CDI-Type I: Collaborative Research: A Computational Thinking Approach to Mapping Critical Marine Mammal Habitat Through Readily-Deployable Video Systems

CDI-I 型：协作研究：通过易于部署的视频系统绘制关键海洋哺乳动物栖息地的计算思维方法

• 批准号: 1125040
• 负责人: Andrew Mahoney
• 金额: $ 26.5万
• 依托单位: University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-15 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1125040&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CDI; Type; Collaborative; Research; Computational

Unprecedented thinning and retreat of the Arctic sea ice cover together with recent climate modeling studies that predict the Arctic could be free or nearly free of sea ice in summertime within the next few decades have raised concern for the future of Arctic ice-­associated marine mammals. All species of ice-dependent marine mammals of Beringia have been subject to petitions to designate them as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Accordingly, in 2008, the polar bear was listed as threatened after the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service [2008] found that ?polar bear habitat - principally sea ice - is declining throughout the species? range?. The case for the Pacific walrus is under review with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Program and two ice seal species have been proposed for protective status. A major challenge facing these national policy decisions is lack of information concerning the extent and distribution of critical habitat within the overall ice pack. Most climate models and standard sea ice data products provide ice extent and concentration information, but these quantities only partially explain the distribution of Arctic marine mammals. The size and shape of ice floes and openings has also been shown to be important, but there are currently no standardized means of monitoring these properties of the sea ice cover. The work proposed here aims to develop new, powerful video processing techniques and bring them to bear on the problem of identifying and quantifying critical habitat areas within the Arctic ice pack. The project team brings together scientists and engineers with expertise in advanced image and video analysis and modeling, computational science, sea ice geophysics and marine mammal ecology. The research plan is centered on a computational-thinking approach to transforming high-volume video data into low-volume high-relevance information that is key to decision support in a range of settings. The overall aim is to develop and implement advanced video processing algorithms based on geophysical and ecological knowledge of sea ice to routinely map marine mammal habitat in ice covered waters. Data from the system will be disseminated to a cyber-enabled forum of experts, who will aid in habitat interpretation and provide guidance for data acquisition. The project will build on existing cyber-enabled forums such as the Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO, co-organized by Eicken) as models for implementation. The techniques that will be developed will be readily extendible to other observing tasks such as marine hazard identification. Such information will become increasingly important in the near future with growing commercial activity and limited decision-making and support infrastructure in the Arctic. A readily-deployable, networkable system will allow increased marine traffic in the Arctic to be turned to an advantage.This project is supported by the NSF Directorate for Geosciences and the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

北极海冰覆盖的空前变薄和退缩，以及最近的气候模拟研究预测，在未来几十年内，北极可能在夏季没有或几乎没有海冰，这引起了人们对北极海冰相关海洋哺乳动物未来的担忧。根据1973年《濒危物种法》，白令加所有依赖冰生存的海洋哺乳动物物种都受到请愿，被指定为受威胁或濒危物种。因此，在2008年，北极熊被列为受威胁后，美国鱼类和野生动物管理局[2008]发现，？北极熊的栖息地--主要是海冰--在整个物种中都在减少？范围？太平洋海象的案例正在与美国鱼类和野生动物管理局濒危物种计划进行审查，两种海豹物种已被提议保护。这些国家政策决定面临的一个主要挑战是缺乏关于整个冰盖内关键生境的范围和分布的信息。大多数气候模型和标准海冰数据产品提供了冰的范围和集中度信息，但这些数量只能部分解释北极海洋哺乳动物的分布。浮冰和开口的大小和形状也被证明是重要的，但目前没有标准化的手段来监测海冰覆盖的这些特性。这里提出的工作旨在开发新的，强大的视频处理技术，并使他们承担的问题，确定和量化关键栖息地在北极冰盖。该项目团队汇集了在先进的图像和视频分析和建模、计算科学、海冰生物物理学和海洋哺乳动物生态学方面具有专长的科学家和工程师。该研究计划以计算思维方法为中心，将大容量视频数据转换为低容量高相关性信息，这是一系列设置中决策支持的关键。总体目标是开发和实施先进的视频处理算法的基础上的地球物理和生态知识的海冰例行地图海洋哺乳动物栖息地在冰覆盖的沃茨。该系统的数据将分发给一个网络专家论坛，该论坛将协助生境解释并为数据获取提供指导。该项目将以现有的网络论坛为基础，如由艾肯共同组织的“海象海冰展望”，作为实施模式。将开发的技术将很容易扩展到其他观测任务，如海洋危险识别。在不久的将来，随着北极地区商业活动的不断增加以及决策和支持基础设施的有限，此类信息将变得越来越重要。一个易于部署的可联网系统将使北极地区日益增加的海上交通成为一个优势。该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会地球科学理事会和刺激竞争研究实验计划（EPSCoR）的支持。