Continuing with the Networking Fridays series, on June 26th, 1-3 PM UTC we had our first 2-hour long Thematic Special Session, which take place every last Friday of the month. This first session focused on Sensors and we had a fantastic group of speakers: Matthew Mowlem (NOC, UK), Frank Muller-Karger (USF / GEO MBON, USA), Eric Delory (PLOCAN, Spain) and Marcelo Pias (FURG, Brazil). The moderator was Elisa Ravagnan (NORCE, Norway). In this session we had 254 registrants from 16 countries (being 103 of these registrants completely new to our contact list), 163 unique viewers (plus 32 on YouTube) and 147 peak concurrent users.

The oceans cover over 70% of our planet, directly contribute $2.5 Trillion/yr in economic benefit, equivalent to the world’s 7th largest economy and provide $25 Trillion in ecosystem services. Whilst 90% of their value depends on healthy ecosystems, 30-35% of critical marine habitats are overused or have been destroyed, ocean acidity is up 26%, and oxygen is depleting in key areas. The international community is coordinating its response to these urgent challenges through the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the Tsukuba Communiqué and the recommendations of the G7 expert workshop on future of the oceans and seas. Noting that 1) satellite observations provide unparalleled broad scale views of the ocean, but only see the surface, and 2) that research vessels are essential for process studies and benchmarking, but survey too infrequently and sparsely to address many observation needs, the G7 expert workshop recommended sensor innovation particularly for biogeochemical and biological processes “from the range of available observing platforms and systems”. Both scientists and other stakeholders (offshore engineering, fisheries and aquaculture industries) currently rely on carbon and cost intensive methods (e.g. manual sampling of decommissioned energy and operational aquaculture installations), while key variables to monitor ocean health remain critically under-sampled. Remote, in situ measurement systems can reduce the need, or potentially obviate these traditional methods, vastly improving data spatial and temporal resolution and filling capability gaps. This thematic special session will explore some of the technologies emerging to fill these gaps, particularly sensor technologies for autonomous / unattended deployment.

Agenda:

• 1:00 PM UTC – Welcome address and introductions, Elisa Ravagnan
• 1:10 PM UTC – Sensors and instrumentation for biogeochemical, biological and ecosystem variables, Matthew Mowlem
• 1:30 PM UTC – Linking Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) to Understand Life in the Sea, Frank Muller-Karger
• 1:50 PM UTC – Supporting EOVs and FAIRness with smarter sensors, Eric Delory
• 2:10 PM UTC – Towards low-cost AI-based sensor systems, Marcelo Pias
• 2:30 PM UTC – Q&A Session
• 2:55 PM UTC – Closing remarks, Elisa Ravagnan

Survey on users needs and perspectives on sensor development

The development of sensors for scientific purposes has grown exponentially in the last decade, and is still a very active area with a great expansion potential. The survey had the aim to map the needs and requirements in environmental monitoring and observations, creating a community of like-minded people, as a forum for discussion and collaboration. It is important that developer and users exchange their views, their needs, current gaps and their ideas for future sensor developments, to foster a comprehensive and rapid growth in the area of environmental monitoring and observations, hopefully creating a working group that includes users and sensor developers. The results of the survey will be soon available here.

Speakers

Matthew Mowlem

Sensors and instrumentation for biogeochemical, biological and ecosystem variables

The oceans cover over 70% of our planet, directly contribute $2.5Trillion/yr in economic benefit, equivalent to the world’s 7th largest economy and provide $25Trillion in ecosystem services. Whilst 90% of their value depends on healthy ecosystems, 30-35% of critical marine habitats are overused or have been destroyed, ocean acidity is up 26%, and oxygen is depleting in key areas. The international community is coordinating its response to these urgent challenges through the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the Tsukuba Communiqué and the recommendations of the G7 expert workshop on future of the oceans and seas. Noting that 1) satellite observations provide unparalleled broad scale views of the ocean, but only see the surface, and 2) that research vessels are essential for process studies and benchmarking, but survey too infrequently and sparsely to address many observation needs, the G7 expert workshop recommended sensor innovation particularly for biogeochemical and biological processes “from the range of available observing platforms and systems”. Both scientists and other stakeholders (offshore engineering, fisheries and aquaculture industries) currently rely on carbon and cost intensive methods (e.g. manual sampling of decommissioned energy and operational aquaculture installations), while key variables to monitor ocean health remain critically under-sampled. Remote, in situ measurement systems can reduce the need, or potentially obviate these traditional methods, vastly improving data spatial and temporal resolution and filling capability gaps. The presentation will explore some of the technologies emerging to fill these gaps, particularly sensor technologies for autonomous / unattended deployment.

