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Updated: Sep 6, 2025

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A Precise and Autonomous System for the Detection of Insect Emergence Patterns
Published on: January 9, 2019
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A resilience sensing system for the biosphere.
Timothy M Lenton1, Joshua E Buxton1, David I Armstrong McKay1,2
1Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QE, UK.
Summary
A new biosphere resilience sensing system using satellite remote sensing can track ecosystem health. This technology helps identify environmental problems and assess conservation efforts globally.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Ecology
- Remote Sensing
Background:
- The planet faces a climate and ecological emergency, threatening life-support systems with irreversible changes.
- Current efforts to enhance ecosystem resilience and collective awareness/action are insufficient.
- A global biosphere resilience sensing system is needed to monitor ecosystem health and conservation effectiveness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a global biosphere resilience sensing system utilizing satellite remote sensing.
- To demonstrate the system's capability in monitoring terrestrial vegetation resilience and trends.
- To explore how nested resilience sensing can support ecosystem management and governance.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing complex systems theory where loss of resilience correlates with slower recovery from perturbations.
- Employing satellite remote sensing for high spatial and temporal resolution monitoring of the terrestrial biosphere.
- Analyzing 20 years of satellite data and model simulations to assess vegetation resilience.
Main Results:
- Presented illustrative global results for vegetation resilience.
- Showcased trends in resilience over the past two decades.
- Demonstrated the feasibility of global-scale resilience monitoring.
Conclusions:
- A biosphere resilience sensing system offers a powerful tool for early detection of ecosystem degradation.
- Resilience sensing can effectively evaluate the success of interventions aimed at improving ecosystem health.
- Nested resilience sensing across scales can inform adaptive management and governance strategies for global ecosystems.
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