One of the most perplexing aspects of aerobiology is the collection and quantification of the flow of organisms at appropriate temporal and spatial scales. New technologies are emerging that may lead to the evolution of new networks of monitoring stations and new methods of capturing and assessing organisms that flow in the atmosphere. Here I speculate on the need for automated measurement of numerous physical and biological parameters associated with aerobiology. This presentation draws from technology developed to measure environmental acoustics in a complex watershed and telemeter the observations to a remote server for distribution worldwide via the World Wide Web.

This paper will discuss a potential application to automate sampling of meteorological and biological data, and telemeter observations via satellite communications to remote servers for management, storage and synthesis of observations. In the systems we have developed, measurement of meteorological variables, images and environmental acoustics are recorded every half hour. The weather and acoustic data are transmitted via wireless technology to a local receiver for intermediate storage and processing. At fixed intervals, data are up linked via satellite transmitter to the Computational Ecology and Visualization Laboratory at Michigan State University where the data are stored, managed, processed and synthesized and located on the www for delivery. New thinking is needed to develop common transducers to capture, identify organisms and quantify information relevant to interpretation of flow of life in the atmosphere.