This is an idea proposed in 2024 as a Cambridge Computer Science PhD topic, and is currently being worked on by Emilio Luz-Ricca. It is supervised by Andrew Balmford and Anil Madhavapeddy as part of my Mapping LIFE on Earth project.
Loss of habitat represents the most significant threat to wildlife overall, but advances in satellite sensing have enabled the assessment of habitat extent with comprehensive spatial coverage and reasonable temporal resolution. To address rising demand for metrics to quantify biodiversity, we have developed the LIFE metric (see Mapping LIFE on Earth) that models the effect of landuse changes on species extinction risk as a function of Areas of Habitat (AoH).
This PhD work explores how to deal with the anthropogenic threats beyond simple habitat loss, including hunting, agricultural practices, and the introduction of invasive species. These additional threatening processes degrade habitat quality and lower species occupancy, but are extremely difficult to observe directly via remote sensing. This project will therefore involve a combination of modelling, machine learning and remote sensing data analysis to understand the impact of these additional anthropogenic threats on habitat quality on a per-species basis.