A research team from the CEAB-CSIC is studying the seabed in areas like Portlligat Bay, in Alt Empordà, to characterize it, monitor its evolution, and quantify the carbon it retains. The resulting data is compared with data obtained by aquatic robots. This allows for the adjustment of the artificial intelligence that these robots are equipped with, enabling them to work autonomously. The work is part of the Effective project, which is focused on marine conservation.
Posidonia and other sea plants capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and retain it for millennia (in the form of carbon, known as “blue carbon”). However, when the meadows deteriorate or die, the stored CO2 is released back into the atmosphere. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to conserve them and keep them in good condition. There are many other reasons as well, such as the fact that they provide habitat, food, and shelter for a wide variety of animals, or that they are key to maintaining good water quality, as they act as filters, removing pollutants.
Nevertheless, every year we continue to destroy kilometers and kilometers of seagrass meadows, with disastrous consequences, such as the return to the atmosphere of about 300 million tons of carbon dioxide globally. Human activities such as excessive urbanization, trawling, water pollution, or anchoring boats over Posidonia meadows are responsible.
For years, various sectors, including scientific research and technology, have been providing data and tools advocating for the conservation of marine “forests.” Now, a new tool aims to join these efforts: aquatic robots that would allow the creation of complete, reliable, and up-to-date maps of the seabed, including the distribution, extent, and condition of the meadows, as well as the amount of carbon they store. The speed, zero impact on the meadows, and low cost of this work would help create reliable and updated maps of marine “forests,” providing crucial information to prioritize areas for protection, for example.
The project is being carried out by researchers from the Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB-CSIC) in collaboration with the Catalan company Seabots. Portlligat Bay, in the Cap de Creus Natural Park, has been chosen as the testing site, where Posidonia meadows are relatively well-preserved (it is an area where activities such as boat anchoring are limited), along with other types of substrates.
Here, the scientific team from CEAB-CSIC creates its “map” of the distribution of the meadows, their characterization, and carbon quantification. This is done “manually” (by diving, taking measurements and samples “in situ,” and conducting subsequent laboratory and office work). The results obtained are added to the historical records they have maintained since the early 1990s for this same area.
The robots also characterize the bay using their acoustic sounding system. They emit a sound that bounces off the seabed, and depending on the echo, the type of substrate is inferred (seagrass, mud, sand, etc.), its composition, and how much carbon it stores.
The work of both humans and robots is then compared. This process is used to calibrate the artificial intelligence incorporated into the robots, making it as reliable as possible so that these machines can work autonomously in the future.
Automating this task would save a great deal of time and resources, enabling us to have reliable, complete, and updated maps of the seabed and precise data on accumulated carbon, unlike what we have now. Moreover, this method has no impact on the meadows, as the robots perform the work without even touching them.
Miguel Ángel Mateo, from the aquatic macrophytes group at CEAB-CSIC, explained that when this tool is ready, “the work can be easily repeated, for example, every year, to comprehensively and reliably monitor the evolution of the meadows and be able to definitively state whether they are expanding or receding.” “We are clearly talking about knowledge transfer; we want to share all the knowledge we have and provide tools and technological solutions to protect marine ecosystems,” adds the researcher responsible for the Spanish Group of Experts in Blue Carbon (G3ECA).
Researcher Marc Truc, also from CEAB-CSIC, points out that “what we are doing in Portlligat, once the system is proven to work, can be extrapolated to any coastal area.” It would be possible to have precise and constantly updated data on the existing meadows in an entire region, their distribution and condition, and the carbon they accumulate. Truc suggests potential applications of this knowledge, such as “it could greatly help to delineate the most important areas to protect and perhaps establish new regulations and marine protected areas.”
From the tech company Seabots, Pau Guasch highlights that “this work is new because, although aquatic and underwater robots have been used for years, it is novel to calibrate them so precisely to autonomously create these maps of substrates, meadows, and the computation of the blue carbon they store.”
The initiative is being carried out within the European project Effective, coordinated by CEAB-CSIC researcher Rafael Sardá, and aims to provide scientific evidence and practical tools to managers for application in favor of the conservation and restoration of marine ecosystems.
L'entrada Science and technology to protect seagrass meadows ha aparegut primer a CEAB.