Animals as Earth System Observers
- Author: Nasa.gov
- Full Title: Animals as Earth System Observers
- Category: articles
- Document Tags: #geospatial
- URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152542/animals-as-earth-system-observers?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Highlights
- More than serving as walking weather stations, animals and their movement patterns can tell scientists about how wildlife interacts with the environment and how conditions influence behavior. In a 2019 study, researchers analyzed the elephant data to learn when the animals visited water sources, which says something about their strategies for managing thermal stress. “These animals are extremely biased sensors, and this bias is called animal ecology and behavior,” said Ellis Soto. Animal biases as to where and when they sample certain areas may be a feature rather than a bug. For example, they might reveal how animals respond to extreme temperatures, which is of particular interest when it comes to rare or threatened species in a changing climate. (View Highlight)
- Satellites can use measurements such as NDVI, a measure of vegetation greenness, to see when plants leaf out, but they cannot detect other seasonal changes such as the emergence of seed pods. Wildlife foraging for seeds, however, could fill in this seasonal information and tell scientists about an ecosystem’s response to climate change, Gaddis said. Similarly, creatures living in snowy environments might offer details into snow coverage and melt timing through their movement patterns. (View Highlight)