Nine changes needed to deliver a radical transformation in biodiversity measurement
Abstract
Biodiversity is declining in many parts of the world. Biological diversity measurement and monitoring are fundamental to the assessment of the causes and consequences of environmental changes, identification of key areas for the protection of biodiversity or ecosystem services, determining the effectiveness of actions, and the creation of decision-support tools critical to maintaining a sustainable planet. Biodiversity measurement is rapidly changing due to advances in citizen science, image recognition, acoustic monitoring, environmental DNA, genomics, remote sensing, and AI. In this perspective, we outline the exciting opportunities these developments offer but also consider the challenges. Our key recommendations are to 1) Capitalize on the ability of novel technology to integrate data sources 2) agree to standard methods for data collection 3) ensure new technologies are calibrated with existing data; 4) fill data gaps by using emerging technologies and increasing capacity, especially in the tropics; 5) create living safeguarded databases of trusted information to reduce the risk of poisoning by AI hallucinated, or false, information; 6) ensure data generation is valued; 7) ensure respectful incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge; 8) ensure measurements enable the quantification of effectiveness of actions, and 9) increase the resilience of global datasets to technical and societal change. Radical new collaborations are needed between computer scientists, engineers, molecular biologists, data scientists, field ecologists, citizen scientists, Indigenous peoples, policymakers, and local communities to create the rigorous, resilient, accessible biodiversity information systems required to underpin policies and practices that ensure the maintenance and restoration of ecological systems.
Article Details
Journal Info
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Sciences
Authors (46)
William J. Sutherland
Neil D. Burgess
United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Center
Scott V. Edwards
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Julia P. G. Jones
Pamela S. Soltis
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida
David Tilman
Julie M. Allen
Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech
Herizo T. Andrianandrasana
Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki
Cathrine J. Armour
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, Green Finance Institute
Tom August
United Kingdom Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
Kamaljit S. Bawa
Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts
Sallie Bailey
Natural England, Lancaster House, Hampshire Court
Tanya Birch
Google Geo Sustainability, Google Limited Liability Company
Philipp H. Boersch-Supan
British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery
Jeannine Cavender-Bares
Harvard University Herbaria and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Mark Blaxter
Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer
Global Science, World Wide Fund for Nature
Barnabas H. Daru
Department of Biology, Stanford University
Adriana De Palma
Biodiversity Futures Lab, Natural History Museum
Cristina Eisenberg
Ecocultural Resources
Chris S. Elphick
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Center of Biological Risk, University of Connecticut
Robert P. Freckleton
School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield
Winifred F. Frick
Bat Conservation International
Andrew Gonzalez
Department of Biology, Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network, McGill University Montreal
Scott J. Goetz
Lior Greenspoon
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science
Christina M. Grozinger
Department of Entomology, Center for Pollinator Research, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University
Don L. Hankins
Geography and Environmental Studies, California State University
Jonny Hazell
The Royal Society
Nick J. B. Isaac
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Wallingford
Marco Lambertini
Nature Positive Initiative Secretariat
Harris A. Lewin
The Genome Center, University of California
Oisin Mac Aodha
School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
Anil Madhavapeddy
EJ Milner-Gulland
Department of Biology, University of Oxford
Ron Milo
James O’Dwyer
Department of Plant Biology and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois
Andy Purvis
Nick Salafsky
Foundations of Success
Heather Tallis
Center for Coastal Climate Resilience, University of California Santa Cruz
Iroro Tanshi
Department of Biology, University of Washington
Varsha Vijay
Science Based Targets Network
Martin Wikelski
Department of Biology, University of Konstanz
David R. Williams
Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds
S. Hollis Woodard
Department of Entomology, University of California
Gene E. Robinson
Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign