Database Design and Optimization for Telemetric Aquatic Species-Tracking Systems

Tracking an individual species has always been a challenge for scientists, especially when one has to make sure to not change its natural movement pattern. When the number of individuals being tracked is increased and water is added to the equation, the task becomes next to impossible. But thanks to technologies and tracking methods like telemetry, the task of tracking any species without affecting the natural movement pattern has not only become a reality but easily accessible to scientists. Underwater acoustic telemetry has become a standard tool for fisheries biologist to study the movement pattern of the fish (Heupel). This project develops a minimalistic database designed to meet the needs of the telemetry systems. The database is optimized for storing a large number of datasets generated by the telemetry system and also for the most common queries run against the system

A census of fishes and everything they eat: how the Census of Marine Life advanced fisheries science

The Census of Marine Life was a 10-year, international research effort to explore poorly known ocean habitats and conduct large-scale experimentation with new technology. The goal of Census 2010 in its mission statement was to describe what did live in the oceans, what does live in the oceans, and what will live in the ocean. Many of the findings and techniques from census research may prove valuable in making a transition, which many governments have publicly endorsed, from single-species fisheries management to more holistic ecosystem management. Census researchers sampled continental margins, mid-Atlantic ridges, ocean floor vents and seeps, and abyssal plains and polar seas and organized massive amounts of past and new information in a public online database called the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (www.iobis.org). The census described and categorized seamount biology worldwide for its vulnerability to fishing, advanced large-scale animal tracking with acoustic arrays and satellite archival tags, and accelerated species identification, including nearshore, coral reef, and zooplankton sampling using genetic barcoding and pyrotag sequencing for microbes and helped to launch the exciting new field of marine environmental history. Above all, the census showed the value of investing in large-scale, collaborative projects and sharing results publicly

A large-scale automated radio telemetry network for monitoring movements of terrestrial wildlife in Australia

Technologies for remotely observing animal movements have advanced rapidly in the past decade. In recent years, Australia has invested in an Integrated Marine Ocean Tracking (IMOS) system, a land ecosystem observatory (TERN), and an Australian Acoustic Observatory (A2O), but has not established movement tracking systems for individual terrestrial animals across land and along coastlines. Here, we make the case that the Motus Wildlife Tracking System, an open-source, rapidly expanding cooperative automated radio-tracking global network (Motus, https://motus.org) provides an unprecedented opportunity to build an affordable and proven infrastructure that will boost wildlife biology research and connect Australian researchers domestically and with international wildlife research. We briefly describe the system conceptually and technologically, then present the unique strengths of Motus, how Motus can complement and expand existing and emerging animal tracking systems, and how the Motus framework provides a much-needed central repository and impetus for archiving and sharing animal telemetry data. We propose ways to overcome the unique challenges posed by Australia’s ecological attributes and the size of its scientific community. Open source, inherently cooperative and flexible, Motus provides a unique opportunity to leverage individual research effort into a larger collaborative achievement, thereby expanding the scale and scope of individual projects, while maximising the outcomes of scant research and conservation funding

Global trends in aquatic animal tracking with acoustic telemetry

Acoustic telemetry (AT) is a rapidly evolving technique used to track the movements of aquatic animals. As the capacity of AT research expands it is important to optimize its relevance to management while still pursuing key ecological questions. A global review of AT literature revealed region-specific research priorities underscoring the breadth of how AT is applied, but collectively demonstrated a lack of management-driven objectives, particularly relating to fisheries, climate change, and protection of species. In addition to the need for more research with direct pertinence to management, AT research should prioritize ongoing efforts to create collaborative opportunities, establish long-term and ecosystem-based monitoring, and utilize technological advancements to bolster aquatic policy and ecological understanding worldwide

Oceanus.

v. 34, no. 1 (1991

AtlantOS Deliverable 3.8: OceanSITES Networking Report

During the course of AtlantOS, our ability to provide biogeochemical (BGC) time series and Eulerian data which is of sufficient quality and quantity to approach basin-scale capacity has improved in a major way in some areas but has declined or not progressed in others. Indeed, the increased coordination achieved through AtlantOS has both increased our capacity to collectively further a basin-scale operation, and revealed new challenges in implementation. These outcomes are synthesised in this report to improve future planning for Eulerian capacities in BGC observation. Areas of significant progress 1. Development of capacity for emerging BGC variables 2. Establishment of a system for developing “Best practice” recording. 3. Transatlantic MOU with Canada 4. Data management and dissemination The ways to address the areas in which progress has not been made are conceptually simple but practically demanding. In all cases this needs to be carried out at the global scale and therefore under the auspices of OceanSITES. A coherent system which can provide data of sufficient quality and quantity to address societal needs cannot be achieved in isolation by any one Nation state or by Europe and must not be restricted by discipline. It will become self-evident that such an integrated approach will lead to a system which performs at a much higher level than the sum of its component parts. With continuous pressure from the European Commission, further and additional support from member states, continuing political and scientific dialogue with South Atlantic countries and strong management encouragement at all levels, the establishment of an effective eulerian observatory network is anticipated within the coming decade

Fish Behaviour in the Vicinity of a Navigation Lock Complex: the Challenges

Hydraulic structures such as navigation locks, pumping stations and hydropower plants play an important role in navigation, water management and sustainable energy production. However, these structures may severely impact the aquatic ecosystem and freshwater fish in particular. In Belgium, the Albert Canal connecting the river Meuse to the river Scheldt, is an important migration route for European eel (Anguilla anguilla, critically endangered) and Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, vulnerable). Both species have a downstream migrating phase in their lifecycle (respectively silver eels and salmon smolts), during which they are hampered by hydraulic structures. In the coming years, Archimedes screws are to be installed at the navigation lock complexes present in the Flemish part of the canal, which can function both as pumping stations and hydropower generators. A first installation is already present at the navigation lock complex of Kwaadmechelen. Before fish mitigation measures can be implemented, it is important to gain understanding on how the downstream migrating fish are affected by hydrodynamics around the complex. In this paper, we focus on the challenges in investigating fish behaviour, related to the acoustic telemetry used to determine fish positions, as well as on the complexity of a hydrodynamic CFD model for the studied site. Additionally, we present some preliminary results. In the next phase of the research, observed fine-scale behaviour of the fish in front of the navigation lock complex will be compared with predicted flow patterns by means of a CFD model

A State Observation Technique for Highly Compressed Source Coding of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Position

In this paper, a novel technique is presented for using state observers in conjunction with an entropy source encoder to enable highly compressed telemetry of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) position vectors. In this work, both the sending vehicle and receiving vehicle or human operator are equipped with a shared real-time simulation of the sender's state based on the prior transmitted positions. Thus, only the innovation between the sender's actual state and the shared state need be sent over the link, such as a very low throughput acoustic modem. The distribution of this innovation can be modeled a priori or assembled adaptively. This distribution is then paired with an arithmetic entropy encoder, producing a very low cost representation of the vehicle's position vector. This system was analyzed on experimental data from the GLINT10 and AGAVE07 expeditions involving two different classes of AUVs performing a diverse number of maneuvers, and implemented on a fielded vehicle in the MBAT12 experiment. Using an adaptive probability distribution in combination with either of two state observer models, greater than 90% compression, relative to a 32-b integer baseline, was achieved.United States. Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-08-1-0011)United States. Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-11-1-0097