Paradigms and Principles for Integrating Nature Technology Data: Challenges, Opportunities, and Next Steps in Real-World Biodiversity Monitoring - 2026
biodiversity; camera traps; data fusion; eDNA; GPS tags; nature technology; passive acoustic sensors; satellite data; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Ecology; Computers in Earth Sciences; Nature and Landscape Conservation
Abstract :
[en] Employing a combination of nature technology data (NTD) from satellites, eDNA, camera traps, acoustic monitors, and GPS can augment traditional biodiversity measurements to help understand conservation status and outcomes. While previous works have integrated these data, there remains a significant gap between individual exploratory cases and replicable, scalable, and standardized approaches. Notably, there is no clear guidance or consensus on how NTD are best integrated in practice. To address this gap, we propose a set of paradigms (survey design, tip and cue, validation, consilience, interpolation and extrapolation, and data fusion) and prioritize a set of principles (metadata standards, use rights and licensing, scientific rigor, and utility) as the foundations of an actionable framework for NTD integration. We then analyze seven diverse, real-world case studies across biomes, use cases, and user types to understand what paradigms are leveraged in practice, how prioritized principles have been implemented, and identify challenges, opportunities, and next steps. Distilling NTD integration into paradigms helped map the relationships between workflows, such as how low-barrier-to-entry methods (like consilience) can lead to deeper integration (extrapolation or data fusion), and revealed that there are different purposes and tools needed even when sensor use is similar. The paradigms also helped elucidate key challenges (such as mismatches in scale and lack of data, reference libraries, and methodological guidance) and opportunities (increasing data resolution, systematizing guidance, and producing new repeatable tools). For prioritized principles, metadata standards and vehicles for sharing permissions and use rights could increase impact and reuse. We conclude that next steps, including new training resources, use of high-resolution satellite data, increased multimodal field data collection, use of standardized repositories, and APIs that support integration, are needed to operationalize these paradigms and principles. These steps will provide a foundation for realizing the potential of integrated biodiversity monitoring to help guide conservation action.
Research Center/Unit :
FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège
Disciplines :
Biotechnology
Author, co-author :
Lombardo, Seamus ; Planet Labs PBC, San Francisco, United States ; Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont, Burlington, United States
Rosenthal, Amy; Planet Labs PBC, San Francisco, United States ; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, United States
Anderson, Christopher; Planet Labs PBC, San Francisco, United States
Bagstad, Ken; Data Foundation, Washington, United States
Batist, Carly; Conservation International, Arlington, United States
Beirne, Christopher; Asociación Conservación Osa, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Bunje, Paul; Conservation X Labs, Washington, United States
Campos-Cerqueira, Marconi; WildMon, Lewes, United States
Cusack, Jeremy; Okala, London, United Kingdom
De Grandi, Elsa Carla ; Fauna and Flora International, Cambridge, United Kingdom
King, Rachel; National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California—Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, United States
Larsen, Trond; Conservation International, Arlington, United States
Luther, David; Biology Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, United States
McGowan, Jennifer; Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Pajot, Adrien; WILDLABS at Fauna & Flora International, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Raick, Xavier ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Morphologie fonctionnelle et évolutive ; K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, United States ; Marine Mammal Research, Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark
Ramesh, Vijay; Center for Avian Population Studies, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, United States
Smith, Chelsea ; Fauna and Flora International, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Swanson, Ali; Conservation International, Arlington, United States
We are grateful to many thought partners who joined our live discussion sessions at the Nature Tech Collective Unconference and virtually, as well as the teams that contributed to data collection and analysis in each case study. We appreciate the thoughtful feedback of our reviewers, which contributed to the recommendations for next steps identified in this work. For the Alto Mayo case study, funding was provided by BHP Foundation. For the BDFFP case study, funding was obtained via National Science Foundation DEB 2311046. For the South Estuary Concession case study, data collection, processing, and analysis components were funded by Okala and Arise IIP. For the Gulf of California case study, field work was supported by several fellowships from CONAHCYT (2022\u2010000002\u201001NACF), the FOCUS Research Unit of the University of Li\u00E8ge (R.CFRA.4142\u2010J\u2010F\u2010C), and UABCS (INV\u2010IN072). We thank all the researchers involved in the original study: Florian Rabasco, Adrian Munguia\u2010Vega, Eric Parmentier, Luis Hern\u00E1ndez, Leonardo Huato\u2010Soberanis, H\u00E9ctor Reyes\u2010Bonilla, Carlos S\u00E1nchez\u2010Ortiz, and Damien Olivier. X.R. is currently funded by a BAEF\u2010WBI Fellowship, and part of his research project is supported by a Rotary International grant. Osa Conservation's landscape connectivity work is supported by The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Biome Conservation, The Bobolink Foundation, The Krystyna and Dan Houser Foundation, The SENSE Foundation Brussels, Troper Wojcicki Philanthropies, KHR McNeely Family Fund, and The Mazar Family Charitable Foundation Trust. For the Fauna and Flora ZWW Case Study, elephant collaring was funded by the African Forest Elephant Foundation (AFEF) and individual donors (311\u2010IND). We acknowledge the contribution of Fauna and Flora's Guinea, Africa, and Conservation Technology teams, veterinarians, photographers, Centre Forestier de N'Zerekore rangers, and the Forestry Development Agency (FDA) of Liberia who contributed to this work. Special thanks to the Ministere de L'Environment, des Eaux et Forets\u2014Centre Forestier de N'Zerekore that granted authorization to collar forest elephants in Guinea. For the Western Ghats case study, this work was made possible through a Rufford Foundation Small Grant (28916\u20101) awarded to Vijay Ramesh. V.R. received extensive support and expertise from Dr. Divya Mudappa and Dr. T R Shankar Raman at the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF). Mudappa and Raman's efforts to actively restore degraded forest fragments in the Valparai plateau over the last three decades were instrumental in laying the foundation for this study. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Data Foundation or other affiliations.
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