AI for Earth System Science - Ocean & Cryosphere in Climate, Workshop

The Workshop within the Research Program "Changing Earth - Sustain our Future" focuses on Artificial Intelligence topics and projects within the Data Science sub-cluster in Subtopic 2.4. Common directions and posible collaborations are discussed in four thematic sessions: AI Classification, Explainable AI, AI for Parameterization, and AI Enablement

Individual variation in pup vocalizations and absence of behavioral signs of maternal vocal recognition in Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii)

Individually stereotyped vocalizations often play an important role in relocation of offspring in gregarious breeders. In phocids, mothers often alternate between foraging at sea and attending their pup. Pup calls are individually distinctive in various phocid species. However, experimental evidence for maternal recognition is rare. In this study, we recorded Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) pup vocalizations at two whelping patches in Atka Bay, Antarctica, and explored individual vocal variation based on eight vocal parameters. Overall, 58% of calls were correctly classified according to individual. For males (n = 12) and females (n = 9), respectively, nine and seven individuals were correctly identified based on vocal parameters. To investigate whether mothers respond differently to calls of familiar vs. unfamiliar pups, we conducted playback experiments with 21 mothers. Maternal responses did not differ between playbacks of own, familiar, and unfamiliar pup calls. We suggest that Weddell seal pup calls may need to contain only a critical amount of individually distinct information because mothers and pups use a combination of sensory modalities for identification. However, it cannot be excluded that pup developmental factors and differing environmental factors between colonies affect pup acoustic behavior and the role of acoustic cues in the relocation process

6th Data Science Symposium Abstracts

The Data Science Symposium at Haus der Wissenschaft on 8/9 November 2021 in Bremen was the 6th Symposium in this series since 2017

MOSAiC und weiter: Digitalisierung und nachhaltige Nutzung von Forschungsdaten in der Polarforschung

Die MOSAiC-Expedition war die größte Polarexpedition, die je durchgeführt wurde. Mehr als ein Jahr driftete das Forschungsschiff Polarstern durch den Arktischen Ozean und erhob dabei unzählige Forschungsdaten. Die Umsetzung stellte große logistische und technische Herausforderungen. Gleichzeitig setzte das Projekt Meilensteine in der Digitalisierung der MOSAiC-Daten. Das vorhandene Datenrepositorim PANGEA wurde als Datenbasis für die Abspeicherung der erhobenen und gewonnenen Daten genutzt. Das Datenmanagement hatte ein frühestmögliches Teilen der Daten zum Ziel. Außerdem stand von Anfang an das Datenmanagement als ein Teil von open science und einer frühen Datenzitierbarkeit. Ab 2023 sollen alle MOSAiC-Daten im Repositorium frei verfügbar sein. MOSAiC ist der bisher größte Anwendungsfall für das Projekt Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI)

Data from the MOSAiC Arctic Ocean drift experiment

The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) is a multinational interdisciplinary endeavor of a large earth system sciences community

UltraMassExplorer - a browser-based application for the evaluation of high-resolution mass spectrometric data

Rational: High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) with high sample throughput has become an important analytical tool for the analysis of highly complex samples and data processing has become a major challenge for the user community. Evaluating direct-infusion HRMS data without automated tools for batch processing can be a time consuming step in the analytical pipeline. Therefore, we developed a new browser-based software tool for processing HRMS data. Methods: The software named UltraMassExplorer (UME) was written in the R programming language using the shiny library to build the graphical user interface. The performance of the integrated formula library search algorithm was tested using HRMS data derived from analyses of up to 50 extracts of marine dissolved organic matter. Results: The software supports the processing of lists of calibrated masses of neutral, protonated, or deprotonated molecules, respectively, with masses of up to 700 Da and a mass accuracy < 3 ppm. In the performance test, the number of assigned peaks per second increased with number of submitted peaks and reached a maximum rate 4,745 assigned peaks per second. Conclusions: UME offers a complete data evaluation pipeline comprising a fast molecular formula assignment algorithm allowing for the swift reanalysis of complete datasets, advanced filter functions, and the export of data, metadata, and publication-quality graphics. Unique to UME is a fast and interactive connection between data and its visual representation. UME provides a new platform enabling an increased transparency, customization, documentation and comparability of datasets

MOSAiC und weiter: Digitalisierung und nachhaltige Nutzung von Forschungsdaten in der Polarforschung

