Frequently Asked Questions

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Biodiversity is all the different living things at a place and time. We can talk about the biodiversity of Earth today (all the amazing living things on our planet), or the biodiversity of a rainforest (many, many different living things), or of a desert (fewer different living things), or even your backyard (we haven’t visited your backyard, yet!). 

Biodiversity is necessary for humanity’s survival on Earth. Humans need oxygen and food to survive. The other living things on Earth form an almost infinitely complex web that produces the oxygen that we breath and the food that we eat. 

Almost every human activity can either increase or decrease biodiversity. If you cut down a forest to make a parking lot, biodiversity is reduced. If you allow that parking lot to become overgrown, biodiversity at that site is increased. 

We measure biodiversity to evaluate the impacts of our investments in sustainability. As people and companies make efforts to be more sustainable, we need to measure how these efforts affect biodiversity. 

Biodiversity is difficult to measure because there are many types of living things, they often move around, and come in sizes that range from gigantic to microscopic. Because of these challenges and many others, we have developed multisensory probes to detect signals of biodiversity and advanced tools for analyzing these signals. 

Measuring biodiversity requires placing specialized sensor probes in a location at least twice. These sensors detect signatures of life that can be used to identify different living things. You have to measure more than once to reveal trends in biodiversity over time. For example, if you planted native trees in a corporate parking lot, you would want to measure the biodiversity before the trees were planted, and perhaps one year later. You would almost certainly see an increase in biodiversity!

You may need to measure biodiversity to comply with government regulations or corporate imperatives. Measuring biodiversity allows us to report our achievements in reaching regulatory, governmental, and corporate goals. Of course, reducing our impacts on the living world is critical for everyone because humanity depends on biodiversity for food and oxygen. 

Any activity that allows native plants and animals to thrive will increase biodiversity. Simple acts like planting native trees, reducing or eliminating the release of toxic chemicals, and returning parcels of land to the wild can lead to local increases in biodiversity.