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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250403T100000
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DTSTAMP:20260612T155150
CREATED:20250304T144900Z
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SUMMARY:MASTS Open Forum Session "Deep Computer Vision & Benthic Ecosystems"
DESCRIPTION:The MASTS Artificial Intelligence Forum is excited to host a free Open Forum Session with an interesting talk on: \nUnderstanding the Current State of Southern Ocean Benthic Ecosystems Using Deep Computer Vision\nSpeaker: Dr Cameron Trotter\, Machine Learning Research Scientist\, British Antarctic Survey \nCredit: Cameron Trotter\, British Antarctic Survey\nLoss of marine biodiversity is a key issue facing the modern world. The removal of species from an environment can have profound effects on the overall ecosystem structure\, though to what degree any species contributes to ecosystem stability is often unknown until they are removed. Due to its remoteness\, relatively little is known about the structure of benthic ecosystems situated in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. This region is among the most vulnerable to climate change and is currently one of the fastest-warming areas on the planet. Additionally\, increasing human activity\, including a growing number of vessels\, poses further risks to these fragile ecosystems. \nTraditionally\, our understanding of Southern Ocean biodiversity has relied on nets or other sampling devices to bring benthic organisms to the surface. However\, these methods are inherently destructive and provide limited insight into community structure. The development of underwater imaging technologies has enabled non-destructive\, in-situ data collection\, but analysing these images remains time-consuming and requires specialist expertise\, as many of the organisms are found nowhere else on Earth. This has created a bottleneck\, where data is collected faster than it be curated\, significantly limiting our understanding of these ecosystems and how they are changing. \nTo address this challenge\, we present the development of a deep-learning computer vision model trained to detect key taxa in Southern Ocean benthic imagery. Using only a small subset of labelled images from a high-resolution\, downward-facing towed camera\, the model learns to autonomously process unlabelled imagery\, requiring only human verification of its output. This approach accelerates analysis and expands the spatio-temporal range of study compared to fully manual methods\, offering a clearer picture of the current state of the Southern Ocean’s benthic ecosystems. \nRegister Here!\nImages: Cameron Trotter and British Antarctic Survey
URL:https://masts.ac.uk/event/masts-open-forum-session-deep-computer-vision/
CATEGORIES:Open Forum Sessions
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://masts.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/HOTKEY_2019_03_31_at_13_30_13_IMG_0853_1.png
ORGANIZER;CN="MASTS":MAILTO:info@masts.ac.uk
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250408T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250408T140000
DTSTAMP:20260612T155150
CREATED:20250307T112306Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250307T112306Z
UID:10000087-1744117200-1744120800@masts.ac.uk
SUMMARY:MASTS Open Forum Session "Climate Change Drivers in UK regional seas and Scottish deep seas"
DESCRIPTION:The MASTS Marine Climate Change Forum is excited to host a free Open Forum Session with 2 interesting talks! \nRegister Here!\nTalk 1: Investigating climate driven changes on marine invertebrates and macroalgae using long-term time-series data in UK regional seas\nSpeaker: Dr Heather Sugden\, Newcastle University \n \nAnthropogenic climate change has been re-shaping biogeographic patterns of species\, causing shifts at all levels of ecosystem\, alongside driving phenological changes. Such responses at all levels of biological organization are ultimately driven by temperature change\, especially in marine invertebrate and macroalgae species.\nWithin assemblages the composition and relative abundance of species with different thermal affinities are being re-sorted. Disturbance due to extreme weather events is superimposed upon these long-term patterns of response to climate. Greater amplitude and more frequent return times of extreme events are already occurring and predicted to accelerate\, themselves being symptoms of climate change. Both extreme events and pervasive climate change will have direct effects on individuals and hence populations\, with consequences for community structure and ecosystem functioning. This is especially so when the species affected are important foundation species and/or ecosystem engineers\, dominating space and providing biogenic habitat for others\, often by ameliorating environmental conditions. \nHistoric records have helped to build a picture of intertidal rocky shore communities from the 1900s from several biogeographic areas when there was a groundswell of amateur naturalists. The MarClim project was conceived to bring together historical records across the biogeographic distribution of the UK regional seas and continue to monitor intertidal species taken from these records to track movements of key indicator species. Surveys track the abundance and distribution of 87 species of invertebrates and macroalgae at 100 sites around the UK Regional Seas and northern France on an annual basis. The project has recorded some of the fastest distributional shifts in leading and trailing range edges of species in any natural system and spans over half a century. Using these long-term data\, alongside short-term observational and