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Often working at home, she has pored over satellite data to spot decreases in vegetation greenness during drought, a telltale sign of die-off caused by declining aquifer levels.

Changes in the greenness of vegetation indicated changes in land use and oasis health, the latter of which can be influenced by both human activity and climate change.

What helped the Rigden team make the connection between the drought and climate change was a multi-year satellite record of vegetation greenness which shows shifts in southern Madagascar that indicate changes in water availability.

The research team cross-referenced this data with historical temperature data, as well as tree cover and overall greenness levels derived from satellite images.

Interestingly, these associations were only found for actively visiting nature, but not for the amount of greenness around people's homes.