The role of large pre-trained models in ecology and biodiversity conservation: Opportunities and Challenges

Large pre-trained models (LPMs) have the capabilities to understand natural language, code, and diverse data including images; e.g., large language models (LLMs), code-generative models, and large vision models (LVMs) as well as combined as multi-modal models. We outlines the main applications of LPMs and multi-modal LPMs for ecology and biodiversity conservation. These applications include generating ecological data, generating code, providing insights into public opinion and sentiment. We highlighted the significant potential of LPMs and the potential use of Ecology-specialized LPMs for ecology and biodiversity conservation. They offer unprecedented opportunities for analyzing diverse data, extracting meaningful insights, and informing conservation decisions.