At the 2025 Alternet Conference on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (13–16 May, Aveiro, Portugal), MAMBO project coordinator Professor Toke Thomas Høye (Aarhus University) delivered a keynote address on the future of automated species monitoring.

In his presentation, “Automated species monitoring from the Arctic to the tropics,” Høye showcased how MAMBO and other large-scale initiatives are advancing biodiversity monitoring by integrating deep learning and camera-based observation systems. He demonstrated how technologies like the AMI (Automatic Monitoring Infrastructure) system currently used within MAMBO and Biodiversa+ projects can collect continuous, non-invasive data on insects, plants, and other taxa across diverse habitats.

The talk highlighted how AI-powered models are increasingly able to estimate ecological indicators such as species abundance, biomass, and diversity directly from image data. These innovations provide scalable, high-frequency insights into biodiversity change across diurnal and seasonal cycles.

Drawing on experiences from MAMBO demonstration sites and other long-term monitoring efforts, Høye discussed both the transformative potential and the technical challenges of implementing automated monitoring across Europe. He also outlined the steps needed to expand these tools for broader use particularly for tracking changes in insect and plant populations at landscape scale.