Workshop on methods for marine biodiversity mapping and monitoring
WP4 promotes a workshop for project partners to define concrete case study plans for Transforming data to fit-for-purpose tools, indicators and information products
Last week, WP4 of the the OBAMA-NEXT project hosted an engaging workshop in Helsinki, Finland, organized by Jarno Vanhatalo (University of Helsinki). The event, which spanned three days from September 13th to September 15th, brought together some of the partners involved in WP4 to share their insights on methods for marine biodiversity mapping and monitoring. In particular, one of the main goals was to define concrete case study plans for Task 4.3 on Transforming data to fit-for-purpose tools, indicators and information products.
The workshop’s agenda was carefully structured to encourage discussion and collaboration among participants. Each presentation focused on in-depth exploration of the topics, including what has already been achieved, current work in progress, major challenges and obstacles encountered, and how their methods could be applied to learning sites (WP5).
The first two days of the workshop focused on presentations on already on-going case studies and previous works of the partners that could serve as motivating examples for further analyses within OBAMA-NEXT. Presentations covered diverse topics, such as acoustic survey data to map pelagic fish assemblages, integrating heterogeneous data in species distribution modeling, using species distribution data for marine conservation purposes, species distribution modeling approaches, and habitat suitability modeling under current and future climate scenarios.
The final day of the workshop concentrated on concrete plans for future research steps within OBAMA-NEXT. Last day featured also discussions on uncertainty quantification in information products, , and a practical example of the OBAMA-NEXT workflow for communications. Participants had also the opportunity for hands-on work in smaller groups to further collaborate and address specific research challenges.
WP4 now has concrete plans on how to develop the case studies and contribute to the progress of the OBAMA-NEXT project.
