Scaling Ecological Insights

Human society faces its most existential challenge yet with a requirement to mitigate and adapt to rapidly changing climates, ensure resilient water supplies, sustainably feed a rapidly growing human population, and stem an ongoing global loss of biodiversity. Achieving these outcomes requires a strong theoretical understanding of ecological systems and human impacts on (and benefits from) them. Deriving this information from the natural world, and putting it to work to fundamentally improve the global human experience, remains a difficult task. Yet scaling ecological insight is possible by harnessing rapid advances in data collection and storage, the availability of massive computing infrastructure, deep algorithmic advances, and global access to local information and predictions. Putting this technology to work in the service of global sustainability objectives presents one of the most fascinating and significant opportunities for the field of ecology over the coming decade.