KEVIN J GASTON

Wilkinson, R., Mleczko, M.M., Brewin, R.J.W., Gaston, K.J., Mueller, M., Shutler, J.D., Yan, X. & Anderson, K. 2024. Environmental impacts of earth observation data in the constellation and cloud computing era. Science of the Total Environment 909, 168584.

 Numbers of Earth Observation (EO) satellites have increased exponentially over the past decade reaching the current population of 1193 (January 2023). Consequently, EO data volumes have mushroomed and data storage and processing have migrated to the cloud. Whilst attention has been given to the launch and in-orbit environmental impacts of satellites, EO data environmental footprints have been overlooked. These issues require urgent attention given data centre water and energy consumption, high carbon emissions for computer component manufacture, and difficulty of recycling computer components. Doing so is essential if the environmental good of EO is to withstand scrutiny. We provide the first assessment of the EO data life-cycle and estimate that the current size of the global EO data collection is ~807 PB, increasing by ~100 PB/year. Storage of this data volume generates annual CO2 equivalent emissions of 4101 t. Major state-funded EO providers use 57 of their own data centres globally, and a further 178 private cloud services, with considerable duplication of datasets across repositories. We explore scenarios for the environmental cost of performing EO functions on the cloud compared to desktop machines. A simple band arithmetic function applied to a Landsat 9 scene using Google Earth Engine (GEE) generated CO2 equivalent (e) emissions of 0.042–0.69 g CO2e (locally) and 0.13–0.45 g CO2e (European data centre; values multiply by nine for Australian data centre). Computation-based emissions scale rapidly for more intense processes and when testing code. When using cloud services such as GEE, users have no choice about the data centre used and we push for EO providers to be more transparent about the location-specific impacts of EO work, and to provide tools for measuring the environmental cost of cloud computation. The EO community as a whole needs to critically consider the broad suite of EO data life-cycle impacts.

Soga, M. & Gaston, K.J. 2024. Global synthesis indicates widespread occurrence of shifting baseline syndrome. BioScience 74, 686-694.

As environmental degradation continues at local, regional, and global levels, people’s accepted norms for natural environmental conditions are likely to decline. This phenomenon, known as shifting baseline syndrome (SBS), is increasingly recognized as a likely major obstacle to addressing global environmental challenges. However, the prevalence of SBS remains uncertain. We conducted an extensive systematic review, synthesizing existing research on people’s perceived environmental baselines. Our analysis, based on 73 case studies, suggests that SBS is a widespread global phenomenon, occurring across diverse socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural settings. We observed that younger individuals tend to hold lower environmental baselines across various environmental contexts, including climate change, natural resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and pollution. An upward shift in perceived environmental baselines among younger generations was rarely observed. These results underscore the challenge that SBS poses when policy and management responses to environmental degradation are influenced by perceived natural environmental norms.

Soga, M. & Gaston, K.J. 2024. Extinction of experience due to climate change. Nature Climate Change 14, 108-110.

Ongoing climate change has the potential to reduce people’s direct experiences with nature, leading to or further exacerbating the ‘extinction of experience’. We argue that understanding these impacts is crucial, as the extinction of experience can have adverse consequences for both humans and the natural environment.

Morrell, S., Hatchell, J., Wordingham, F., Bennie, J., Inston, M.J. & Gaston, K.J. 2024. Changing streetlighting schemes and the ecological availability of darkness. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 21, 20230555.

Artificial light at night (ALAN), from streetlights and other sources, has a wide variety of impacts on the natural environment. A significant challenge remains, however, to predict at intermediate spatial extents (e.g. across a city) the ALAN that organisms experience under different lighting regimes. Here we use Monte Carlo radiative Transfer to model the three-dimensional lighting environment at, and just above, ground level, on the spatial scales at which animals and humans experience it. We show how this technique can be used to model a suite of both real and hypothetical lighting environments, mimicking the transition of public infrastructure between different lighting technologies. We then demonstrate how the behaviour of animals experiencing these simulated lighting environments can be emulated to probe the availability of darkness, and dark corridors, within them. Our simulations show that no single lighting technology provides an unmitigated alleviation of negative impacts within urban environments, and that holistic treatments of entire lighting environments should be employed when understanding how animals use and traverse them.

Marini, L., Batáry, P., Carmenta, R., Gaston, K.J., Gordon, R., Macinnis-Ng, C., Mori, A.S., Nuñez, M. & Barlow, J. 2024. Ecology and conservation under ageing and declining human populations. Journal of Applied Ecology 61, 1982-1988.

1. Much research and media attention has revolved around the environmental impacts of growing global human populations. While the conclusions remain contested, these assessments have largely neglected the ecological and conservation impacts of other key regional processes such as declining populations, ageing demographics and rural-to-urban migration.

2. These demographic shifts are increasingly prevalent across many regions of the world, and will have significant direct effects on natural resource management and biodiversity conservation by altering individual consumption patterns, land use, land stewardship and natural disturbances. Given that the scientific foundation around this topic is still developing, we first present an initial examination of some of the key environmental impacts, aiming to elevate awareness and encourage further research in these areas.

3. Beyond the ecological implications, declining populations, ageing demographics and rural-to-urban migration carry intricate social and cultural consequences that can affect people and nature interactions. Ecological studies that focus on single dimensions of biodiversity or ecosystem responses often overlook these complexities. Demographic changes are likely to be accompanied by shifts in environmental attitudes and connections with nature, all of which will influence our capacity to adapt to or mitigate environmental changes. Finally, environmental policy and practice frameworks are potentially unprepared and their success could be sensitive to these socio-cultural and demographic shifts.

4. Synthesis and applications: This brief overview demonstrates that population decline, ageing and rural-to-urban migration can have extensive implications for biodiversity and the socio-cultural relationships between people and nature.

Gaston, K.J. 2024. Characterizing personalized ecologies. Journal of Zoology 322, 291-308.

People have unique sets of direct sensory interactions with wild species, which change through their days, weeks, seasons, and lifetimes. Despite having important influences on their health and well-being and their attitudes towards nature, these personalized ecologies remain surprisingly little studied and are poorly understood. However, much can be inferred about personalized ecologies by considering them from first principles (largely macroecological), alongside insights from research into the design and effectiveness of biodiversity monitoring programmes, knowledge of how animals respond to people, and studies of human biology and demography. Here I first review how three major sets of drivers, opportunity, capability and motivation, shape people’s personalized ecologies. Second, I then explore the implications of these mechanisms for how more passively and more actively practical improvements can be made in people’s personalized ecologies. Particularly in light of the declines in the richness of these ecologies that are being experienced in much of the world (the so-called ‘extinction of experience’), and the significant consequences, marked improvement in many people’s interactions and experiences with nature may be key to the future of biodiversity.