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| Tracking animals over large temporal and spatial scales
has revealed invaluable and spectacular biological
information, particularly when the paths and fates of
individuals can be monitored on a global scale. However,
only large animals (greater than ~300·g) currently can be
followed globally because of power and size constraints on
the tracking devices. And yet the vast majority of animals is
small. Tracking small animals is important because they
are often part of evolutionary and ecological experiments,
they provide important ecosystem services and they are of
conservation concern or pose harm to human health. Here,
we propose a small-animal satellite tracking system that
would enable the global monitoring of animals down to the
size of the smallest birds, mammals (bats), marine life and
eventually large insects. To create the scientific framework
necessary for such a global project, we formed the ICARUS
initiative (www.IcarusInitiative.org), the International
Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space. ICARUS
also highlights how small-animal tracking could address
some of the ‘Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences’
identified by the US National Academy of Sciences, such as
the spread of infectious diseases or the relationship between
biological diversity and ecosystem functioning. Smallanimal
tracking would allow the quantitative assessment of
dispersal and migration in natural populations and thus
help solve enigmas regarding population dynamics,
extinctions and invasions. Experimental biologists may find
a global small-animal tracking system helpful in testing,
validating and expanding laboratory-derived discoveries in
wild, natural populations. We suggest that the relatively
modest investment into a global small-animal tracking
system will pay off by providing unprecedented insights
into both basic and applied nature.
Tracking small animals over large spatial and temporal
scales could prove to be one of the most powerful
techniques of the early 21st century, offering potential
solutions to a wide range of biological and societal
questions that date back two millennia to the Greek
philosopher Aristotle’s enigma about songbird migration.
Several of the more recent Grand Challenges in
Environmental Sciences, such as the regulation and
functional consequences of biological diversity or the
surveillance of the population ecology of zoonotic hosts,
pathogens or vectors, could also be addressed by a global
small-animal tracking system.
Our discussion is intended to contribute to an emerging
groundswell of scientific support to make such a new
technological system happen. | |
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