experimental studies provide an opportunity to investigate the impacts of short term change through extreme events\, versus longer-term sustained shifts in species abundance and community composition. \n  \nTalk 2: Effects of Climate Change on Scottish Deep Seas – A Story Map and Policy Brief\nSpeaker: Dr Johanne Vad\, University of Edinburgh \nCredit: Emily Hague “Deep Sea Scene”\nMost of the United Kingdom’s deep sea (deeper than 200 m) is in Scottish waters. Scotland’s deep sea\, is around four times bigger than Scotland itself and hosts a diverse range of habitats\, such as submarine ridges\, banks\, seamounts\, coral and sponge reefs\, expansive soft sediments and sand waves. Biodiversity in these deep-sea habitats is extremely high but Scotland’s deep-sea ecosystems are threatened by human-induced climate change\, pollution\, and the extraction of fish and other resources. Deep-sea environments are generally less variable over short time scales than coastal ecosystems\, making deep-sea species and habitats more sensitive to climate change impacts. \nThe MASTS Deep Sea Research Forum created a Working Group in 2024 to produce an interactive Story Map and accompanying Policy Brief to highlight main climate change drivers and case studies\, as well as predictions of future scenarios and recommendations for policymakers and other stakeholders involved. \nRegister Here!\n  \nImages: Header from Emily Hague\, Moon Jellyfish from Unsplash
URL:https://masts.ac.uk/event/masts-open-forum-session-climate-change-drivers/
CATEGORIES:Open Forum Sessions
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://masts.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Emily-Hague_Deep-Sea-Scene.png
ORGANIZER;CN="MASTS":MAILTO:info@masts.ac.uk
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250409T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250409T110000
DTSTAMP:20260612T155150
CREATED:20250304T160919Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250305T100941Z
UID:10000084-1744192800-1744196400@masts.ac.uk
SUMMARY:MASTS Open Forum Session "Cold-Water Corals & Environmental Drivers"
DESCRIPTION:The MASTS Aquatic Stressors Forum is excited to host a free Open Forum Session with an interesting talk on: \nPhysiological response and skeletal dissolution of cold-water corals to multiple environmental drivers\nSpeaker: Dr Kristina Beck\, University Teacher in Marine Science\, University of Edinburgh \nCredit: Kristina Beck (University of Edinburgh)\nSome cold-water coral (CWC) species are important ecosystem engineer\, forming complex three-dimensional reefs in the deep sea. These reefs consist of both live corals and dead skeletons and are associated with high biodiversity. However\, CWCs are threatened by climate change. Previous laboratory studies mainly focused on the short-term effects of single environmental factors on adult CWCs\, especially elevated temperatures and reduced pH. So far\, little is known about the effects of reduced oxygen concentration and food availability on CWCs\, the long-term and combined effect of all these environmental drivers as well as their effect on different life stages. \nTherefore\, I have conducted two long-term (6 and 12 months) aquarium experiments to investigate the combined effect of reduced pH\, elevated temperature\, reduced oxygen concentration and reduced food supply on three life stages of the solitary CWC Caryophyllia huinayensis and the colony-forming CWC Lophelia pertusa (syn. Desmophyllum pertusum). During the experiments\, I have determined coral mortality\, calcification\, respiration\, and energy reserves of live corals. I have also examined dissolution rates of dead L. pertusa skeletons under different ocean acidification scenarios using micro-computed tomography (µCT) to better predict how ocean acidification will affect the structural integrity of CWC reefs in the future. In both experiments\, I have observed a delay in response\, presumably because the effects only become visible once energy reserves are depleted\, suggesting that short-term experiments overestimate coral resilience. \nCredit: Sebastian Hennige (University of Edinburgh)\nIn the long-term\, acidification alone had no effect on C. huinayensis\, but warming and reduced food availability lowered their survival and calcification rates. The magnitude of change differed between life stages as calcification rates declined more in juvenile than in adult corals. Calcification rates of L. pertusa were lowest in the multiple driver treatments\, reaching negative values after more than three months\, presumably because the dissolution of skeletal parts not covered with tissue exceeded the growth rate of live polyps at aragonite undersaturation. In addition\, the dissolution rate of dead coral skeletons increased with reduced seawater pH. Overall\, the findings highlight the importance of considering interactive effects of multiple drivers\, appropriate duration of experiments and potential ontogenetic differences when investigating CWC susceptibility to climate change. I also conclude that live CWCs may be able to cope with future environmental changes to a certain extent\, whereas increased skeletal dissolution due to ocean acidification will lead to structural weakening of the dead skeletal framework and potential crumbling of CWC reefs in the long term. \nRegister Here!\n  \nImages: CWC Reef/Changing Oceans Research Group (University of Edinburgh)\,\nKristina Beck (University of Edinburgh)
URL:https://masts.ac.uk/event/masts-open-forum-session-cold-water-corals/
CATEGORIES:Open Forum Sessions
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ORGANIZER;CN="MASTS":MAILTO:info@masts.ac.uk
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