Die MOSAiC-Expedition war die größte Polarexpedition, die je durchgeführt wurde. Mehr als ein Jahr driftete das Forschungsschiff Polarstern durch den Arktischen Ozean und erhob dabei unzählige Forschungsdaten. Die Umsetzung stellte große logistische und technische Herausforderungen. Gleichzeitig setzte das Projekt Meilensteine in der Digitalisierung der MOSAiC-Daten. Das vorhandene Datenrepositorim PANGEA wurde als Datenbasis für die Abspeicherung der erhobenen und gewonnenen Daten genutzt. Das Datenmanagement hatte ein frühestmögliches Teilen der Daten zum Ziel. Außerdem stand von Anfang an das Datenmanagement als ein Teil von open science und einer frühen Datenzitierbarkeit. Ab 2023 sollen alle MOSAiC-Daten im Repositorium frei verfügbar sein. MOSAiC ist der bisher größte Anwendungsfall für das Projekt Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI).The MOSAiC expedition was the largest polar expedition ever conducted. For more than a year, the research vessel Polarstern drifted through the Arctic Ocean collecting countless research data. The implementation posed major logistical and technical challenges. At the same time, the project set milestones in the digitization of MOSAiC data. The existing data repositoryim PANGEA was used as a database for storing the collected and acquired data. Data management aimed at sharing the data as early as possible. In addition, from the beginning, data management stood as a part of open science and early data citability. Starting in 2023, all MOSAiC data should be freely available in the repository. MOSAiC is the largest use case to date for the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) project

Gene expression profiling in gills of the great spider crab Hyas araneus in response to ocean acidification and warming

Background: Hypercapnia and elevated temperatures resulting from climate change may have adverse consequences for many marine organisms. While diverse physiological and ecological effects have been identified, changes in those molecular mechanisms, which shape the physiological phenotype of a species and limit its capacity to compensate, remain poorly understood. Here, we use global gene expression profiling through RNA-Sequencing to study the transcriptional responses to ocean acidification and warming in gills of the boreal spider crab Hyas araneus exposed medium-term (10 weeks) to intermediate (1,120 μatm) and high (1,960 μatm) PCO2 at different temperatures (5°C and 10°C). Results: The analyses reveal shifts in steady state gene expression from control to intermediate and from intermediate to high CO2 exposures. At 5°C acid–base, energy metabolism and stress response related genes were upregulated at intermediate PCO2, whereas high PCO2 induced a relative reduction in expression to levels closer to controls. A similar pattern was found at elevated temperature (10°C). There was a strong coordination between acid–base, metabolic and stress-related processes. Hemolymph parameters at intermediate PCO2 indicate enhanced capacity in acid–base compensation potentially supported by upregulation of a V-ATPase. The likely enhanced energy demand might be met by the upregulation of the electron transport system (ETS), but may lead to increased oxidative stress reflected in upregulated antioxidant defense transcripts. These mechanisms were attenuated by high PCO2, possibly as a result of limited acid–base compensation and metabolic down-regulation. Conclusion: Our findings indicate a PCO2 dependent threshold beyond which compensation by acclimation fails progressively. They also indicate a limited ability of this stenoecious crustacean to compensate for the effects of ocean acidification with and without concomitant warming

ULTRAMASSEXPLORER: A BROWSER-BASED APPLICATION FOR THE EVALUATION OF HIGH RESOLUTION MASS SPECTROMETRIC DATA

In the evaluation of high-resolution mass spectrometric data a considerable amount of time and computational power can be spent on matching molecular formulas to the neutral mass of measured ions. During the evaluation of multiple samples using the classical combinatory approach based on molecular building blocks and nested loops, the time consuming step of calculating the molecular mass may be repeated for the same molecular formula multiple times. To avoid repetitive calculations, we implemented a formula library based search approach into our data evaluation pipeline. In our approach, the step of calculating molecular formulas and corresponding masses is limited to the process of building a library. The library calculation requires an a priori definition of the maximum molecular mass and the isotopes contained, e.g. formulas in the mass range of ≤ 650 Da consisting of 12C, 1H, 14N, 16O, 31P, 32S, 13C, and 34S. The subsequent matching process is based on scrolling through a mass-sorted formula library and comparison with a mass-sorted list of measured peaks. The time required for processing is primarily a function of the size of the formula library. Consequently, at constant library size, the matching algorithm becomes more efficient with increasing number of supplied peaks (up to 4700 formula assignments s-1 on a standard workstation) and is thus particularly suited for processing large datasets. We implemented the matching algorithm into our R Shiny based interactive, evaluation software UltraMassExplorer (UME). In combination with the graphical user interface of UME, our algorithm provides the basis for fast and reproducible (re-)analysis of complete sample sets with currently up to 400,000 peaks in a user friendly, integrated environment. The code of our open-source algorithm is available through the UME website [1]. References [1] www.awi.de/en/um

Newsletter of the Digital Earth Project Contributions of the Alfred Wegener Institute to Digital Earth

As an important technical pillar of Digital Earth AWI computing centre provides data management and cloud processing services to the project partners. We develop project specific extensions to the AWI data flow framework O2A (Observation to Archive). Sensor registration in O2A will support a flexible handling of sensors and their metadata, e.g. for the Digital Earth showcases, methane and soil moisture measurements are in focus for smart monitoring designs and for the access to data in near real time (NRT). Furthermore, data exploration is supported by a rasterdata manager service that can be easily coupled in user ́s data workflows with other data sources, like NRT sensor data. In the following we give more details on O2A, its components and concept