Autonomous sensing promises solutions to two problems vexing sustainability science in the ocean: 1) The environment often changes more quickly than we have the ability to observe these changes. 2) Emerging threats to coastal systems like coral reefs need new sensors and new methods to quickly analyze the raw data for decision support (machine learning). Many data sets collected on coral reefs suffer from under-sampling in space or time. Undersampling results in signals that are said to be ‘aliased’. Aliased data incorrectly present a high frequency fluctuation as a lower frequency fluctuation. Autonomous mobile robots can act as fast-moving taxicabs for sensors and overcome this aliasing problem. My lab has developed autonomous marine robots and diver-held measurement systems to gain rapid situational awareness for water quality and distribution of biota. I will present case studies in autonomous sensing from four continents: benthic environments in Panama, Florida, Bonaire and Iceland, and the rapidly warming western Antarctica peninsula.

Chair: Ann Marie Hulver