Research uses radar to expose sky’s organized, living habitat

by Wendy Mayer, Purdue University
January 15, 2026

When people think about habitats on Earth, they likely picture forests, oceans or grasslands. Few think to look up. Yet the lower atmosphere, or troposphere, may be the largest habitat on the planet. A new study published in Ecology argues that this vast aerial expanse is an environment teeming with life.  

Trillions of organisms, from birds to bats to insects, occupy this space — living, migrating, foraging, eating and even sleeping while in flight. By volume, the lower atmosphere is five times larger than the oceans.

“The lower atmosphere is an enormous ecological stage, but, for decades, it has remained largely invisible to us,” said Kyle Horton, associate professor of forestry and natural resources at Purdue University and a co-author of the article.

The Purdue AeroEco Lab is working to change that perspective. Their goal: to characterize where, when and how animals use the sky as habitat.

Keep reading: https://ag.purdue.edu/news/2026/01/research-uses-radar-to-expose-skys-organized-living-habitat.html

Read the Ecology paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.70247