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Wireless "Eyes and Ears" for Quail Ridge
Researchers at this UC Davis Reserve above Lake Berryessa are using wireless systems to watch wildlife without being there. UC Davis collaborator Mike Bernard can now monitor his favorite frogs from Michigan with technology developed in the Department of Computer Sciences. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation Center for Embedded Networked Sensing.
Webcast: Real Player, Windows Media, 3:07 minutes
Paul Pfotenhauer, producer; Ken Zukin, videographer (2006)
Transcript
[Deb Niemeier:] Hi, I’m Deb Niemeier and I’m director of the John Muir Institute of the Environment. All over the world we’re seeing rapid and dramatic changes in ecosystems but the loss of biodiversity is perhaps the most critical. Here at a remote field site in northern California UC Davis researchers are working to create a wireless mesh that allows ecologists, like Mike Benard, to study amphibians. In this segment, it’s all about the frogs.
[Paul Pfotenhauer:] Benard studies how frogs adapt to changing environments but what makes this so special is that he can eavesdrop on these critters from his home base, in Michigan. There is also live streaming video and audio of the frogs all of which tell Benard when the species that he is studying is active.
[Mike Benard:] One of the great, great opportunities about these facilities is that through this remote monitoring system, supported by the John Muir Institute for the Environment, I’ve got the opportunity to go anywhere in the world and download and utilize the data on these populations that I have been studying for so long.
[Paul Pfotenhauer:] He just jumps onto the frog net, a network of sensors and transmitters near the pond. The live pictures are downloaded instantly via the internet. This is all part of a unique system being developed at UC Davis that could revolutionize wireless public communications. This system could provide internet connections for much less money than conventional wired networks where the construction costs are very high. Because frogs are often the first species affected by environmental changes this remote sensing system will be a huge advantage to scientists. In milliseconds, using only the sun’s energy, and a relatively low cost array of relay stations, Benard, in Michigan, can hear the sound of a frog croaking in California.
[Mike Benard:] So we can look at how they change year after year and correlate that with all sorts of environmental variables that will be collected by this remote monitoring system such as water depth, pond temperature, air temperature. We’ll be able to see which of these factors, or combinations of these factors, are most important for explaining why amphibian populations increase and why they decrease.
[background] The physical, chemical as well as biological aspects of the environment and how these interact…
[Paul Pfotenhauer:] The John Muir Institute incorporates expertise from many academic disciplines to further scientific understanding. In this case, engineering graduate student Stephanie Liese and Daniel Wu designed the experimental network at the UC Davis managed reserve just a short drive from the campus.
[Stephanie Liese:] Working on a 2,000 acre wildlife preserve gives us the opportunity to test our hardware and software in a way that is not achievable in the lab, and at the same time we can further our knowledge of wireless networks and assist the environmental scientists with conducting their own research.
[Paul Pfotenhauer:] To test the network the students set up television cameras and other remote sensing equipment that gives researchers, like Benard, real time data. The solar powered element makes the system ideal for use in developing countries and the noise free environment is also compatible with developing countries.