Aeroecology: Exploring Biodiversity with Radar

Aeroecology: Exploring Biodiversity with Radar

Instructor: Christopher Hassall

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2 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Intermediate level

Recommended experience

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

2 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Intermediate level

Recommended experience

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

Learn the principles of radar and how radar data can tell us about the diversity and abundance of organisms.
Explore how to apply radar to provide novel approaches to the study of complex questions in biodiversity research.

Skills you'll gain

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Assessments

6 assignments¹

AI Graded see disclaimer

Taught in English

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There are 2 modules in this course

Learn how aeroecology, a discipline that studies airborne life forms, has been revolutionised with the use of radar with this unique course. This course is designed to help scientists, researchers as well as ecology enthusiasts to develop skills in using radar to explore biodiversity.

You will explore the origins and evolution of radar from a military technology to a powerful tool with multiple scientific applications, including aeroecology. You will then be introduced to studying global biodiversity trends and learn how to evaluate traditional methods and emerging technologies used by scientists to monitor the natural world. You will then delve deeper to understand how radar science can be used to measure and monitor biodiversity and evaluate its advantages over existing methods of biodiversity measurement. Through real life case studies, you will learn how to interpret data visualisations and radar data output, how to quantify the biomass of species, and you will discover the taxonomic limits of the technology. By the end of the course, you will have explored how this new field of study can be used to transform biological and agricultural research as well as inform environmental regulation and policy.

This first week of content will give you a basic understanding of radar science and biodiversity science. At the end of the week, we will bring the two research areas together and consider how they can inform one another. In the second week, we will explore the more technical aspects of radar aeroecology. We will look at the important and neglected questions that radar can address in biodiversity science, and how radar data can complement other sources of information about the natural world. You will end week 2 with an opportunity to generate your own research idea that builds on your new understanding.

What's included

8 videos11 readings3 assignments5 discussion prompts

8 videos Total 41 minutes

The story of how a military technology produced surprising scientific applications 6 minutes
How does radar work? 4 minutes
What is the current state of the art in radar science? 3 minutes
Investigating biodiversity trends 7 minutes
Introduction to biodiversity methods 9 minutes
How can radar measure and monitor biodiversity? 6 minutes
What biodiversity can the radar visualise? 2 minutes
What biodiversity can radar not visualise? 3 minutes

11 readings Total 95 minutes

Welcome to Aeroecology: Exploring Biodiversity with Radar 10 minutes
About your course and tutor 5 minutes
What is “aeroecology”? 10 minutes
Lesson 1 overview 5 minutes
Exploring radar methods 10 minutes
Summary 5 minutes
Lesson 2 overview 10 minutes
How does an eco-system collapse? 10 minutes
Summary 10 minutes
Lesson 3 overview 10 minutes
Summary 10 minutes

3 assignments Total 70 minutes

Check your understanding 10 minutes
Check your understanding 30 minutes
Check your understanding 30 minutes

5 discussion prompts Total 50 minutes

Icebreaker 10 minutes
Video discussion 10 minutes
Exploring radar methods discussion 10 minutes
Find and follow a species 10 minutes
Limits of existing biodiversity methods 10 minutes

Welcome to week two of this course on Aeroecology: exploring biodiversity with radar. In week one of the course, you were introduced to the fundamentals of radar science and biodiversity research, then we brought the two together to explore how the two disciplines can work together to generate biological information from radar data. Week two will develop that initial overview to examine some of the key gaps in our understanding of ecosystems. We will start by looking at how we measure abundance in biodiversity research, and why this is important in an ecological context. We will then move on to look at the importance of measuring diversity, and the extent to which radar is able to do so. I will illustrate these abundance and diversity topics with a range of case studies to show you how radar is currently being applied in some areas. In the final part of the course, we will take a step back and survey the field for future opportunities. The optional assessment involves you as learners becoming practitioners yourselves and exploring these opportunities to find a research area that might be of interest to you.

What's included

7 videos9 readings3 assignments1 peer review1 discussion prompt

7 videos Total 35 minutes

Why is diversity important? 6 minutes
Introduction to the classification of “bioscatterers” 3 minutes
Taxonomic limits of radar 6 minutes
Why is abundance important? 7 minutes
Introduction to the quantification of “bioscatterers” 4 minutes
How might aeroecology transform biological and agricultural research? 3 minutes
A critical reflection on aeroecology 6 minutes

9 readings Total 90 minutes

Lesson 4 overview 10 minutes
Summary 10 minutes
Lesson 5 overview 10 minutes
Summary 10 minutes
Lesson 6 overview 10 minutes
How might aeroecology transform environmental regulation and policy? 10 minutes
Summary 10 minutes
Course summary 10 minutes
Future Steps 10 minutes

3 assignments Total 90 minutes

Check your understanding 30 minutes
Check your understanding 30 minutes
Check your understanding 30 minutes

1 peer review Total 90 minutes

Assessment 90 minutes

1 discussion prompt Total 10 minutes

Reflection on the week 10 minutes

Instructor

Christopher Hassall

University of Leeds

1 Course 1,118 learners

Offered by

University of Leeds

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