Matthew Mowlem is the Head of OTE – Ocean Technology and Engineering Group at NOC – National Oceanography Centre, and the lead of the sensor development theme. He has 21 years of experience in analytical system and sensor development and management of large national and international research programmes. He has published 90 Peer reviewed journal articles, holds 5 granted patents and is actively commercialising his outputs. He leads in situ (submersible and autonomous) low-cost sensor systems research for difficult to measure environmental parameters including ocean carbonate parameters, nutrient concentration, harmful algal species and pathogens using lab on chip technology. This research has delivered operational nutrient and pH sensors that deliver data for science in a variety of environments including glacial melt streams, in estuaries, deep sea observatories and on-board autonomous underwater gliders. He works extensively with industry including development of monitoring technologies for offshore energy and carbon capture and storage industries. He is the coordinator of TechOceanS: a new European Commission Horizons 2020 project that will develop new sensors and observing systems for biogeochemical, biological and ecosystem variables. He was the technical lead and co-author of the H2020 Strategies for Environmental Monitoring of Marine Carbon Capture and Storage (STEMM-CCS) project and SenseOCEAN (FP7) projects developing sensors for ocean science and industry including offshore carbon capture and storage. More relevant links related with Matthew’s work: Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) Programme and Oceanids Programme.

Frank Muller-Karger

Linking Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) to Understand Life in the Sea

The status and trends of species population distribution, abundance, and production in coastal and ocean waters are required to inform policy and management in the context of growing human uses of marine resources, coastal development, and climate change. They are fundamental to develop coastal economies, to create and sustain jobs, and to conserve resources. Over the past decade, two synergistic efforts have identified priority variables to support the developing Blue Economy. The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) is implementing Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs). The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) is implementing the Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs). Such efforts are important because they help guide efforts to increase the density and frequency of observations around the world.

The EOVs and EBVs incorporate observations from traditional and molecular taxonomy (such as eDNA), animal tagging and tracking efforts, passive and active sounds, ocean biogeochemistry, and ocean observatory initiatives that use in situ to satellite remote sensing tools. The scope spans terrestrial floodplain to ocean interior habitats, from the surface to the bottom of the deep ocean. The Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON), a thematic component of GEO BON, is collaborating with the GOOS, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR) project, the OceanObs Research Coordination Network (OceanObs RCN), and others, to ensure that EBVs and EOVs are complementary, representing alternative uses of a common set of scientific measurements. This open community of technical experts helps international coordination on best practices for observing, data management and services, combined with capacity development.

Frank Muller-Karger is a biological oceanographer who conducts research on the diversity of life in the sea, factors that drive diversity and production, and the relevance to people. He combines traditional oceanographic methods and satellite remote sensing to study patterns of variation of phytoplankton and of coastal wetlands. Frank looks for partnerships that seek to integrate biological observations into existing and planned ocean observing systems, in a way that all disciplines benefit and to provide solutions to social and economic problems. Frank is co-chair of the GEO Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO MBON) of GEO BON, is involved in the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission’s (IOC) Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) Bio-Eco panel, the IOC’s Ocean Best Practices Steering Committee, and leads the OceanObs Research Coordination Network (RCN). He holds B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in marine science and a Master in management. He has authored or co-authored over 250 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Eric Delory

Supporting EOVs and FAIRness with smarter sensors

The presentation will highlight recent developments in sensor technologies designed to increase the potential of sensors to measure more variables and be used on multiple platforms, from surface to the deep ocean. The approach is meant to be end-to-end for improved data traceability. These new technologies still need to increase in technology readiness, which advocates the need to encourage these new developments, including the use of research infrastructures for their validation in multiple situations.

