Wildlife Monitoring System with Real-Time Phytoplankton Hotspots
Introduction to the “Wildlife Tracker for Oceans” v0.2
The “Wildlife Tracker for Oceans” is a geo-framework that is under development at GIS4 wildlife movement analytics and it will be implemented in marine conservation projects during April 2022. The framework is able to retrieve wildlife tracking datasets in a near real-time approach thanks to live feeds from Argos Satellite. The movements of wildlife can be displayed as animation and it can include historical datasets straightforward from the database which have unlimited storage (for free thanks to Movebank). Also, it has a connection to Copernicus marine service and can retrieve datasets of Ocean biogeochemistry and physical variables. The aim is to offer to marine scientists a tool that supports the conservation of marine wildlife, the assessment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and the movement analysis of tracks (thanks to Movingpandas in the backend)
GIS4 wildlife movement analytics offer personal and customized platforms. Users can include their own analytical algorithms and their own complementary datasets such as special locations or limits. What makes special to the “Wildlife Tracker for Oceans” product is that it has an alarm system that can alert users about threats to marine wildlife to their personal mobile phones. Additionally, the framework can be embedded as a web map and can display real-time movements during the wildlife tracking period.
Check this online web map product done with Wildlife Tracker for Oceans:
Great Whales migration and Phytoplankton hotspots in January
The “Wildlife Tracker for Oceans” works with credentials and gives secure access to users’ datasets. Once the implementation is done in marine conservation projects the software only requires maintenance with users’ feedback about the configuration of visualization and alarm system.
The solution with Blue Economy Model
The Blue Economy Model of GIS4 wildlife aims to give open access to the platform to more users. Once the software is tested during 2022 then it will be deployed online for the usage of a more broad community. The platform aims to work with funds from institutions focused on conservation that helps to keep it online. The vision is to create an implementation at the global level.
Stay tuned with the advances
If are willing to follow the advances of the “Wildlife Tracker for Oceans v0.2 Pro” you can subscribe to the newsletter. It will give an overview of how the platform is being developed and implemented.
Check the newsletter: GIS4 wildlife newsletter
The code
The backend analysis has been published in short geospatial data science articles that provide the coding workflow in some specific cases. The solution is offered not only for marine fauna but also for different species such as birds. Check here some code about how the product works in the backend:
Finding nesting sites during Black-backed seagulls migration
This article is key to understanding how the Stop Detection algorithm works and how its parameters can be configured.
Discovering foraging spots in Blue Whales movements
This article may help to automate the Stop Detection algorithm in your own workflow. It makes easier the configuration of the algorithm parameters and helps users to do more tests.
Visualizing Adélie penguin moves in Antarctica
This article is supportive of the visualization of animal tracking datasets in the poles: Antarctica and Arctic. It gives instructions about the projection of spatial data to the Orthographic coordinate reference system.
This experimental visualization shows the Stop Detection algorithm during the time period of the animal movements. It helps to understand foraging activity over the frozen ocean.
Check the Stop Detection in Adélie penguins moves
Filtering Great Whales migration routes by year
This article teaches how to create LineString geometries from GPS tracks. Then it gives a time-filtered perspective of the whales’ migration routes by year.
Finding foraging activity of Great Whales which decided not to migrate
This article aims to find foraging activity with the Stop Detection algorithm and makes reference to Silva et al (2013). The usage of the algorithm is experimental and the validation of results requires the critical view of marine scientists. But, the analysis matches the conclusion of the research journal so this article is a showcase of other methodologies that can be used to find insight into whale migration.
Conclusion
GIS4 wildlife offers a geo-framework “Wildlife Tracker for Oceans” aiming to support marine conservation, MPAs assessment, and movement analytics. The idea is to work under the Blue Economy Model based on sponsorship with the vision of giving open access to the marine science community.
The articles about code usage are showcases that match the conclusion of published research journals. They represent mostly tutorials and experiments with the Stop Detection algorithm and the validation of the results requires the critical view of marine scientists, biologists, ornithologists, etc. The code articles aim to give visibility about how the “Wildlife Tracker for Oceans v0.2 Pro” can be used and how it can support the research and insight discoveries in wildlife tracking projects.
Be part of this inspiring project and support ocean conservation. Any further communication you need, feel free to leave a message in this article or communicate straightforward on our website.
Data License
Datasets visualized in this article are licensed under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and CC0 1.0 Universal.
References
[1] Irvine LM, Palacios DM, Lagerquist BA, Mate BR, Follett TM (2019) Data from Scales of blue and fin whale feeding behavior off California, USA, with implications for prey patchiness. Movebank Data Repository. DOI: 10.5441/001/1.47h576f2
[1] Sauzede R., H. Claustre, J. Uitz, C. Jamet, G. Dall’Olmo, F. D’Ortenzio, B. Gentili, A. Poteau, and C. Schmechtig, 2016: A neural network-based method for merging ocean color and Argo data to extend surface bio-optical properties to depth: Retrieval of the particulate backscattering coefficient, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 121, doi:10.1002/2015JC011408. Phytoplankton products accessed from Blue Cloud Virtual Labs
UNEP-WCMC and IUCN (2022), Protected Planet: The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and World Database on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (Complementary)
