central and eastern Bellingshausen Sea region last year broke up long before the start of the birds’ fledgling period, when penguin chicks would have developed their waterproof feathers. The research, published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth ...