What is aeroecology?

Aeroecology is a new field of study looking at the ecology of life in the air. Many animals – birds, bats, and insects primarily — spend much of their lives aloft. This environment, the aerosphere, reaches from just overhead to miles high. There are no countries or borders, and the only highways are the winds. Most of it is beyond our human ability to study directly, especially at night. Aeroecology is one of the last frontiers of ecological study.

These challenges mean that we need interdisciplinary collaboration to understand the diversity of life and animal behavior in the night sky. As a result, researchers from diverse disciplines including atmospheric scientists, meteorologists, biologists, mathematicians, bioinformatic scientists are working together to reveal the secrets hidden above us.

Want to know more? I’ve collected information for you about some of the things we know about life in the air. Just click on one of the topics below to get started!