VERTEBRATE SPECIES PERCEIVE AND RESPOND TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS IN A SCALE-DEPENDENT MANNER WHERE RESPONSES TO LAND COVER AND TOPOGRAPHIC VARIABLES ARE TYPICALLY STRONGER AT FINE SPATIAL GRAINS AND CLIMATE VARIABLES ARE MORE IMPORTANT AT COARSE GRAINS. DESPITE THIS WELL-ESTABLISHED SCALE DEPENDENCE MOST RESEARCH INTENDED TO PREDICT SPECIES' SPATIAL DISTRIBUTIONS DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO MEASURE BIOLOGICALLY MEANINGFUL SPATIAL GRAINS OR INCORPORATE OCCURRENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DATA FROM MULTIPLE GRAINS IN THE WAY SPECIES LIKELY INTEGRATE ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION. HERE I PROPOSE A RESEARCH PROGRAM THAT ADDRESSES THIS GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE AND MEETS THE RESEARCH GOALS "IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF BIODIVERSITY" AND "IMPROVE PREDICTIVE CAPACITY" FORMULATED BY NASA'S EARTH SCIENCE RESEARCH PROGRAM (ESRP). SPECIFICALLY I PROPOSE TO USE MOVEMENT DATA TO EMPIRICALLY MEASURE THE CHARACTERISTIC GRAINS AT WHICH SELECT EAST AFRICAN BIRD SPECIES RESPOND TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS. ONCE BIOLOGICALLY RELEVANT GRAINS ARE IDENTIFIED I WILL LEVERAGE THE UNIQUE CAPABILITY OF NASA'S EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM (EOS) TO INDEPENDENTLY MEASURE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS AT THE PROPOSED STUDY SITE (MPALA RESEARCH CENTRE IN LAIKIPIA KENYA) AT MANY SPATIAL RESOLUTIONS. I WILL COMPILE RAW TRANSFORMED RESAMPLED AND CLASSIFIED SPECTRAL DATA; COMBINATIONS OF DIRECT-REMOTE VEGETATION MEASUREMENTS; AND TOPOGRAPHIC DATA TO CONSTRUCT A COMPREHENSIVE LIBRARY OF ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES LIKELY TO INFLUENCE SPECIES OCCURRENCE ALONG A CONTINUUM OF SPATIAL GRAINS. THESE OCCURRENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DATA WILL BE USED AS INPUTS TO SPATIALLY HIERARCHICAL BAYESIAN SPECIES DISTRIBUTION MODELS THAT PREDICT SPECIES OCCURRENCE INTEGRATED ACROSS COMPONENT SPATIAL GRAINS. THIS RESEARCH WILL YIELD A REPLICABLE RIGOROUSLY EVALUATED MODELING FRAMEWORK THAT WILL INCREASE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROCESSES SHAPING SPECIES' GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTIONS AND IMPROVE OUR PREDICTIVE ACCURACY OVER LOCAL AND REGIONAL SPATIAL EXTENTS THUS MEETING FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH PRIORITIES TO BETTER UNDERSTAND EARTH SYSTEMS.