Understanding
bird migration and
avian biodiversity is one of the most compelling and challenging
problems of
modern biology with major implications for human health and
conservation
biology. Migration and conservation
efforts cross national boundaries and are subject to numerous
international
agreements and treaties. Public interest is high with concerns about
avian flu,
Katrina and its impacts, and the recent sightings of the ivory-billed
woodpecker.
Space
based technology gives us
new opportunities to shed light on the distribution and movement of
organisms
on the planet. In our work, we use
individual organism biophysical models and drive these models with
satellite
measurements of climate and habitat.