The BioSCape project involved NASA aircraft flying over the Greater Cape Floristic Region to collect ultraviolet, visual, thermal and other images. Photo: Adam Wilson/University at Buffalo
By Patty Guerra (UC Merced) and Tom Dinki
Release Date: February 3, 2025
BUFFALO, N.Y. — An ambitious, multinational research project funded by NASA and co-led by the University at Buffalo has demonstrated that Earth’s biodiversity can be monitored and measured from space, leading to a better understanding of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
The BioSCape team collected data over six weeks in late 2023 on South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, and recently had studies published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity and npj Biodiversity.
Leading the team of more than 160 scientists was Adam Wilson, PhD, associate professor in the UB Department of Geography, College of Arts and Sciences. The other co-principal investigators were Erin Hestir of the University of California, Merced, and Jasper Slingsby of the University of Cape Town.
Two NASA aircraft and one South African aircraft flew over the Greater Cape Floristic Region to collect ultraviolet, visual, thermal and other images. That data, combined with field work by the large team of scientists from the United States and South Africa, provides a comprehensive look at the region's biodiversity, or life systems.
“This was NASA’s first ever biodiversity-focused campaign,” Hestir says. “We successfully hit all our measurement targets, and the data collected are contributing to novel techniques and methods to be able to monitor biodiversity from space across the globe. It’s a lot of exciting science.”
Wilson (three from left) and other BioSCape team members stand with the NASA aircraft that conducted remote sensing work. Photo: Adam Wilson/University at Buffalo
Wilson, who is also an associate professor in the UB Department of Environment and Sustainability, said BioSCape showed what scientists working across continents can do, and he hopes it can be replicated elsewhere.
“Over just six weeks, more than 160 scientists from around the world came together to collect and analyze data across terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots,” he says.
Now that researchers have proved that they can collect the data they were looking for from planes, NASA could use these novel combinations of instruments to expand the effort worldwide.
“It’s very expensive to launch a satellite into space,” Slingsby explains. “You have to be certain it will achieve its mission before taking that step. That’s why we begin with airborne studies — they serve as a critical proving ground. If we can successfully gather data from a plane, it brings us one step closer to understanding how to achieve the same from space.”
The team chose the Greater Cape Region of South Africa because it’s home to “astonishing levels of biodiversity, wicked conservation challenges and a well-developed and progressive biodiversity research and conservation community,” they wrote in the npj Biodiversity study.
The tools they developed helped them examine shifting community composition; ecosystem disturbance, resilience, and recovery; and ecosystem function and nature’s contributions to people.
BioSCape team members also conducted field work in South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region. Photo: Adam Wilson/University at Buffalo
Addressing biodiversity loss is a global priority and there is a clear need to improve scientists’ ability to map and monitor change. The researchers made the data freely available to scientists and the public around the world. Their hope is that the methods they developed and insights they found will help shape new technologies for measuring land and sea ecosystems, and ultimately improve biodiversity conservation.
They are excited to see what comes next.
“BioSCape is building technical capacity in South Africa and we hope to prepare the community to take advantage of NASA’s advanced and freely available satellite imagery to improve conservation,” says Anabelle Cardoso, the science team manager.
“In a year from now we will have new findings and better insights,” Hestir adds, “advancing cutting-edge technology so we can measure life on Earth from space.”
Tom Dinki
News Content Manager
Physical sciences, economic development
Tel: 716-645-4584
tfdinki@buffalo.edu