Inspire Session
Lauren Gillespie
PhD Student
Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA, United States
Sara Beery
Incoming Assistant Professor
MIT, United States
Meixi Lin
Carnegie Institution for Science, United States
Ruth Oliver
Assistant Professor
University of California Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California, United States
david schimel
Senior Research Scientist
JPL
Pasadena, California, United States
We face the unprecedented twin disasters of rapid global climate change and the sixth mass extinction. Temperatures and CO2 levels are rising faster this century than at any point in recent ecological memory and biodiversity at both a species and population level is being lost at rates unseen since the dinosaurs’ extinction. As we rush to protect the world’s remaining biodiversity from anthropogenic effects while also fortifying our ecosystems against a rapidly changing climate, we need more tools at our disposal to comprehensively track this remaining biodiversity and its changes at fine temporal and spatial scales across the globe. To meet this monumental task, we will need to leverage all of the tools the 21st century has to offer, including new and unexpected data sources, machine learning, and big data.
In this Inspire Session, we aim to bring together experts at the cutting edge of a variety of different data sources used in conservation ecology –some new and some old– to discuss a roadmap for how these different data streams can be combined with machine learning to perform high quality, high resolution biodiversity monitoring at scale. For example, passive camera traps and audio sensors have made huge advances recently for AI-powered ecosystem monitoring, while remote sensing products are enabling us to understand and track plant communities at unprecedented spatial and temporal scale. Similarly, great strides have been made using DNA for genetic diversity characterization and monitoring of population’s genetic health, while the meteoric rise in popularity of citizen science initiatives like iNaturalist are connecting more people with nature all while collecting ever more data for potential downstream conservation uses. Finally, established techniques for ecosystem monitoring, such as radio collar tracking are being leveraged in new and clever ways, allowing traditional methods of biodiversity characterization to unlock new sources of biodiversity information.
By combining experts from these different data streams, we aim for this Inspire Session to spark a broader discussion about how these different modalities can be combined with the use of machine learning and be used in a reliable and ethical way to make informed conservation decisions. Ultimately, we hope this discussion will chart a path towards a unified and comprehensive network of biodiversity monitoring tools spanning across the tree of life, across scales, and across the globe, with the goal of readying the world’s ecosystems to face the grave challenges that lie ahead of us in The Anthropocene.
Presenting Author: Sara Beery – MIT
Co-author: Jonathan Huang – Google
Presenting Author: Michael Buchalski – California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Presenting Author: K. Dana Chadwick – Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Presenting Author: Diego Ellis-Soto – Yale University
Co-author: Walter Jetz – Yale University
Co-author: Martin Wikelski – Max Planck Institute for animal behavior
Presenting Author: Lauren Gillespie – Stanford University
Co-author: Megan Ruffley, PhD – Carnegie Institution for Science
Co-author: Moisés Expósito-Alonso – Carnegie Institution for Science
Presenting Author: Andy R. Kleinhesselink, PhD in Ecology – University of Montana
Presenting Author: Ruth Oliver – University of California Santa Barbara
Co-author: Scott W. yanco – Yale University
Co-author: Diego Ellis-Soto – Yale University
Co-author: Walter Jetz – Yale University
Co-author: Fabiola Iannarillie – Yale University
Presenting Author: david schimel – JPL