Biodiversity Observatory Automation

Biodiversity Observatory today and in the future

The Biodiversity Observatory Automation, part of our Thematic Service Workshop Series, is dedicated to reviewing and updating the requirements for effective biodiversity assessment in an era of unprecedented environmental change and biodiversity loss.

 

Although biodiversity assessment can be challenging due to time-consuming fieldwork and demanding post-fieldwork data processing and storage, advances in automation of data collection, increasing computational power, and artificial intelligence offer new possibilities.

 

The workshop, hosted by LifeWatch Slovenia, will bring together experts to present key achievements and obstacles in monitoring and observational approaches and discuss the drawbacks and needs of different stakeholders. In this workshop, we will explore the possibilities offered by a variety of modern approaches to monitoring and detecting biodiversity (from aerial observations to eDNA), from data collection design, data curation, and data exploration, including the use of AI to FARIfication of data to digital twins.

09:00 – 09:10 | Greetings from Slovenian hosts – Tanja Pipan and Andreja Ramšak (LifeWatch-SI)

09:10 – 09:30 | Presentation of Thematic Core Services (TCS) – Alberto Basset (LifeWatch ERIC Service Center)

09:30 – 10:10 | Invited talk: Ecosystem Virtual research environment: from data FARIfication to digital twins – Zhiming Zhao (University of Amsterdam)

10:10 – 10:25 | Talk: Challenges to Implement Darwin Core Meta Data Standard within GeoNetwork portals – Magdalena Năpăruş-Aljančič, Žan Kafol and Tanja Pipan (Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU)

10:25 – 10:40 | Talk: Case study: Landscape features and biodiversity in agroecosystem – Danijel Ivajnšič and Nataša Pipenbaher (University of Maribor)

10:40 – 11:20 | Invited talk: Using high-throughput species discovery with robots and Nanopore sequencing to overcome taxon biases in biodiversity science – Rudolf Meier (Museum of Natural History, Berlin)

11:20 – 11:30 | Coffee break

11:30 – 12:10 | Invited talk: Environmental DNA and DNA metabarcoding for biodiversity monitoring and assessment – Gentile Francesco Ficetola (Università degli Studi di Milano, Department of Environmental Science and policy)

12:10 – 12:25 | Talk: Use of drones for various purposes – Hubert Potočnik (University of Ljubljana)

12:25 – 12:40 | Talk: Camera traps and citizen science App for biodiversity monitoring – Luka Duniš, Žiga Velkavrh and Elena Bužan (University of Primorska)

12:40 – 13:00 | Debate

13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch break

14:00 – 14:30 | Invited talk: LIFE NarcIS – NAtuRe Conservation Information System in Slovenia – Rok Havliček (Slovenian Environment Agency)

14:30 – 14:45 | Talk: Next-generation multi-modal monitoring of Rana arvalis in Slovenia – preliminary results – David Stanković, Sara Strah, Mojca Vek, Mariana Carreira Santos, Mladen Avramović and Jernej Polajnar (National Institute of Biology, University of Aveiro, University of South Bohemia)

14:45 – 15:00 | Talk: Acoustic and vibrational biodiversity monitoring – Jernej Polajnar and Rok Šturm (National Institute of Biology)

15:00 – 15:20 | Coffee break

15:20 – 16:00 | Invited talk: Presentation of the LifeWatch Belgium observatory services – Klaas Deneudt (VLIZ)

16:00 – 16:15 | Talk: Novel approaches to surveying habitat types and organisms on the seabed – Lovrenc Lipej, Borut Mavrič (National Institute of Biology, Marine Biology Station Piran)

16:15 – 16:55 | Invited talk: Estimating structural diversity of forests using national remote sensing data – Anže Martin Pintar and Mitja Skudnik (Slovenian Forestry Institute)

16:55 – 17:15 | Coffee break

17:15 – 17:45 | Workshop, moderated debate

17:45 – 18:00 | Conclusions and Wrap-up

Coming soon!
Presentations 70%

Habitat Mapping

Habitat Mapping: From Science and Policy Needs to Solutions

The workshop “Habitat Mapping: From Science and Policy Needs to Solutions” is organised by LifeWatch Portugal in collaboration with all LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities and National Distributed Centers. This gathering will explore the nexus between science, policy, and innovative solutions in habitat mapping. The agenda includes plenary sessions introducing LifeWatch TCS, showcasing indicators, and a World Café workshop on services, community needs, and integration strategies. The day concludes with discussions on future TCS-community interactions.

Speaker presentations will be published on this page soon.

Times refer to the Portuguese time zone (UTC).

Plenary

  • 14:00 | Welcome
  • 14:05 | Introduction LifeWatch Thematic Core Service (TCS) by Alberto Basset (LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre)
  • 14:25 | Habitat Mapping by LifeWatch Belgium by Julien Radoux (remote)
  • 14:45 | Introduction LifeWatch Thematic Core Service (TCS) by Tiago Múrias (LifeWatch Portugal) + Q&A

Workshop – World Café

Moderators: Ana Lillebø, Bruna Oliveira, Daniel Crespo

15:00 – 16:30

  • Topic 1 – | What is already in place in terms of services (within and outside of LifeWatch ERIC)?
  • Topic 2 – | What are the community’s needs and requirements, and how can we identify these?
  • Topic 3 – | How can we further integrate this into the infrastructure?

