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Geospatial data and analysis is critical for conservation, from planning to implementation and measuring success. The Geospatial group focuses on all aspects of this field, from field surveys to remote sensing and data development/analysis to GIS systems.

Group curators

Vance Russell
Over 35 years of experience in biodiversity conservation worldwide, largely focused on forests, rewilding and conservation technology. I run my own business assisting nonprofits and agencies in the conservation community
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Climate changes in wildlife protected areas

Nora Noel

14 August 2024 11:26am

Hello! Good day everyone?I have a query about climate change and i would appreciate to get some ideas from you.I am volunteering in a national park, ecologist and i am interested...

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Adventina Nyanjobe Anthony

14 August 2024 5:27pm

Hi Norah! 
This is a great concern! Kudos! 
Climate change data especially for such a long time can help us answer a lot of questions including the few listed below:

  1. How has the climate variability affected the trend of species in the ecosystem? (You can choose to study a specific specie of animal or plant) and respond on their increase and (or) extinction.
  2. How has climate variability affected or supported the survival rate of introduced species?
  3. Climate variability is one among many factors of invasion, how is the invasion rate in your ecosystem?
  4. You can also answer on the general topic of your ecosystem’s health with the data! 

    I would love to read a paper from the data you have! Very resourceful! 
    Break the leg! 
Tatenda Hanyani

11 February 2025 5:17pm

I agree Adventina. I am also interested in "How has the climate variability affected the trend of BAT species in the ecosystem? and respond on their increase and (or) extinction.

 

@Norah, I am also interested in the findings regardless of the species you pick. In 2022 - 2023 we created a climate database for an NGO project in Amhara, Ethiopia. It would be cool to come up with a climate variability databasa for the park.

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Freshwater fish diversity in the western Amazon basin shaped by Andean uplift since the Late Cretaceous

Ahmed Junaid

3 February 2025 5:24am

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02220-8

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Read "Freshwater fish diversity in the western Amazon basin shaped by Andean uplift since the Late Cretaceous | Nature Ecology & Evolution" on Nature

Freshwater fish diversity in the western Amazon basin shaped by Andean uplift since the Late Cretaceous | Nature Ecology & Evolution

South America is home to the highest freshwater fish biodiversity on Earth, and the hotspot of species richness is located in the western Amazon basin. The location of this hotspot is enigmatic, as it is inconsistent with the pattern observed in river systems across the world of increasing species richness towards a river’s mouth. Here we investigate the role of river capture events caused by Andean mountain building and repeated episodes of flooding in western Amazonia in shaping the modern-day richness pattern of freshwater fishes in South America, and in Amazonia in particular. To this end, we combine a reconstruction of river networks since 80 Ma with a mechanistic model simulating dispersal, allopatric speciation and extinction over the dynamic landscape of rivers and lakes. We show that Andean mountain building and consequent numerous small river capture events in western Amazonia caused freshwater habitats to be highly dynamic, leading to high diversification rates and exceptional richness. The history of marine incursions and lakes, including the Miocene Pebas mega-wetland system in western Amazonia, played a secondary role. Reconstructing river networks over the past 80 Ma reveals the role of Andean uplift in creating a dynamic habitat leading to increased fish species diversity in western Amazonia.

Nature
Link

Collaring Elephants and Post Release Monitoring

Kasi Amor Kalande

28 January 2025 3:16pm

This leads to an exciting blog we did recently, it also includes a spatial map indicating elephant movement tracks of an orphaned elephant who self released himself into the wild (Kafue National Park). Cartography was done using ArcGIS Pro. If you're interested in animal...

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discussion

Help Shape the Future of the WILDLABS Geospatial Group!

Elsa Carla De Grandi

7 December 2024 2:43pm

Hello Geospatial community!First of all, a big thank you for being part of this amazing community.As you may know, @VAR1 , @ahmedjunaid  and I are the new WILDLABS Geospatial...

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Elsa Carla De Grandi

7 January 2025 5:49pm

Happy New Year Geospatial community! Don't forget to fill in the survey. Closing date is 19th January.

We'd love to hear from you! 

Elsa Carla De Grandi

27 January 2025 8:24pm

We're extending the survey deadline! Please don't forget to let us know if you would like to speak about your work at one of the future Geospatial community events. 

Many thanks!

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Link

Wildfires offset the increasing but spatially heterogeneous Arctic–boreal CO2 uptake

Ahmed Junaid

26 January 2025 2:41pm

Nature Climate Change (2025).

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Read "Wildfires offset the increasing but spatially heterogeneous Arctic–boreal CO2 uptake | Nature Climate Change" on Nature

Wildfires offset the increasing but spatially heterogeneous Arctic–boreal CO2 uptake | Nature Climate Change

The Arctic&#8211;Boreal Zone is rapidly warming, impacting its large soil carbon stocks. Here we use a new compilation of terrestrial ecosystem CO2 fluxes, geospatial datasets and random forest models to show that although the Arctic&#8211;Boreal Zone was overall an increasing terrestrial CO2 sink from 2001 to 2020 (mean&#8201;&#177;&#8201;standard deviation in net ecosystem exchange, &#8722;548&#8201;&#177;&#8201;140&#8201;Tg&#8201;C&#8201;yr&#8722;1; trend, &#8722;14&#8201;Tg&#8201;C&#8201;yr&#8722;1; P&#8201;<&#8201;0.001), more than 30% of the region was a net CO2 source. Tundra regions may have already started to function on average as CO2 sources, demonstrating a shift in carbon dynamics. When fire emissions are factored in, the increasing Arctic&#8211;Boreal Zone sink is no longer statistically significant (budget, &#8722;319&#8201;&#177;&#8201;140&#8201;Tg&#8201;C&#8201;yr&#8722;1; trend, &#8722;9&#8201;Tg&#8201;C&#8201;yr&#8722;1), and the permafrost region becomes CO2 neutral (budget, &#8722;24&#8201;&#177;&#8201;123&#8201;Tg&#8201;C&#8201;yr&#8722;1; trend, &#8722;3&#8201;Tg&#8201;C&#8201;yr&#8722;1), underscoring the importance of fire in this region. How the carbon stocks of the Arctic&#8211;Boreal Zone change with warming is not well understood. Here the authors show that wildfires and large regional differences in net carbon fluxes offset the overall increasing CO2 uptake.

Nature
Link

Updated Planted Trees Map Reaches Near-Global Coverage

Carly Batist

25 January 2025 4:41pm

Updated version of the Spatial Database of Planted Trees (SDPT), which differentiates planted forests and tree crops from primary and secondary natural forests. Update has double the number of countries covered

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Link

New Data Provides First Global Annual Picture of Cultivated and Natural Grasslands

Elsa Carla De Grandi

25 January 2025 2:22pm

The Land & Carbon Lab developed a new dataset that provides global maps of grassland extent annually from 2000 - 2022 at a 30 m resolution. These maps are critical for tracking changes in grassland ecosystems, informing land-use management and guiding conservation efforts.

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