Island Conservation is thrilled to announce that a partnership with terraPulse, Inc., State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and FLINTpro has been awarded a generous grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ecological Conservation program to support ecological restoration of islands worldwide. The project “Biggest Bang for Your Buck: Using NASA Earth Observations to Understand and Maximize Holistic Ecosystem Benefits from Invasive Mammal Eradications on Islands” will use a combination of field-based and remote sensing data collected on 100 islands around the world to assess the ecological impacts of removing invasive mammals from islands and prioritize the most effective and beneficial sites for future eradications.

Home to 20% of the world’s biodiversity, island ecosystems are on the front lines of climate change. On islands, introduced invasive species disrupt ecosystems by damaging native vegetation, interrupting key nutrient cycles, threatening biodiversity, and spreading disease. They can also disrupt local economies and community wellbeing by predating on and degrading key resources. Removing invasive species from islands can increase native grassland, woody shrub, and forest growth and makes them safe for reintroduction of ecosystem engineer species and connector species, such as land birds, seabirds and turtles. Spreading native seeds and bringing nutrients from the sea to the land, these species enrich the local flora with their guano, which then washes into near-shore ecosystems such as reefs, increasing fish biomass by orders of magnitude. These restored ecosystems not only shelter endemic species, boost biodiversity, and improve food security for local populations of humans, but they also offer nature-based solutions to the worst effects of climate change: healthy terrestrial flora captures millions of metric tons of carbon, healthy reefs and forests protect islands from erosion and extreme weather, and bird guano helps build up land mass to protect against sea level rise.

One key marker of these benefits is island biomass—that is, the total quantity of organisms on the island. When we remove invasive species, the amount of native biomass increases in the form of denser tree cover, higher populations of native birds, and thicker ground foliage. Modeling these changes on potential future islands, and monitoring the results of our successful eradications, is a significant challenge.

This is where NASA comes in. The space agency produces a wealth of Earth observation data that the project partners will analyze to better understand the response of island ecosystems to eradications. By using satellite and drone imagery and LiDAR data, we can measure changes in vegetation cover, structure, productivity, and biomass. We can also use those data streams alongside data collected about wildlife abundance and diversity to build a complete picture of how these islands transform over time and develop future scenarios of ecosystem recovery and resilience.

Combining Earth observation data with ground measurements will help validate remotely sensed metrics produced by terraPulse, as well as the predictions of ecological models produced by our university partners and FLINTpro. Because ecosystem response can happen over long periods of time, NASA satellites will help us monitor the effects of our work at 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-years post intervention.

This project will enhance our work through the Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC), which was founded by Island Conservation, Re:wild, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The IOCC aims to break down artificial silos and bring together island communities, nonprofit partners, and government agencies to begin holistically restoring 40 globally significant island ecosystems, from ridge to reef, by 2030. In tandem with our partners, we are enlisting island-ocean projects where we can achieve the greatest impact for biodiversity, communities and climate.

This project will provide valuable insights and decision-making tools for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of invasive mammal eradications on islands, and ultimately for enhancing the health and resilience of island ecosystems around the world. We are very grateful to NASA for funding our project and supporting our mission. This project is co-funded through the Salesforce “Accelerator for Nature” program. We are also excited to collaborate with our partners in the IOCC and other stakeholders in the island conservation community.

Media inquiries:

Bren Ram, Island Conservation: bren.ram@islandconservation.org

Johnny Wilson, terraPulse: wilson@terrapulse.com

Harrison McKenzie-McHarg, FLINTpro: harrison.mcharg@flintpro.com

Bradley Consentino, Hobart and William Smith Colleges: consentino@hws.edu

About the collaborators:

Island Conservation is the world’s only international non-profit conservation organization dedicated solely to restoring islands for nature and people worldwide. Island Conservation is committed to a holistic island-marine ecosystem restoration method that combines efforts to improve community livelihoods, manage invasive species, and reintroduce native species. Learn more about us at www.islandconservation.org.

State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry is one of the nation’s premier colleges focused on the study of the environment, developing renewable technologies, and building a sustainable future.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges are private liberal arts colleges in Geneva, New York, and a member of the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium.

FLINTpro Corp. is a global leader in land sector analysis systems to support policy, carbon and environmental markets and drive sustainable land management by coherently integrating remote sensing, models, ground data, statistics, and more.

terraPulse Inc. maps and monitors the status, history, and potential of large landscapes through satellite-based measurements of forest-, crop-, range-, and wildland productivity; and we provide the resulting information through simple, efficient interfaces tailored to specific market and industry applications. Our algorithms apply decades of expertise in geospatial intelligence, machine learning, and satellite image analysis to streamline the provision of actionable, real-time data to clients in the public and private sector.

Photos (credit: Island Conservation)