Space-based ornithology - studying bird migration and environmental change in North America

Natural fluctuations in the availability of critical stopovcr sites coupled with anthropogcnic destruction of wetlands, land-use change. and anticipated losses due to climate change present migratory birds with a formidable challenge. Space based technology in concert with bird migration modcling and geographical information analysis yields new opportunities to shed light on the distribution and movement of organisms on the planet and thcir sensitivity to human dist~irbances and environmental changes. At tlic NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, we are creating ecological forecasting tools for science and application users to address the consequences of loss of wetlands, flooding, drought or other natural disasters such as hurricanes on avian biodiversity and bird migration. We use an ii~dividuai-based bird biophysical migration model, driven by remotely seiiscd land sureace data, climate and hydrologic data, and biological field observations to study migratory bird responses to environmental change in North America. Simulation allows us to study bird migratio~i across multiple scales and cat1 be linkcd to mechanistic processes describing the time and energy budget states of migrating birds. Wc illustrate our approach by simulating the spring migration of pectoral sandpipers from thc Gulf of Mexico to Alaska. Mean stopover length and trajectory patterns are consistent with field obscn.ations.