Results of the Survey on Earth Observation Exploitation Platform Use for Wildlife Ecology

Satellite-based Earth Observation (EO) sensors collect data about the environment. EO data can be linked to ecology, e.g. animal movement data collected by GPS tracking, to gain insight into animal-environment interactions. The number of accessible and new EO data is growing and so is the demand for information about a changing environment. Already ten years ago, several publications stated the need to better inform ecologists about EO data analysis possibilities. By conducting this survey, we want to know if that changed to a better, if the gap between EO developments and EO applied in wildlife ecology became narrower. Through a survey we gained insight into the use of different earth observation exploitation platforms that are used for EO data downloading, processing and analyses. Additionally, we asked for information about the use of different types of EO data, EO sensors used, specific satellites used and auxiliary data, e.g. weather and animal movement data. At the end of the survey, we asked for more personal information about research focus and area, main animal species studied, as well as affiliations and professions. Personal questions, e.g. contact information, were explicitly stated to be not mandatory. The survey was sent around in several ecology and animal movement newsletters as well as spread forward by the colleagues of the SOS research unit working in disciplines of EO and wildlife ecology. The Zenodo repository includes: summary of survey results github link redirecting to collected data