WP2 - Simulation of environmental change under biodiversity loss
Curbing the global biodiversity loss is key for human development. This concern is echoed in several global, regional, and national policy mechanisms aiming to mitigate human impacts on the planet. To support this, scientists often mobilize large biodiversity data to inform models on biodiversity change that help identify conservation challenges. In this context, the focus is primarily on explaining biodiversity patterns as to predict their future respones to human action. Yet, while this focus is valuable, it is important to recognize that biodiversity is not passive: it both shapes and responds to changes in the environment. Therefore, biodiversity data, while offering insights into species responses to environmental change, may equally inform on environmental conditions enabled by existing species pools. In Work Package 2, we will use Generative AI to simulate how the absence of functional species groups translate into changes in multispectral satellite images. We will then use those images to compute various essential variables, thus providing policy-relevant perceptions of the impacts of biodiversity loss.