On the Design of a Youth-Led, Issue-Based, Crowdsourced Global Monitoring Framework for the SDGs

In this paper, we propose a novel methodology and design to contribute towards the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by member states of the United Nations for a better and more sustainable future for all. We particularly focus on achieving SDG 4.7—using education to ensure all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development. We describe the design of a crowdsourced approach to monitor issues at a local level, and then use the insights gained to indicate how learning can be achieved by the entire community. We begin by encouraging local communities to identify issues that they are concerned about, with an assumption that any issue identified will fall within the purview of the 17 SDGs. Each issue is then tagged with a plurality of actions taken to address it. Finally, we tag the positive or negative changes in the issue as perceived by members of the local community. This data is used to broadly indicate quantitative measures of community learning when solving a societal problem, in turn telling us how SDG 4.7 is being achieved. The paper describes the design of a unique, youth-led, technology-based, bottom-up approach, applicable to communities across the globe, which can potentially ensure transgressive learning through participation of and monitoring by the local community leading to sustainable developmen

Influence of physical and biological processes on the seasonal cycle of biogenic flux in the equatorial Indian Ocean

Seasonal cycle of biogenic fluxes obtained from sediment trap at two locations 5°24' N, 86°46' E (southern Bay of Bengal trap; SBBT) and 3°34' N, 77°46' E (equatorial Indian Ocean trap; EIOT) within the equatorial Indian Ocean (EIO) were examined to understand the factors that control them. The sediment trap data at SBBT was collected for ten years from November 1987 while that at EIOT was for a one year period from January 1996. The characteristic of biogenic flux at SBBT was the strong seasonality with peak flux in August, while lack of seasonality characterised the flux at EIOT. The high chlorophyll biomass at the SBBT during the summer monsoon was supported by a combination of processes such as wind-mixing and advection, both of which supplied new nitrogen to the upper ocean. In contrast, the elevated chlorophyll at EIOT during summer monsoon was supported only by wind mixing. High cell counts of phytoplankton (> 5 μm) at SBBT dominated by diatoms suggest the operation of classical food web and high carbon export. On the contrary, dominance of pico-phytoplankton and one-and-a-half time higher magnitude of micro-zooplankton biomass along with 2-fold lesser meso-zooplankton at EIOT indicated the importance of microbial loop. The substantial decrease in the carbon export at EIOT indicated faster remineralization of photosynthetically produced organic matter