How AI Is Being Used to Save Rainforest Species in Puerto Rico
CNNs Are Elevating Biodiversity Research
Though many still deny it, the climate crisis has begun, and change is needed lest the planet itself changes for the worse. We may worry that our own lives will be impacted by the climate crisis, yet it is our planet’s wildlife that is most vulnerable. However, as the ingenuitive beings that humans have always been, it’s our technology that will save us, our wildlife, and the planet. What technology? Artificial intelligence, of course.
Current Crisis in the Puerto Rican Rainforest
With rising sea levels caused by hotter global temperatures melting the polar ice caps, Puerto Rico has seen an increase in flooding, the destruction of natural resources and habits, and the loss of wildlife. In other words, due to climate change, it’s become increasingly challenging for important wildlife species to survive in the country’s rainforests.
How Are Researchers Using AI to Save Rainforest Species?
Researchers from Rainforest Connection and Google have begun using AI technology to save species in the Puerto Rican rainforest and help preserve biodiversity. They are doing this using an open-source data processing platform called Arbimon, a tool for bioscientists and researchers to freely process audio data in order to monitor wildlife. Using their findings, scientists, in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, can release new animals into the area suited to the environment.
Releasing new wildlife – or reintroducing species to an area – is a precarious process and requires certainty that they will enrich the environment instead of causing issues like many invasive species. But with the data collected through AI-based bioacoustics sound monitoring tools, as well as the results generated from Arbimon, scientists can identify what specifies would benefit the area and where exactly they should be released. This is helping to increase and preserve biodiversity in an area significantly impacted by climate change.
What Is Arbimon?
In an interview with Mongabay, Arbimon’s CEO, Bourhan Yassin, describes the platform as:
“...an acoustic platform. The primary focus was to put some of the acoustic analysis tools in a way that scientists and researchers could benefit from them as they analyze acoustic data. The platform then grew to focus on providing insights beyond just the analysis parts. We started releasing features that are focused on showing insights in the data, like occupancy and richness of species.”
Later in the interview, Yassin states that he’s hopeful Arbimon will help researchers map out biodiversity hotspots across areas, ultimately allowing scientists to ascertain a holistic view of biodiversity health and determine which areas are the most vulnerable.
Though the platform is open source and available to anyone, Arbimon's use of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), a form of artificial intelligence, is available only to the Rainforest Connection Science Team, including those working with Google in Puerto Rico.
A convolutional neural network (CNN) is a type of artificial intelligence used for processing complex data such as images and audio. CNNs analyze audio inputs by passing them through a series of “convolutional” layers that detect patterns and features in the data. By processing multiple layers, CNNs can efficiently learn and extract high-level representations from raw inputs.
In terms of biodiversity preservation, CNNs can be used to identify low population numbers of a certain species by how often they are heard, even when audio recordings are cluttered by background noise and other animals. In other words, CNNs help researchers to pick out specific sounds among others.
Another Win for AI (and the Planet)
While this is yet another win for artificial intelligence and – by its application – the planet, this is not the first time AI has been used to combat the effects of climate change. In fact, we recently released an article discussing how AI is being used to combat wildfires, many of which are caused by rising global temperatures.
However, AI has also been a concern for many environmentalists, as AI models like ChatGPT require an immense amount of water to run effectively. Still, if AI is able to mitigate and manage the ongoing effects of climate change, it could be our planet’s saving grace.
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Sources:
https://arbimon.rfcx.org/