Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EcoSpy (Leveraging the potential of historical spy satellite photography for ecology and conservation)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2018-12-01 al 2020-11-30
For our subproject EcoSpy 1, we identified some 800.000 hectares of high conservation value forests in Romania but showed that about half of these areas are highly susceptible to human disturbance. For our subproject EcoSpy 2 we showed that grazing pressure on the the steppe ecosystem in Kazakhstan declined since 1960s which may be beneficial for the conservation of endangered species such as the saiga antelope. In the subproject EcoSpy 3 we estimated historic and contemporary population densities of steppe marmots, an ecosystem engineer and keystone species, and showed that the species responds with a time-delay to historical land conversions. In the subproject EcoSpy 4 we synthesized possible uses of the spy satellite data for ecology and conservation applications.
Project results have been disseminated to the academic community via scientic publications, conference presentations and workshop contributions. The results are also available to local conservation organizations such as the Association for the Conservation Biodiversity of Kazakhstan. Last but not least, dissemination to the general public included outreach talks, podcast contributions and extensive media coverage via international outlets such as The New York Times or BBC.