From Data to Maps: How EcoCommons Helps Scientists Understand Australia's Wildlife｜从数据到地图：华人科研人员助力澳洲野生动物保护

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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Original episode title (中文): 【尤里卡奖】从数据到地图：华人科研人员助力澳洲野生动物保护

The EcoCommons team — 2026 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes finalist for Excellence in Data Platforms.

SBS Mandarin (SBS 中文) featured the EcoCommons platform and my work on it in a podcast episode (11:34), presented by Olivia Yuan.

SBS 中文在一期播客节目（11:34）中介绍了 EcoCommons 平台以及我参与的工作，由 Olivia Yuan 主持。

🎧 Listen to the episode (Mandarin) ｜收听节目（普通话）：

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You can also listen on SBS: How EcoCommons is helping scientists better understand Australia’s wildlife (SBS Chinese, 27 Aug 2026).

你也可以在 SBS 收听：EcoCommons 如何帮助科学家更好地了解澳大利亚的野生动物（SBS 中文，2026 年 8 月 27 日）。

The episode is in Mandarin. Below is my English summary, with the original Mandarin (中文) shown under each paragraph.

节目为普通话。以下是我整理的英文摘要，每段英文下方附有对应的中文原文。

English summary & original Mandarin

Protecting wildlife takes more than binoculars and field surveys. Climate, vegetation, terrain, bushfires — even where an animal has been recorded in the past — can all be important clues for working out where a species might live. In Australia, ecologists are using data, models and computing to map the potential habitats of wildlife.

您知道吗，保护野生动物，靠的不只是望远镜和野外调查。气候、植被、地形、森林火灾，甚至动物过去出现的位置，都可能成为判断它们栖息地的重要线索。在澳大利亚，生态学家们正在利用数据、模型和计算技术，绘制野生动物潜在的栖息地。

When ecologists want to know where an animal might live, they need more than field observation. Data on a species’ historical distribution, climate, vegetation, terrain and bushfire history can all inform where its habitat is likely to be. But that data is often scattered across different institutions and databases, in many different formats.

当生态学家想知道一种动物可能生活在哪里时，他们需要做的不只是去野外观察。物种历史分布、气候、植被、地形以及森林火灾等数据，都可能成为判断物种栖息地的重要依据。但这些数据往往分散在不同机构和数据库中，格式也各不相同。

An Australian research team is trying to solve this problem. EcoCommons is an online platform for ecologists, conservation practitioners and government users that brings ecological data, modelling tools and computing resources together in one place, helping people run species distribution models.

澳大利亚一个科研团队正在尝试解决这一问题。EcoCommons 是一个面向生态学家、保护工作者、政府人员等用户的在线平台，将生态数据、建模工具和计算资源整合在一起，帮助用户进行物种分布模型分析。

I’m a member of the EcoCommons team, mainly responsible for developing and maintaining the platform’s core software. The goal is to integrate scattered ecological data, species distribution models and computing resources so that ecologists and conservation workers can use this information for their research more easily. This work saw the team shortlisted as a finalist for the 2026 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Excellence in Data Platforms.

华人科研人员赵翔（Xiang Zhao）是 EcoCommons 团队成员，主要负责平台核心软件的开发和维护。他告诉 SBS 中文，EcoCommons 希望把分散的生态数据、物种分布模型和计算资源整合起来，让生态学家和保护工作者能够更方便地利用这些信息开展研究。该团队也因此入围了 2026 年澳大利亚尤里卡奖（Eureka Prize）数据平台卓越奖（Excellence in Data Platform）。

Ecological research carries a lot of technical and digital barriers. Researchers may need programming, statistics and modelling skills, and can spend a huge amount of time downloading, cleaning and converting data from different sources — often getting distracted just trying to find the right dataset in the first place.

赵翔说，生态学研究中存在不少技术和数字方面的门槛。研究人员可能需要具备编程、统计和建模知识，还要花大量时间下载、清洗和转换不同来源的数据。

「他可能在找某一个数据的时候，就已经被分散精力了。」

This doesn’t mean ecologists no longer need to go into the field. Field surveys remain very important. One thing the platform does well is help researchers understand what data already exists before they set out — reducing duplicated surveys and helping them decide which areas are worth investigating further.

但这并不意味着生态学家以后就不需要去野外。赵翔强调，实地调查仍然非常重要。平台能够发挥的作用之一，是帮助研究人员在出发之前了解已有数据，从而减少重复调查，并帮助他们决定哪些区域可能更值得进一步调查。

Take the Eastern bristlebird in eastern Australia. One population had dropped to just eight birds. After years of conservation work, that number has recovered to around 50 — but researchers still didn’t know which potential habitats in the local mountains had yet to be surveyed. Without a model, they’d have to rely more heavily on the experience of field workers or fairly random choices. With a habitat map, they have more information to help decide which places are most worth surveying.

澳大利亚东部有一种棕刺莺（Eastern bristlebird），其中一个种群曾经一度只剩下 8 只。经过多年的保护，这一数字已经恢复到约 50 只，但研究人员仍然不知道当地山区还有哪些潜在栖息地没有被调查。

「如果没有这个模型，我们可能就要更多依赖野外工作者的经验，或者一些比较随机的选择。有了这张地图之后，我们可以获得更多信息，帮助我们决定哪些地方更值得去调查。」

Looking ahead, what I’d most like to see is species distribution models combined with more sophisticated environmental decision-making tools — things like systematic conservation planning and the design of species monitoring programs. A species distribution model first provides a scientific foundation: where a species is likely to be. What matters next is how we take that scientific information further, into real-world environmental management and conservation.

对于未来，赵翔最希望看到的是，物种分布模型能够与更加复杂的环境决策工具结合起来，例如系统性的保护规划和物种监测方案设计。

在他看来，物种分布模型首先提供的是一层科学基础：这个物种可能在哪里。接下来，更重要的是如何把这些科学信息进一步用于实际的环境管理和保护工作。

As an interdisciplinary researcher, my own path has shifted several times. I started out in engineering mechanics as an undergraduate, moved into environmental engineering, and gradually found my way into ecology. During my postgraduate studies I discovered I was especially drawn to statistics, modelling and programming.

作为一名跨学科科研人员，赵翔的研究道路本身也经历了多次转变。他本科最初学习工程力学，后来转向环境工程，再逐渐进入生态学领域。在研究生阶段，他发现自己对统计、建模和编程尤其感兴趣。

“Choose the things you love to do, and choose a place you love — then you’ll find there’s a lot you can do, a lot of opportunities, and a lot of directions to grow.”

「选择你喜欢做的事情，然后选择你热爱的地方，那么你就会发现有很多事情可以做，有很多机会，然后有很多发展的方向。」

Episode: SBS Chinese (SBS 中文), presented by Olivia Yuan, 27 August 2026. Summary and translation above are my own; for the full interview please listen to the original Mandarin episode.

Media | Zhao Xiang

From Data to Maps: How EcoCommons Helps Scientists Understand Australia's Wildlife｜从数据到地图：华人科研人员助力澳洲野生动物保护

In the news

English summary & original Mandarin