A new method that uses data from space to assess the health of Earth’s ecosystems could help conservationists identify the pockets of nature that need protecting the most.
From tropical forests to icy tundras, scorching deserts to vast oceans, our planet is home to many types of ecosystem. Ecosystems are important because they are a home for nature, and because they provide essential resources, such as food, climate regulation, and clean air and water.
With life on Earth under threat, it’s important to know how these delicate systems are likely to change. Yet, researchers struggle to agree on the measurements that best predict their future health.
Writing in Current Biology, Jake Williams and Nathalie Pettorelli from London’s Institute of Zoology unveiled an approach that uses both satellite and field data to quickly diagnose an ecosystem’s health – much like a blood test can identify when a patient needs urgent treatment.
It’s already known that when an ecosystem is healthy, there is particular relationship that exists between the total mass of organisms, such as trees and bushes, and their growth rate, number and diversity. Using data collected from forests across the US, Williams and Pettorelli showed that unhealthier ecosystems deviate more from this relationship.
The difference between the predicted and actual mass of the trees was related to the conservation status of the ecosystem, suggesting that the method could be used as a diagnostic measure of ecosystem health.
“Our work sets the stage for potential new, powerful tools that use patterns seen throughout nature to quickly and objectively identify which ecosystems need ‘medical’ intervention without reliance on subjective decisions about how these ecosystems should be,” says Williams. “This could be a game changer for protecting life on Earth.”
Critically, the approach can be applied to patterns in any ecosystem, meaning that, with a few adjustments, the same method could be used to predict the health of non-forest ecosystems too.
International agreements, such as the Global Biodiversity Framework, which aim to stem biodiversity loss, are essential to protecting nature. However, challenges developing indicators of ecosystem health mean that there is a lack of policy-ready information to galvanise political action.
“Our work addresses this issue,” says Pettorelli. “This could have major implications, notably for assessing national and international progress towards our ecosystem-based biodiversity targets and for ensuring the world remains on track to meet its commitments to restore the natural world we all depend on.”
Main image: satellite view of Capitol Reef in Utah. Credit: Getty
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