Boosting the Frequency and Scale of Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Using Digital Imagery and Artificial Intelligence

The BioBoost+ project will advance cost-effective high-frequency sampling and identification of marine plants and animals by applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to photographs and video. These methods will be applied to habitats (seagrass meadows, shellfish beds, and macroalgal canopies), indicator species of ecological and economic importance (e.g., fish, lobsters, shorebirds), invasive species, and plankton (the basis of the food web). At Nord University the focus will be on automating analysis of zooplankton samples collected annually for over 40 years, and more recently established monitoring of seabed fauna and fish on live-stream undersea video in Saltfjord. These data are needed to provide timely information on the health of ecosystems and changes in biodiversity in the context of fisheries, climate change and invasive species. This European scale project involves eight organisations and has study sites in the Mediterranean, North and Norwegian Seas, including places with active habitat restoration and Marine Protected Areas. The improved methods will accelerate the availability of the information to scientists, governments and citizens.

BioBoost+ is designed to improve non-invasive, cost-effective, and high-frequency sampling and identification of marine plants and animals by applying state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology with digital imagery including real-time monitoring via camera networks and involvement of citizen science groups. These methods are applied to a wide range of taxa, from habitat-forming species (seagrass meadows, shellfish beds, and macroalgal canopies), indicator species of ecological and economic importance (e.g., coastal fish, lobsters, shorebirds), invasive species, and understudied groups (from microscopic, free-floating animals to rare fish). BioBoost+ enhances biodiversity monitoring within European regional seas from the Mediterranean, North and Norwegian Seas to support ongoing conservation interventions such as active habitat restoration projects and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Improved biodiversity monitoring will allow a better understanding of large-scale phenomena, such as thresholds, regime shifts and species invasions in vulnerable ecosystems, improve the capacity to predict the impacts of multiple stressors, and to develop better indicators of marine ecosystem health.