The Hierarchic treatment of marine ecological information from spatial networks of benthic platforms

Measuring biodiversity simultaneously in different locations, at different temporal scales, and over wide spatial scales is of strategic importance for the improvement of our understanding of the functioning of marine ecosystems and for the conservation of their biodiversity. Monitoring networks of cabled observatories, along with other docked autonomous systems (e.g., Remotely Operated Vehicles [ROVs], Autonomous Underwater Vehicles [AUVs], and crawlers), are being conceived and established at a spatial scale capable of tracking energy fluxes across benthic and pelagic compartments, as well as across geographic ecotones. At the same time, optoacoustic imaging is sustaining an unprecedented expansion in marine ecological monitoring, enabling the acquisition of new biological and environmental data at an appropriate spatiotemporal scale. At this stage, one of the main problems for an effective application of these technologies is the processing, storage, and treatment of the acquired complex ecological information. Here, we provide a conceptual overview on the technological developments in the multiparametric generation, storage, and automated hierarchic treatment of biological and environmental information required to capture the spatiotemporal complexity of a marine ecosystem. In doing so, we present a pipeline of ecological data acquisition and processing in different steps and prone to automation. We also give an example of population biomass, community richness and biodiversity data computation (as indicators for ecosystem functionality) with an Internet Operated Vehicle (a mobile crawler). Finally, we discuss the software requirements for that automated data processing at the level of cyber-infrastructures with sensor calibration and control, data banking, and ingestion into large data portals.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Governance in the age of social machines: the web observatory

The World Wide Web has provided unprecedented access to information; as humans and machines increasingly interact with it they provide more and more data. The challenge is how to analyse and interpret this data within the context that it was created, and to present it in a way that both researchers and practitioners can more easily make sense of. The first step is to have access to open and interoperable data sets, which Governments around the world are increasingly subscribing to. But having ‘open’ data is just the beginning and does not necessarily lead to better decision making or policy development. This is because data do not provide the answers – they need to be analysed, interpreted and understood within the context of their creation, and the business imperative of the organisation using them. The major corporate entities, such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook, have the capabilities to do this, but are driven by their own commercial imperatives, and their data are largely siloed and held within ‘walled gardens’ of information. All too often governments and non-profit groups lack these capabilities, and are driven by very different mandates. In addition they have far more complex community relationships, and must abide by regulatory constraints which dictate how they can use the data they hold. As such they struggle to maximise the value of this emerging ‘digital currency’ and are therefore largely beholden to commercial vendors. What has emerged is a public-private data ecosystem that has huge policy implications (including the twin challenges of privacy and security). Many within the public sector lack the skills to address these challenges because they lack the literacy required within the digital context. This project seeks to address some of these problems by bringing together a safe and secure Australian-based data platform (facilitating the sharing of data, analytics and visualisation) with policy analysis and governance expertise in order to create a collaborative working model of a ‘Government Web Observatory’. This neutral space, hosted by an Australian university, can serve as a powerful complement to existing Open Data initiatives in Australia, and enable research and education to combine to support the development of a more digitally literate public service. The project aims to explore where, and in which contexts, people, things, data and the Internet meet and result in evolving observable phenomena which can inform better government policy development and service delivery.&nbsp

European Multidisciplinary and Water-Column Observatory - European Research Infrastructure Consortium (EMSO ERIC): challenges and opportunities for strategic European marine sciences

EMSO (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory, www.emso-eu.org) is a large‐scale European Research Infrastructure I. It is a distributed infrastructure of strategically placed, deep‐sea seafloor and water column observatory nodes with the essential scientific objective of real‐time, longterm observation of environmental processes related to the interaction between the geosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere. The geographic locations of the EMSO observatory nodes represent key sites in European waters, from the Arctic, through the Atlantic and Mediterranean, to the Black Sea (Figure 1), as defined through previous studies performed in FP6 and FP7 EC projects such as ESONET‐CA, ESONET‐NoE, EMSO-PP (Person et al., 2015)Peer Reviewe

Geomagnetism : review 2010

The Geomagnetism team measures, records, models and interprets variations in the Earth’s natural magnetic fields, across the world and over time. Our data and expertise help to develop scientific understanding of the evolution of the solid Earth and it’s atmospheric, oceanic and space environments. We also provide geomagnetic products and services to industry and academics and we use our knowledge to inform and educate the public, government and the private sector

European Multidisciplinary and Water-Column Observatory - European Research Infrastructure Consortium (EMSO ERIC): Challenges and opportunities for Strategic European Marine Sciences

EMSO (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory, www.emso-eu.org) is a large-scale European Research Infrastructure I. It is a distributed infrastructure of strategically placed, deep-sea seafloor and water column observatory nodes with the essential scientific objective of real-time, long-term observation of environmental processes related to the interaction between the geosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere. The geographic locations of the EMSO observatory nodes represent key sites in European waters, from the Arctic, through the Atlantic and Mediterranean, to the Black Sea (Figure 1), as defined through previous studies performed in FP6 and FP7 EC projects such as ESONET-CA, ESONET-NoE, EMSO-PP (Person et al., 2015).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Development of an observatory for spatial planning in South Africa: A best practice review

The National Development Plan (NDP) of South Africa describes a 2030 vision for the country. The NDP proposes an observatory as one of the measures to develop capabilities for effective spatial decision-making and implementation. This article presents results of a review of observatories with the aim to unpack the details for setting up the proposed observatory. A review of mainly South African observatories was conducted in order to clarify the focus of the observatory (i.e. its purpose and main operations) and how it should be set up (i.e. stakeholders to be involved and hosting options). The review draws on interviews, questionnaires and a workshop with stakeholders, experts and key players. A review of relevant scientific literature and observatory websites was also done. Results underline the importance of drawing on existing data collection, integration and analysis initiatives, as well as the coordinating role such an observatory will have to play