Will Migratory Birds Be Saved by NASA?

It's a constant challenge for bird researchers and conservationists to try and predict exactly where migratory birds will nest each year. But a new NASA-funded experiment may provide ornithologists with a high-tech alternative to the old school methods of trekking through forests to examine leaves and twigs in the hopes of figuring out which ones the birds will call home.

With a combination of satellite technology, light detection and ranging, and a ground-based bird census, researchers from the Woods Hole Research Center were able to correctly predict the presence of songbirds with 90 percent accuracy.

The research team's leader, Scott Goetz, declared, "The study of bird habitats has entered a new era."

Using the old techniques, researchers could spend thousands of hours scouring areas as small as 100 square feet to determine the quality of the habitat. And, oftentimes, the data they ended up with wasn't that great. In the brave, new world of NASA's Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor, scientists can cover mileage instead of mere feet of forest, and they can do so in more detail than ever before. The pulses of laser light record information like canopy height and density, branch structure, and the presence of shrubs, all of which affect whether it's quality habitat or not.

Every day, conservationists clash with developers and government officials over sitings for new construction and how to best spend limited conservation dollars. The LVIS technology could predict where different species will end up, even if they haven't migrated there yet, creating a better picture of what areas are the most sensitive habitats in need of the highest priority for protection.

Matt Betts, assistant professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis, and co-author of the study, said this could mean help for other species, too. "This technique should transfer to predictions of other animals whose habitats are associated with canopy structure, like flying squirrels or martens. If we can track downed logs on the forest floor, we could even model habitats for salamanders."

Leave it to NASA to bring conservation into the 21st Century.

Photo credit: Cephas