5,637 research outputs found
Detecting Mediterranean White Sharks with Environmental DNA
The white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is a globally distributed, ecologically important top predator whose biology and population dynamics are challenging to study. Basic biological parameters remain virtually unknown in the Mediterranean Sea due to its historically low population density, dwindling population size, and lack of substantial sightings. White sharks are considered Critically Endangered in the Mediterranean Sea, and recent analyses suggest that the population has declined by 52% to 96% from historical levels in different Mediterranean sectors (Moro et al., 2020). Thus, white shark sightings dating back to 1860 are being used to estimate population trajectories throughout the entire region. Though the population size is unknown, remaining individuals are thought to be primarily restricted to a handful of hotspots deemed important for their reproduction and foraging. One of these hypothesized hotspots is the Sicilian Channel, which accounts for 19% of total historical sightings
Modeling aquaculture suitability in a climate change future
Aquaculture has become the primary supplier of fish for
human consumption, with production increasing every
year since 1990 (FAO, 2020). At the same time, up to
89% of the world’s capture fisheries are fully exploited,
overexploited, or collapsed. While some fisheries may
have increased yields due to climate change in the short
term, global fisheries catch is projected to fall by 10% by
2050 (Barange et al., 2014; Ramos Martins et al., 2021).
However, the security of aquaculture production will
depend on how future climate change affects productive
regions as species’ optimal climatic conditions shift poleward (Chaudhary et al., 2021). This makes the forecasting
of climate impacts on key aquaculture species a top priority in order to facilitate adaptation of this industry.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Tide Gauges: From single hazard to multi-hazard warning systems
As the name suggests, tide gauges were originally devised for the singular purpose of monitoring tidal fluctuations in sea level in order to aid safe navigation and port operations. Early tide gauges, such as that used by the famous dockmaster William Hutchinson at Liverpool in the late eighteenth century, consisted of little more than graduated markers on sea walls or posts, against which the sea surface could be measured by eye (Figure 1). These were used to record and then forecast the times and heights of high and low water each day; printed in local tide tables, they provided rudimentary information on variations in the tide
Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained observatory monitors the atmosphere to the seafloor on multidecadal timescales
Through international collaborations and advances in technology, ocean observatories are increasingly capable of monitoring over long time periods. The Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory (PAP–SO), located at 4,850 m depth in the Northeast Atlantic, is one of a small number of oceanic sites that has achieved monitoring to full ocean depths over several decades. It has monitored seafloor ecology since 1985, water column particle flux since 1992, and surface ocean and atmosphere parameters since 2003. The observatory is serviced annually, providing the opportunity to carry out conventional ship-based observations, sensor comparison, and sampling
Probabilistic approaches to coastal risk decision-making under future sea level projections
Coastal communities are increasingly threatened by
flooding from climate change-induced sea level rise and
potential increases in storminess. Informed decisions on
risk and resilience related to flood risk need to be made,
but the assessment process is complex. It is difficult to
bring all of the climate science and sea level rise projections to decision-making, and as a result, decisions are
made without a real understanding of the uncertainties
involved, a problem magnified the further projections go
into the future (Figure 1)
The Global Ocean Observing System: One perspective
This document presents a possible organization for a Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) within the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the joint ocean programs with the World Meteorological Organization. The document and the organization presented here is not intended to be definitive, complete or the best possible organization for such an observation program. It is presented at this time to demonstrate three points. The first point to be made is that an international program office for GOOS along the lines of the WOCE and TOGA IPOs is essential. The second point is that national programs will have to continue to collect data at the scale of WOCE plus TOGA and more. The third point is that there are many existing groups and committees within the IOC and joint IOC/WMO ocean programs that can contribute essential experience to and form part of the basis of a Global Ocean Observing System. It is particularly important to learn from what has worked and what has not worked in the past if a successful ocean observing system is to result
Applying OGC sensor web enablement to ocean observing systems
The complexity of marine installations
for ocean observing systems has grown significantly in
recent years. In a network consisting of tens, hundreds
or thousands of marine instruments, manual
configuration and integration becomes very
challenging. Simplifying the integration process in
existing or newly established observing systems would
benefit system operators and is important for the
broader application of different sensors. This article
presents an approach for the automatic configuration
and integration of sensors into an interoperable
Sensor Web infrastructure. First, the sensor
communication model, based on OGC's SensorML
standard, is utilized. It serves as a generic driver
mechanism since it enables the declarative and
detailed description of a sensor's protocol. Finally, we
present a data acquisition architecture based on the
OGC PUCK protocol that enables storage and
retrieval of the SensorML document from the sensor
itself, and automatic integration of sensors into an
interoperable Sensor Web infrastructure. Our
approach adopts Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) as
alternative serialization form of XML or JSON. It
solves the bandwidth problem of XML and JSON.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
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