Scientists are creating a revolutionary method that will enable them to monitor insects in the atmosphere using weather radars to deal with the declining insect population.
The scientists at Leeds University, Exeter University and the National Center for Atmospheric Science have initiated a study project called BioDAR.
An interdisciplinary team of environmentalists and meteorologists bring the project together to take advantage of the worldwide weather radar networks.
It cannot be ignored the significance of insects as they play an important part in the ecological atmosphere. Agriculture, human health and natural resources tend to be influenced.
For pollination, ecosystems depend on insects as essential components of food webs. Thus, for quite some time now, the decreasing population of insects has raised concerns among individuals.
For comprehensive maps of insect abundance and variety, the scientists will use weather radar technology.
The data gathered will promote the preservation of significant insect species such as bees and other pollinators and help safeguard against plant pests.
The new project will be introduced in Rwanda, Mali, and South Africa, originally aimed at monitoring insect populations in the UK.
There has been no coherent technique for efficiently monitoring insect abundance and diversity across big fields so far.
Dr. Christopher Hassall, a member of the BioDAR team at Leeds University, said: “Humans are triggering alarming decreases in the world’s wildlife populations, and it is vital for our own survival that we safeguard those remaining.”
“This cooperation between biologists and atmospheric physicists seeks to produce a strong new tool through which we can maintain an eye on insect communities and make conservation choices that promote their survival”
By regularly gathering data on the variety and amount of distinct insects across broad fields, researchers will be able to maintain track of the effect of distinct conservation actions and see how human-caused changes affect our environment.
BioDAR is creating a way to use machine learning to automatically identify and gage insect diversity using weather radar data to uncover a treasure trove of wildlife information.
