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Can satellites save the rainforest? (Spoiler: yes!) Satellite data can help keep rainforests healthy, says Associate Professor Dr. Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez from the University of Oxford, on Climate Curious. Using satellite imagery to track biodiversity patterns and thus how resilient trees and animals are to a hotter and drier climate, Jesús shares some juicy insights on rainforest realities in the tropics.
Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston
Transcript
00:00 Introduction to Climate Quickies
00:10 Meet Dr. Jesús Aguirre Gutiérres
00:44 The role of satellites in biodiversity
01:12 Understanding biodiversity changes
02:24 Climate change and CO2 emissions
03:18 Historical data from satellites
04:13 Reforestation and species selection
04:50 Patterns in tropical forests
05:44 Conclusion and farewell
Introduction to Climate Quickies
[00:00:00] Ben Hurst: Welcome to Climate Quickies, bite sized nuggets of climate goodness from our TEDxLondon experts in under five minutes.
Meet Dr. Jesús Aguirre Gutiérres
[00:00:10] Maryam Pasha: In this week’s Climate Curious Quickie, we’re taking a rainforest reality check with a professor from Oxford University, Dr. Jesús Aguirre-Gutiérres. [00:00:20] Sharing his latest research project, where satellites are secret superheroes for the rainforest.
[00:00:26] Jesús joins us to explain how he’s working to use satellite data to reveal hidden biodiversity patterns and help us safeguard some of Earth’s most precious ecosystems. Let’s listen now on how satellites can spy on nature for [00:00:40] good. And remember, stay curious!
The role of satellites in biodiversity
[00:00:44] Maryam Pasha: So, you work with satellites to help map Biodiversity. Can you tell us a bit more about that? Tell us a bit about your work here at Oxford and your work today.
[00:00:54] Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez: I think one of the approaches to actually trying to understand how biodiversity is responding to a [00:01:00] stressor like climate change or land use change is using satellite data.
[00:01:04] Maryam Pasha: Right, right. So first of all, what are you seeing? Like, you said there are changes, there are things happening. What is happening on the ground?
Understanding biodiversity changes
[00:01:12] Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez: So you can think about this in two different ways. The first one is what is happening across a space. So comparing locations in the [00:01:20] same time. So is this area kind of fuller, let’s say, or it has more biodiversity based on the amount of forests that you see, based on the amount of water that you see in the image.
[00:01:31] Biodiversity is plants. It plants. It can be, you can see different things. Like with these satellite data that you have. Resolutions of centimeters. You can see [00:01:40] animals. You can see elephants, for instance, you can you can quantify them as well. Okay, so it’s like Google Maps. You’re using satellites for Google Maps.
[00:01:48] Exactly. Okay, I get that that that kind of images. And then you can think as well about not only across a space, but also across time, because these images. Some of them, actually, you can have them [00:02:00] every day from the same location. So you can see how a place has changed through time over the last year, the last 10 years, the last, even the last 40 years.
[00:02:10] So that’s what what I’m doing looking right, how biodiversity changes in the space and comparing locations, but also how it changes through time. Mm-hmm.[00:02:20]
Climate change and CO2 emissions
[00:02:24] Maryam Pasha: What is the interaction between biodiversity and climate change?
[00:02:27] Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez: Hmm. I think one of the main links in here when you think about climate change is CO2 emissions. Mm-hmm . Uh, and most people are worried about our CO2 emissions because that. That’s have an impact in the rise of [00:02:40] temperature on if you think about basically who are the main Individuals that contain those co2 emissions or that carbon is trees.
[00:02:49] They are one of the main ones, right? Okay, the ocean as well. Yeah, so if you are able to quantify how many trees how much what we call biomass you have In a, in an [00:03:00] area, then you can think about how much they are absorbing the carbon that we are putting out in the atmosphere. And that’s why it is very important to be able to quantify
[00:03:09] Maryam Pasha: this.
[00:03:14] How much data do you have? How far back can you go? How far back can you see?
Historical data from satellites
[00:03:18] Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez: I think one of the [00:03:20] main satellites that is, that has been going around has, is the, what they call the Landsat is the name. Yeah. Family of satellites, and they go back to about, I think the 70s, 70s, you can have very good data over the past 40 years.
[00:03:38] Wow. And then you can see [00:03:40] how much forest we have lost, how much forest we have actually recovered as well. If actually it’s losing, it’s being lost in one area, but it’s recovering in another area. So you can see the impacts. that we are having on this vegetation. And then again, you can start thinking about quantifying, uh, quantifying how much [00:04:00] carbon, let’s say, we have lost to some extent to the atmosphere, and how much and where we are actually putting it down into, into the ground.
[00:04:08] Right, because when you
[00:04:09] Maryam Pasha: destroy these rainforests, they release the carbon. They would release the
[00:04:12] Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez: carbon.
Reforestation and species selection
[00:04:13] Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez: So what we are trying to do here is to bring more tools for this decision making about which species to plant were in case [00:04:20] reforestation is needed. So what kind of characteristics of the species that you are going to select would have to have to actually have an opportunity as well to survive.
[00:04:28] Right. Because a lot of, exactly, a lot of the ones that are being used then just basically die after, I don’t know, one year. Wow. Or two years. Right. So I think that would be kind of the most direct [00:04:40] application.
[00:04:46] Maryam Pasha: What I’m really curious to know, what are the patterns that you’re seeing?
Patterns in tropical forests
[00:04:50] Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez: Yes. Uh, so general patterns, what we, what we see now is that some, some of forest specifically we’re talking about the tropics. So you can think about the tropics, [00:05:00] like from central Mexico down all the way to South, kind of Southern Brazil, all the way when you go to Africa, then you can think about Ghana, Gabon, Cameroon.
[00:05:11] It’s all still in the tropics. Congo. We see that. Uh, tropical forests across the different continents, they are responding in [00:05:20] different ways. Oh, interesting. Uh, for instance, some of the African forests are kind of stabilizing in the carbon, seeing how much carbon they, they capture. Uh, this has happened also in the Amazon and this is research that has been, uh, published in the last couple of years.
[00:05:36] Maryam Pasha: Okay.
[00:05:36] Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez: So they are not. Uh, capturing as much carbon, let’s [00:05:40] say, basically getting
[00:05:41] Maryam Pasha: saturated or full
[00:05:42] Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez: to some extent. Exactly.
Conclusion and farewell
[00:05:44] Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez: Thanks for listening to this quickie.[00:05:47] Maryam Pasha: This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDxLondon. Until next time, stay curious.
