Wired Amazon: make science happen

what is aerobotany

The Amazon rainforest harbors more biodiversity than any other terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. However, it is also one of the least explored parts of our planet, especially its majestic canopy that towers over 50 meters above the forest floor: out of reach to all but a tiny handful of expert tree climbers. Fortunately, technology has provided a way to obtain a bird’s eye view of the rainforest canopy without risking life and limb: using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or in everyday parlance: a drone. One of Wired Amazon's three cornerstone projects, Aerobotany is geared towards harnessing the enormous potential of new technology to answer age-old questions on rainforest ecology. Created by Dr. Varun Swamy and Daniel Couceiro in 2016, Aerobotany combines the innovative use of mini-drones and online citizen science to remotely monitor the rainforest canopy and develop a deeper understanding of the life cycles of Amazonian flora.

where is aerobotany

The Aerobotany project is based at our Refugio Amazonas Lodge, spanning 4 square kilometers of private land adjacent to the Tambopata National Reserve, which spans over 2700 square kilometers (over 1000 square miles). The Reserve is home to some of the most diverse wildlife in the world and is a designated Naturally Protected Area in the Madre de Dios Region, located in southeastern Peru. Tambopata is characterized by a high diversity of tree species that attain impressive sizes, growing up to 60m (200 feet) tall, with crowns that span more than 30m (100 feet) across. These trees are truly “Charismatic Megaflora”. Many of these trees appear even more statuesque because of their massive buttresses that can extend out more than 10 meters from the trunk. A great example is Ceiba pentandra - the 'kapok' tree, locally known as lupuna - with its massive umbrella-like crown. Another giant of Tambopata's rainforest is the shihuahuaco tree (Dipteryx micrantha) with its bright orange bark, which is the most preferred nesting tree of scarlet macaws. And perhaps the most emblematic tree of the Madre de Dios region is the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), locally known as castaña.

how to we study the tree canopy

After struggling for more than a decade to obtain an unobstructed view of these canopy giants from the ground up, Dr. Swamy decided to try something different - use new technology to remotely spy on these trees from up above. The Aerobotany project uses a quadcopter mini-drone as our “eye in the sky” by sending it out on programmed flight paths to capture high-resolution imagery of the rainforest canopy. Now that we finally have high-resolution imagery of the rainforest canopy, what can we do with it? This is where we need YOU - the Citizen Scientist! This new paradigm of participatory science has opened up numerous opportunities for the public, with hundreds of thousands of people signing up to contribute to scientific research through online citizen science platforms. We upload thousands of images of rainforest canopy trees taken by the drone on The Zooniverse, the world’s largest online citizen science platform. By spending less than a minute per image, you can help gather unique data that will contribute directly to research and conservation efforts in Tambopata, and help monitor and protect these invaluable rainforest ecosystems in the long term.

what have we learned so far?

When we launched the Aerobotany project in 2016, we were pioneering the use of drone-captured images of the rainforest canopy in online citizen science. Our first big question was simply: WILL THIS WORK? Could we successfully fly the drone over the rainforest and obtain hundreds of high-resolution images per flight? Could these images be used to identify certain species of trees, or spot tree crowns that were flowering, or had shed their leaves during the dry season? Could we engage the interest of online volunteers from across the world in collecting these data?

The answer to all these questions was a resounding YES! During the initial run of Aerobotany on The Zooniverse platform, we uploaded more than 5700 drone-captured images of the rainforest canopy. Over a 3-month period, more than 3000 volunteers helped perform almost 100,000 classifications in total on these images. And the results were illuminating: we discovered that during the dry month of October, more than 3700 individual trees within the 4 square kilometers of rainforest around Refugio Amazonas had shed their leaves, and over 1600 trees were flowering! We also counted over 5000 trees of the Huasaí palm across the area, which is probably the first-ever landscape-scale survey of a single rainforest tree species.

Currently, we are close to launching a new version of Aerobotany that focuses on a single, emblematic species of the Madre de Dios region - the castaña or Brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa). This tree is the cornerstone of a sustainable regional economy based on collecting the fallen fruits and shelling the seeds or 'nuts', which are rich in healthy fats and micronutrients, and contribute millions of dollars each year to the livelihoods of Madre de Dios's residents.

During this run of Aerobotany, we have monitored 140 castaña trees in the rainforest around Refugio Amazonas over the past 4 years using the drone. We are using these high-resolution images of individual tree crowns taken every two weeks year-round to answer some critical, basic questions about the castaña tree's basic ecology: When do these trees flower, fruit, drop leaves and flush new leaves? Are they consistent from year-to-year? Are all the trees in synchrony or do they exhibit variation in their patterns?

One of the most exciting objectives of Aerobotany's current focus on Brazil nut trees is our attempt to count the number of visible fruit in the crowns of each focal tree based on the high-resolution drone-captured image. If we are able to do this accurately with the help of thousands of online volunteers, we can create a predictive model that will help Brazil nut collectors across the Madre de Dios region in their planning and logistics, and improve their efficiency. This would be a major part of the solution to the long-term sustainable use of Amazon rainforest resources.

Stay tuned for updates on Aerobotany, and visit our project page Amazon Aerobotany on The Zooniverse!