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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Mark WhittinghamORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2025.With biodiversity loss escalating globally, a step change is needed in our capacity to accurately monitor species populations across ecosystems. Robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) offer technological solutions that may substantially advance terrestrial biodiversity monitoring, but this potential is yet to be considered systematically. We used a modified Delphi technique to synthesize knowledge from 98 biodiversity experts and 31 RAS experts, who identified the major methodological barriers that currently hinder monitoring, and explored the opportunities and challenges that RAS offer in overcoming these barriers. Biodiversity experts identified four barrier categories: site access, species and individual identification, data handling and storage, and power and network availability. Robotics experts highlighted technologies that could overcome these barriers and identified the developments needed to facilitate RAS-based autonomous biodiversity monitoring. Some existing RAS could be optimized relatively easily to survey species but would require development to be suitable for monitoring of more ‘difficult’ taxa and robust enough to work under uncontrolled conditions within ecosystems. Other nascent technologies (for instance, new sensors and biodegradable robots) need accelerated research. Overall, it was felt that RAS could lead to major progress in monitoring of terrestrial biodiversity by supplementing rather than supplanting existing methods. Transdisciplinarity needs to be fostered between biodiversity and RAS experts so that future ideas and technologies can be codeveloped effectively.
Author(s): Pringle S, Dallimer M, Goddard MA, Le Goff LK, Hart E, Langdale SJ, Fisher JC, Abad S-A, Ancrenaz M, Angeoletto F, Auat Cheein F, Austen GE, Bailey JJ, Baldock KCR, Banin LF, Banks-Leite C, Barau AS, Bashyal R, Bates AJ, Bicknell JE, Bielby J, Bosilj P, Bush ER, Butler SJ, Carpenter D, Clements CF, Cully A, Davies KF, Deere NJ, Dodd M, Drinkwater R, Driscoll DA, Dutilleux G, Dyrmann M, Edwards DP, Farhadinia MS, Faruk A, Field R, Fletcher RJ, Foster CW, Fox R, Francksen RM, Franco AMA, Gainsbury AM, Gardner CJ, Giorgi I, Griffiths RA, Hamaza S, Hanheide M, Hayward MW, Hedblom M, Helgason T, Heon SP, Hughes KA, Hunt ER, Ingram DJ, Jackson-Mills G, Jowett K, Keitt TH, Kloepper LN, Kramer-Schadt S, Labisko J, Labrosse F, Lawson J, Lecomte N, de Lima RF, Littlewood NA, Marshall HH, Masala GL, Maskell LC, Matechou E, Mazzolai B, McConnell A, Melbourne BA, Miriyev A, Nana ED, Ossola A, Papworth S, Parr CL, Payo-Payo A, Perry G, Pettorelli N, Pillay R, Potts SG, Prendergast-Miller MT, Qie L, Rolley-Parnell P, Rossiter SJ, Rowcliffe M, Rumble H, Sadler JP, Sandom CJ, Sanyal A, Schrodt F, Sethi SS, Shabrani A, Siddall R, Smith SC, Snep RPH, Soulsbury CD, Stanley MC, Stephens PA, Stephenson PJ, Struebig MJ, Studley M, Svatek M, Tang G, Taylor NK, Umbers KDL, Ward RJ, White PJC, Whittingham MJ, Wich S, Williams CD, Yakubu IB, Yoh N, Zaidi SAR, Zmarz A, Zwerts JA, Davies ZG
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Nature Ecology and Evolution
Year: 2025
Volume: 9
Pages: 1031-1042
Print publication date: 01/06/2025
Online publication date: 22/05/2025
Acceptance date: 07/04/2025
Date deposited: 03/06/2025
ISSN (electronic): 2397-334X
Publisher: Nature Research
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02704-9
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02704-9
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