ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS REVOLUTIONISING MARINE MONITORING

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS REVOLUTIONISING MARINE MONITORING

"What an exciting time to be a marine scientist! Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the way we monitor coastal seas."

Poor water quality and trawling take toll on seagrass

Poor water quality and trawling take toll on seagrass

“With fisheries for example, seagrasses provide nursery habitat for juvenile fish and foraging grounds for about 25% of the world’s biggest fisheries. "We identified associations between pressures and measured changes in seagrass extent and found that seagrasses are especially under threat from poor water quality and destructive fisheries like trawling."

The outlook for coral reefs remains grim unless we cut emissions fast — new research

The outlook for coral reefs remains grim unless we cut emissions fast — new research

"Our research, published today, paints a grim picture. We estimate that even under the most optimistic emissions scenarios, we’ll see dramatic reductions in coral reef growth globally. The good news is that 63% of all reefs in this emissions scenario will still be able to grow by 2100."

When good animals like bad habitats: ecological traps in the marine environment

When good animals like bad habitats: ecological traps in the marine environment

"By altering the environment, are humans tricking animals into making poor life choices?"

IS THE SEAGRASS GETTING ENOUGH LIGHT? ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN TELL US

IS THE SEAGRASS GETTING ENOUGH LIGHT? ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN TELL US

"Seagrasses are flowering plants that live submerged in salty water and perform vital ecosystem services that help us and the food-webs that rely on them. For example, seagrasses capture and store more atmospheric carbon (per unit area) than many terrestrial plants, they act as nursery areas for important fishery species, and provide coastal protection against things like erosion and storm surges," Dr Ryan Pearson.

How will heatwaves and coral loss affect reef fisheries?

How will heatwaves and coral loss affect reef fisheries?

"There has been a lot of focus on the challenge of managing overfishing with the controversial new documentary Seaspiracy on Netflix. But the overfishing issue isn’t as simple as the picture that documentary paints," Dr Chris Brown.

Deep Learning For Ecological Monitoring: Performance In Novel Habitats And Benefits Of varied Training Data

Deep Learning For Ecological Monitoring: Performance In Novel Habitats And Benefits Of varied Training Data

By PhD candidate Ellen Ditria, Reading Time: 452 words, about 2 minutes. Fish IDing Sample. Photo: Global Wetlands Project. Deep learning has fast become recognised as a powerful data processing tool for ecologists faced with vast amounts of image-based data. The ability of deep learning to accurately detect target species in videos and images unlocks [...]

How can computer vision supercharge fish connectivity research?

How can computer vision supercharge fish connectivity research?

By Sebastian Lopez-Marcano  Read Time: 344 words, about 3 minutes. Studying animal movement is crucial. Animal movement research is conducted to monitor ecosystem health, understand ecological dynamics and address management and conservation questions. In marine environments, there are different methods to measure fish movement. From nets, tags and statistical modelling, the use of different techniques [...]

Bring living waters back to our planet

Bring living waters back to our planet

Rivers, lakes, and wetlands support extraordinary diversity. Such bodies of water host more species per square kilometre than forests or oceans. Yet they are losing this biodiversity two to three times faster than forests and oceans. Populations of freshwater animals, including river dolphins, sturgeon, beavers, crocodiles, and giant turtles, have already plummeted by 88%.

Data science: The new language of ecologists

Data science: The new language of ecologists

By PhD candidate Sebastian Lopez-Marcano  Read Time: 416 words about 3 minutes. Data creates magic. In ecology, data is necessary to make targeted management decisions. New tools (i.e. deep learning / computer vision) are allowing data to be processed at vast rates which is making data more accessible and useful. However, converting raw data into meaningful insights for ecological research can be challenging.  Data nodes. Photo: Akamai. Through the years, ecologists have become familiar [...]