From biologging to conservation: Tracking individual performance in changing environments.

Area of Science:

• Conservation biology
• Wildlife ecology
• Environmental monitoring

Background:

• Accelerating biodiversity crisis driven by urbanization, habitat fragmentation, and climate change necessitates novel conservation assessment methods.
• Traditional monitoring approaches may not capture the dynamic interactions between species and their environments effectively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate animal biologging as a cost-effective tool for biodiversity monitoring and conservation impact assessment.
• To analyze biases in current biologging study locations and identify areas for future research focus.

Main Methods:

• Utilized animal-mounted sensors (biologging) to collect real-time data on individual animal performance and habitat use.
• Conducted a case study on migrating white storks (Ciconia ciconia) to demonstrate biologging capabilities.
• Analyzed global biologging study distributions to identify sampling biases.

Main Results:

• Biologging provides direct insights into species' environments of selection, individual performance, and gene flow.
• Demonstrated the potential of biologging for real-time species management and informing conservation targets.
• Identified significant biases in biologging studies, with underrepresentation of urbanized and fragmented habitats.

Conclusions:

• Biologging is a powerful, cost-effective tool for biodiversity monitoring, offering real-time data crucial for conservation.
• Equitable access to biologging technology, especially in the Global South, is needed to fully leverage its potential.
• Future advancements in tracking technology will enhance demographic and population-level insights, particularly in understudied, critical areas.