Eric Delory has worked for twenty-five years in research and development, from signal processing, to instrumentation and machine learning, in domains ranging from biomedical applications to acoustic monitoring of the environment. He joined PLOCAN – Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands in 2010 as head of the observatory. He was the coordinator of NeXOS, a European collaborative project developing compact cost-effective sensors for the monitoring of ocean variables from autonomous platforms. He is involved in several European research infrastructure integration and standardisation activities (EMSO ERIC, JERICO, GROOM), including fixed and mobile ocean observing platforms, to observe the ocean but also test and validate new sensor technologies. He is associate editor for the IEEE Oceanic Engineering journal and Frontiers in Marine Science. He has recently co-edited the book “Challenges and Innovations in Ocean In-Situ Sensors” (Elsevier, 2018).

Marcelo Pias

Towards low-cost AI-based sensor systems

Recently forward-looking proposals bring new insights into eco-friendly value chains for fishery and aquaculture. In this context, user-centric technology such as traditional sensors coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) plays a part in developing greener yet efficient practices. This short talk briefly explores the application’s needs for low-cost intelligent IoT sensors to facilitate first-hand monitoring of fishery and aquaculture sites. We advocate that low-cost vision-based sensor embedded with AI Deep Learning models can be built to detect tiny particles in the water environment. AI algorithms alone are, however, unlikely to offer the “silver bullet solution” as recently publicised in the general press. Significant system design challenges should be overcome before real-time intelligent micro-sensing reaches an acceptable technology maturity. This talk will cover a few of such design issues, and particularly, attention will be turned to the (i) camera resolution and particle size detection, (ii) high-quality imagery data and (iii) the trade-off between cost, accuracy and power constraints of sensor systems.

Marcelo Pias graduated in Computer Engineering from FURG (1999) and obtained a PhD in Computer Science from University College London (UCL) (2004). He has been working in the field of sensor systems since then. In his postdoc at INTEL Research Labs Cambridge (2004-2005) helped with the design of the INTEL iMote2 wireless sensor network. He worked as a senior researcher at the Computer Laboratory, Cambridge University (2005-2011) leading a small research team involved in EC-funded projects including the WiSeNTs project, which delivered to the Commission a long-term research roadmap for wireless sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT). He was involved in the spin-out of two technology startups in the U.K. and Brazil and has recently returned to academia as an Assistant Professor at FURG (Brazil). He published several peer-reviewed articles and two books on the topic of wireless sensor networks and IoT. Marcelo is a university ambassador for the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (San Jose, California).

Moderator

Elisa Ravagnan

Elisa Ravagnan is a senior environmental scientist with more than 20 years of experience in environmental modelling and statistics, inter- and cross-disciplinary approaches to environmental challenges. She has been leading and participating in many national and international projects and industry financed projects in aquaculture and marine sciences. Recent and current projects include: holistic assessment of aquaculture sustainability, development of supporting tools for marine spatial planning (lead, RCN funded AquaAccept), modelling environmental and socio-economic effects of climate changes and man-made pollution on aquaculture (lead, CliCAS, RFF), multivariate assessment and spatial modelling in INFRAIA- JERICO-NEXT, task leading on data management as well as engaging with stakeholders in H2020-BG-04 (i-FishIENCi, Aquaculture 4.0), aquaculture footprint analysis in ERA-Net COFASP ECOAST. She is co-leading the Nordic Centre of Excellence for Blue Bioeconomy SUREAQUA (funded by NordForsk) and she is a member of the Rogaland County reference group (Norway) for the Aquaculture Regional Plan. She is the coordinator of the recently awarded H2020 BG-08-2019 project ASTRAL: All Atlantic Ocean Sustainable, ProfiTable and Resilient AquacuLture.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our very great appreciation to Patricia López-García, Sensor Science Delivery Lead at NOC, for her valuable ideas and constructive suggestions on the design, planning and delivery of this session. Her willingness to give her time so generously has been very, very much appreciated.

We would also like to express our deep gratitude to Elisa Ravagnan, for her continuous patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques.

We will continue with the Networking Fridays during the next months. More information about future sessions as well as presentations and videos from previous sessions can be found here. Twitter Hashtag: #netfridays. Expect some very exciting afternoons, or mornings or evenings, depending on where you are…

If you need any additional information please send an email to Jose Luiz Moutinho.