A close eye on biodiversity

Agricultural expansion has supported the rapid growth of global supply chains, but the change in land use driven by this expansion is one of the main causes of declining biodiversity.

While we are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of different types of land use, and have been increasingly committed to addressing them in recent years, monitoring their impact on biodiversity remains challenging.

Data on biodiversity change for the entire globe are generally lacking and often sensitive, especially at the high resolution needed to record different plant species. The diversity of environments and of land use also makes it difficult to link them to local biodiversity.

To address this, ESA Discovery funding is enabling a team from Biodiv Watch in the Netherlands to use recent advances in sensor technology, Earth observation data quality and digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing to map patterns in plant biodiversity at regional scales at different locations around the globe.

Using satellite observations of regions with different land uses and comparing these with close by natural environments will help link changes in these local plant biodiversity patterns to different land uses, improving our understanding of how changing land use impacts biodiversity.

This information will help inform, guide, and reshape the way that land is used, providing a data-driven reference on the impact of agricultural commodities on plant biodiversity as production expands.