{"id":20144,"date":"2022-01-25T12:14:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T17:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/?p=20144"},"modified":"2024-06-14T10:25:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T14:25:48","slug":"transforming-data-into-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/transforming-data-into-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Transforming Data Into Conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wildlife is crucial to supporting the ecosystem services that humans rely on, including fresh water, pollination, food, medicine and more. Unfortunately, many animals are slowly but surely disappearing from the planet<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tracking and monitoring of these animals is vital to their conservation, allowing scientists to evaluate how individuals and populations are responding to climate change, habitat loss and other threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While museum specimens provide genetic data and other information critical to wildlife management and conservation, scientists are increasingly using GPS tags, camera traps and other technologies for tracking and monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMuseum specimens are still very important to wildlife research,\u201d said Roland Kays<\/a>, a research professor at NC State. \u201cIt\u2019s just that GPS and camera traps can capture spatial data at higher rates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists, however, are often overwhelmed by the large collections of digital data generated by these technologies, lacking the tools to effectively process them. This frequently results in important information going unanalyzed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"NC<\/a>
NC State research professor Roland Kays installs a camera trap on a tree. Photo provided.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The use of GPS tags, camera traps and other technologies has created another challenge for conservation research: A lack of data sharing among scientists, wildlife managers and other stakeholders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these technologies are used in research projects all around the world, the resulting data is often isolated and relegated to a hard drive where it sits until it\u2019s eventually discarded, according to Kays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScientists need a place where they can upload their data, retain control over it, but still share it with others when they want to,\u201d Kays said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kays, who is also director of the Biodiversity Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, is currently working with conservation organizations around the world to address these challenges through the development of data management and collaboration tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Digital Museum of Animal Movement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the early 2000s, Kays teamed up with Martin Wikelski, now director of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, to track the movement of animals on an island in Panama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, because GPS technology was in its early days, the signals couldn\u2019t penetrate the thick canopy of the island\u2019s jungle. Kays and Wikelski instead set up a series of six above-canopy radio towers capable of automatically detecting signals emitted by radio tags attached to animals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By intersecting the tags\u2019 signals from multiple towers, Kays and Wikelski triangulated the animals\u2019 locations. The automated nature of their tracking system produced expansive digital data collections, however. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realizing that the scale of the incoming data from their tracking system would overwhelm their current systems, Kays and Wikelski created software capable of processing and storing it. Today, that software is used by thousands of researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Roland<\/a>
Roland Kays (left) and Martin Wikelski (right) conduct maintenance on a radio tower. Photo provided.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2008, after deciding that their software could help other researchers in managing their animal tracking data, Kays and Wikelski released an improved version of their system called Movebank<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Movebank system features a variety of tools that allow researchers and other users to collect, manage, share, visualize, analyze, and archive their tracking data. The system is now used by over 3,000 users globally, with thousands of active tags sending over 3 million new data records daily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a user uploads their tracking data into Movebank, the system displays animal tracks on maps, allowing for real-time monitoring of both animal movement and behavior, according to Kays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal is to monitor the status of animal populations and evaluate how they\u2019re dealing with humans on the planet,\u201d Kays said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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