Towards a standardized framework for AI-assisted, image-based monitoring of nocturnal insects.

Automated sensors have potential to standardize and expand the monitoring of insects across the globe. As one of the most scalable and fastest developing sensor technologies, we describe a framework for automated, image-based monitoring of nocturnal insects-from sensor development and field deployment to workflows for data processing and publishing. Sensors comprise a light to attract insects, a camera for collecting images and a computer for scheduling, data storage and processing. Metadata is important to describe sampling schedules that balance the capture of relevant ecological information against power and data storage limitations. Large data volumes of images from automated systems necessitate scalable and effective data processing. We describe computer vision approaches for the detection, tracking and classification of insects, including models built from existing aggregations of labelled insect images. Data from automated camera systems necessitate approaches that account for inherent biases. We advocate models that explicitly correct for bias in species occurrence or abundance estimates resulting from the imperfect detection of species or individuals present during sampling occasions. We propose ten priorities towards a step-change in automated monitoring of nocturnal insects, a vital task in the face of rapid biodiversity loss from global threats. This article is part of the theme issue 'Towards a toolkit for global insect biodiversity monitoring'.

Phenological response of tundra plants to background climate variation tested using the International Tundra Experiment.

The rapidly warming temperatures in high-latitude and alpine regions have the potential to alter the phenology of Arctic and alpine plants, affecting processes ranging from food webs to ecosystem trace gas fluxes. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) was initiated in 1990 to evaluate the effects of expected rapid changes in temperature on tundra plant phenology, growth and community changes using experimental warming. Here, we used the ITEX control data to test the phenological responses to background temperature variation across sites spanning latitudinal and moisture gradients. The dataset overall did not show an advance in phenology; instead, temperature variability during the years sampled and an absence of warming at some sites resulted in mixed responses. Phenological transitions of high Arctic plants clearly occurred at lower heat sum thresholds than those of low Arctic and alpine plants. However, sensitivity to temperature change was similar among plants from the different climate zones. Plants of different communities and growth forms differed for some phenological responses. Heat sums associated with flowering and greening appear to have increased over time. These results point to a complex suite of changes in plant communities and ecosystem function in high latitudes and elevations as the climate warms.

Environmental changes in the North Atlantic Region: SCANNET as a collaborative approach for documenting, understanding and predicting changes.

The lands surrounding the North Atlantic Region (the SCANNET Region) cover a wide range of climate regimes, physical environments and availability of natural resources. Except in the extreme North, they have supported human populations and various cultures since at least the end of the last ice age. However, the region is also important at a wider geographical scale in that it influences the global climate and supports animals that migrate between the Arctic and all the other continents of the world. Climate, environment and land use in the region are changing rapidly and projections suggest that global warming will be amplified there while increasing land use might dramatically reduce the remaining wilderness areas. Because much of the region is sparsely populated--if populated at all--observational records of past environmental changes and their impacts are both few and of short duration. However, it is becoming very important to record the changes that are now in progress, to understand the drivers of these changes, and to predict future consequences of the changes. To facilitate research into understanding impacts of global change on the lands of the North Atlantic Regions, and also to monitor changes in real time, an EU-funded network of research sites and infrastructures was formed in 2000: this was called SCANNET--SCANdinavian/North European NETwork of Terrestrial Field Bases. SCANNET currently consists of 9 core sites and 5 sites within local networks that together cover the broad range of current climate and predicted change in the region. Climate observations are well replicated across the network, whereas each site has tended to select particular environmental and ecological subjects for intensive observation. This provides diversity of both subject coverage and expertise. In this paper, we summarize the findings of SCANNET to-date and outline its information bases in order to increase awareness of data on environmental change in the North Atlantic Region. We also identify important gaps in our understanding and identify where the roles of existing infrastructures and activities represented by SCANNET can facilitate future research, monitoring and ground-truthing activities.