Plenary

  • 16:30 – 17:00 | How to organise this TCS-community interaction for the future? Moderated by Ana Lillebø of LifeWatch Portugal / University of Aveiro
  • 17:00 – 17:30 | Wrap-up by Alberto Basset /Ana Lillebø
  • 17:30 | End of the session
Coming soon!
Presentations 70%

Registrations

Registrations

Taxonomy

30 January, Brussel, Belgium

Closed

Ecological resposes to climate change

21-22 February, Lecce, Italy

Closed

Animal movement

Animal Biology, Behavior and Biologging

22 March, Ostend, Belgium

Closed

Biogeography

4-5 April, Bologna, Italy

Closed

Biodiversity Observatory Automation

11 April, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Closed

Habitat Mapping

3 May, Aveiro, Portugal

Closed

Thematic Services

Meet our Thematic Services

LifeWatch ERIC tackles the constraints affecting biodiversity and ecosystem research, such as the pressing need for increasingly diverse data, larger and more advanced models, open data and open science clouds, making it possible to explore new frontiers in ecological science and support society in addressing planetary challenges.

Coordinate Reference Systems

Services enabling geographical analysis through the use of coordinate reference systems.
View all services

Habitat Mapping

Services which provide information on habitat and biotope occurrence and characteristics.
View all services

Ecological Responses to Climate Change

Toos and services on data curation, data analysis and modelling, to better understand ecological responses to climate change, describe scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning change under climate change.
View all services

Semantics

Services enabling discovery and interoperability and providing core and domain ontologies, as well as vocabularies and domain-relevant reference lists.
View all services

Data Management

Services designed to cover the entire data lifecycle, from acquisition to visualisation.
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Metagenomics

Services dedicated to DNA Metabarcoding analysis.
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Animal Movement and Biologging

Services designed to provide information on species distribution and coverage in different geographical areas.
View all services

Environmental Monitoring

Services enabling environmental monitoring and the evaluation of ecosystem health.
View all services

Modelling

Services which enable the derivation of future scenarios under multiple vectors of change.
View all services

Taxonomy

Services which run taxonomic checks on scientific and common species names.
View all services

Functional Traits

Services analysing species' functional traits to determine their effect on processes and responses to environmental factors.
View all services

Biodiversity Observatory Automation

Services designed to monitor and detect biodiversity (from aerial observations to eDNA), from data collection design, data curation, and data exploration, including the use of AI to FARIfication of data to digital twins.
View all services

Biogeography

Tools and services on data curation, data analysis and modelling to better understand biogeographical gradients in space and time and to model future changes in response to climate change or conservation strategies.
View all services

Thematic Services Working Groups

Objectives

The following main objectives are envisaged for the Working Groups:

  • Enhance collaboration both between and within the Common Facilities and Distributed Centres;
  • Review and update the mapping of the research needs of the National scientific communities regarding the Thematic Services and highlight the construction priorities;
  • Promote and coordinate the participation of Distributed Centre research Institutions to Horizon Europe and other European/international projects, on behalf of and in collaboration with LifeWatch ERIC, in order to co-design and co-construct the priority services with other key actors in the biodiversity and ecosystem research landscape, including the relevant communities.
For the launch of Working Group constitution and the promotion of the activities and developments currently running on each LifeWatch ERIC Thematic Service, a series of LifeWatch ERIC Thematic Service Workshops have been co-organised by the LifeWatch ERIC National Distributed Centres and Common Facilities. Each Workshop is then locally organised by a LifeWatch ERIC National Distributed Centre, engaging the relevant national community, with the support of the Service Centre.

Timeline

Animal movement

30 January, Brussels, Organised by LifeWatch Belgium

21-22 February, Lecce, Organised by LifeWatch Italy

Animal movement

Animal Movement and Biologging

22 March, Ostend, Organised by LifeWatch Belgium

4-5 April, Bologna, Organised by LifeWatch Italy

11 April, Ljubljana, Organised by LifeWatch Slovenia

3 May, Aveiro, Organised by LifeWatch Portugal

News

Programme

Please have a look at the School Session planning updated to September 18.

Travel

From Brindisi Airport:

Approximate distance: 50 km

By Bus: Take bus COTRAP (the bus stop is on the right of arrival area). The bus takes about 40 minutes and it stops at Lecce at the Foro Boario/City Terminal.

By Air-Shuttle: Shuttle service specialised in transporting passengers to and from Brindisi Airport and their hotels. You can book your transportation online at airshuttle.

From Bari Airport:

Approximate distance: 150 km

You should take the train from the airport to the central train station and then take the train to Lecce (please visit Trenitalia to check the time schedule).

Venue

Update 20 September: Change of location

The Semantic Academy – Intensive School 2023 will take place at Officine Cantelmo, in Viale Michele de Pietro 8/a, Lecce.

The new premises are at a 10-minute walking distance from the location previously communicated.