A research team led by Stony Brook University has developed a method to use tourist photos of penguins in Antarctica to track ecological changes. The study, detailed in the journal PLOS One, employs satellite imagery and computerization to determine the geographic location of thousands of images. This technique aims to provide insights into changes in penguin abundance and distribution over time.
Heather Lynch, PhD, the lead investigator and IACS Endowed Professor of Ecology & Evolution at Stony Brook University, explained the significance of this work. "There are far more tourists in Antarctica than scientists, and virtually everybody has a camera in their pocket and many take photos of penguins," said Lynch. She highlighted the challenge: "Our challenge was to figure out how to extract information about precisely where the penguins were in a photograph even if no additional information was available."
The research utilized data from satellite imagery combined with 3D computerization methods to identify the camera's position when each photo was taken. This approach allows researchers to estimate both location and orientation during photography. The process also involves delineating the boundary of a penguin colony within an image.
Lynch noted that identifying colony edges is difficult due to gradual boundaries where penguins nest at lower densities near edges. For this study, they successfully used an AI model called the Segment Anything Model to automate delineation of these boundaries.
Georeferencing posed another challenge as it requires determining geographic coordinates for photographed penguins—a task complicated by Antarctica's lack of distinct features common in human-dominated environments. To address this, researchers created a 3D model using satellite images draped over digital elevation models, allowing them to pinpoint camera locations within this representation.
"In theory," Lynch stated, "this information gathered by the computational technique can be compared to other similarly processed images of the Antarctic to see how penguin colonies are changing over time."
The team acknowledges that while satellite images and aerial photos are typically used for tracking changes on Antarctic landscapes, these data sources aren't always available for analysis. Thus, utilizing tourist photos could significantly expand data availability for long-term environmental monitoring.
Despite promising results from their technique's performance tests—variations exist due largely due image quality differences or dynamic natural landscape aspects—the method shows potential as "a straightforward and effective tool" applicable beyond just georegistration but also towards monitoring glacial retreat among others applications according authors' report.
This interdisciplinary research involved collaboration between ecologists like those at Lynch Lab alongside computer scientists such as Dimitris Samaras’ lab members within Stony Brook University's Department Computer Science department plus mathematicians/geologists working together developing new techniques advancing understanding regarding Antarctic ecosystems through innovative approaches leveraging modern technology tools/resources available today’s world contextually speaking broadly defined terms/conditions/etcetera...