Biodiversity and habitat loss from satellite data

European Space Agency (ESA) satellites play an important role in monitoring climate change. ESA Climate Change resources allow learners to find out more about the impacts of climate change by exploring ESA data. 

This set of activities, from the European Space Agency, begins with a reading assignment that introduces vocabulary and ideas that are key to considering the relationship between climate change and ecosystems.

A field survey of a local area, which can be carried out using home-made equipment, is extended to include a measurement of biodiversity that can later be used to compare the likely resilience of different regions. In the final activity, students use the 'Climate from Space' web application to explore how a range of appropriate factors describing the habitat of a local species have changed, relating this to recent and potential changes in the population of the species.