Satellites advance biodiversity monitoring but key gaps remain, Oxford-led review finds
An Oxford-led review in Nature Reviews Biodiversity finds satellites track forest structure and function but still miss species detail.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels
Satellite biodiversity monitoring can now track how forests are built and how they function, but it still cannot see many of the living details that define biodiversity. That is the conclusion of a review published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity and summarised by the University of Oxford on July 8, 2026. The review synthesises how satellite Earth observation, LiDAR, radar and airborne sensing measure ecosystems at scale, and where those methods fall short.
The work is led by Dr Jesus Aguirre-Gutierrez, Associate Professor and group lead for biodiversity and Earth observation at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, who also holds a NERC fellowship at Imperial College London. Co-authors span the University of Oxford and partner institutions in the United Kingdom, Mexico, the United States, South Africa and Japan.
What the satellite biodiversity monitoring review covers
The review sets out a practical question for governments: how can countries measure and report on the state of nature across large and often inaccessible regions? That question sits at the centre of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the global agreement adopted in 2022 that commits parties to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
Remote sensing helps most with the physical side of ecosystems. The authors report that satellites and related sensors now capture forest structure, biomass, canopy traits and ecosystem functioning. Those measurements let researchers judge how forests resist disturbance, recover from it, and adapt, which are the core components of ecosystem resilience.
Satellite data can also stand in for some living dimensions of biodiversity. The review notes that remote sensing provides indirect indicators, or proxies, for functional and taxonomic diversity, and, to a more limited extent, for phylogenetic and genetic diversity. These proxies feed into monitoring systems such as the Essential Biodiversity Variables framework.
The limits are equally clear. Species turnover, evolutionary history and genetic diversity remain difficult to observe directly from space and still depend on field measurements. The authors argue that satellite observations must be combined with ground-based ecology to produce reliable assessments.
Mapping satellites onto the Essential Biodiversity Variables
The Essential Biodiversity Variables framework, developed by the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), sorts biodiversity into six classes. The review’s findings map onto that framework: remote sensing is strongest for ecosystem structure and function, offers proxy indicators for traits and community composition, and remains weak for the population and genetic classes.
| Essential Biodiversity Variable class | Remote-sensing observability (per the review) |
|---|---|
| Ecosystem structure | Directly observed |
| Ecosystem function | Directly observed |
| Species traits | Proxy indicators |
| Community composition | Proxy indicators |
| Species populations | Limited, field-dependent |
| Genetic composition | Largely field-based |
EBV classes: GEO BON Essential Biodiversity Variables framework. Observability: Nature Reviews Biodiversity review, via University of Oxford (July 2026).
Tropical forests run through the review as the main case study. They hold a large share of the world’s biodiversity, supply services that people depend on, and face mounting pressure from climate change, land-use change and disturbance. Satellite and airborne data are increasingly used to track how those forests store carbon and how their canopies change, an approach that connects to wider work on big data in sustainability and machine-learning analysis of satellite imagery.
Dr Aguirre-Gutierrez said satellites “now provide unprecedented information on forest structure and function, helping us understand how ecosystems respond to disturbance,” while cautioning that “many dimensions of biodiversity are still difficult to observe directly from space, which is why combining satellite data with field observations remains essential.”
Why the timing matters for national reporting
The review lands as countries work to measure progress under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The framework was adopted by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity on 19 December 2022 at COP15 in Montreal, and sets four long-term goals for 2050 and 23 action targets for 2030.
| Global Biodiversity Framework | Detail |
|---|---|
| Adopted | 19 December 2022, COP15, Montreal |
| Convention | Convention on Biological Diversity |
| 2050 goals | 4 |
| 2030 targets | 23 |
| Target 3 (“30×30”) | Conserve 30% of land and sea by 2030 |
Source: Convention on Biological Diversity, Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Looking ahead, the authors point to next-generation satellite missions and improved sensors, including hyperspectral imaging, LiDAR and radar, as the technologies most likely to widen what can be measured from orbit in the coming years. Even so, the review’s message is that no single data source is enough on its own.
Background: remote sensing for biodiversity
Satellite Earth observation has been used in ecology for decades, first for land cover and deforestation mapping and later for measuring vegetation structure and productivity. The addition of LiDAR and radar brought three-dimensional detail on canopy height and biomass, while hyperspectral sensors began to reveal chemical and functional traits of vegetation. The Essential Biodiversity Variables framework, proposed by GEO BON, gave the field a common language for the measurements that matter. This latest review, led from the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, assesses how far those tools have come for tracking ecosystems under the Global Biodiversity Framework, and concludes that satellites and field ecology will have to work together for countries to report credibly on the state of nature.
Sources: Nature Reviews Biodiversity; Mirage News (University of Oxford); Phys.org; Convention on Biological Diversity
Featured image: photo by Pixabay on Pexels (free Pexels license).
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I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy. At WINSS, I craft articles on sustainability, transformative AI, and related topics. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me chasing the perfect sushi roll, exploring cities around the globe, or unwinding with my dog Puffy — the world’s most loyal sidekick.
