Today’s ecologists have more data than ever before to help monitor and understand the world’s biodiversity.
Today’s ecologists have more data than ever before to help monitor and understand the world’s biodiversity. Yet researchers are still working to get more detailed information to better combat declining animal populations that can eventually lead to species extinctions, says animal ecologist Scott Yanco of the University of Michigan.
Yanco, a research fellow at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, believes that change is on the horizon thanks to advances in animal tracking technology. Researchers affix these devices to individual animals to monitor their locations and other information over time. With these technologies, scientists are accumulating more detailed information throughout the lives of individual animals to understand the specific impacts of threats like pollution, climate change, and habitat loss and fragmentation.
Working with U-M evolutionary ecologist Brian Weeks and an international team, Yanco authored a new study highlighting the opportunity for animal tracking data to help usher in a new era of conservation.
Read more at University of Michigan
Image: A flammulated owl, Psiloscops flammeolus, is outfitted with an archival GPS unit. (Image credit: Scott Yanco)
