Super-charging the view from above
t’s important work. By providing nutrients and shelter for animals and absorbing carbon emissions, seaweed plays a major role in sustaining marine ecosystems and in buffering our warming climate. We all need to know whether our seaweed is doing OK. This survey is being conducted for the Department of Conservation (DOC). DOC will use the information in a report card on the state of our marine reserves – helping to chart the health of these vital seaweed forests over time. Where once researchers like Tait could only observe from above using expensive aircraft or satellites, drones now enable scientists to transform the scope and scale of their work.
The small, remote-controlled units are easily deployed and can quickly survey large, hard-to-access areas. Plus, repeated flights can help illuminate changes over time that might otherwise go unnoticed. The drones also carry increasingly specialised camera equipment and sensors. But, perhaps more significantly, computing advances now mean the data this equipment captures can be enhanced using advanced processing power and artificial intelligence software. That package of drones and digital science is now opening up a whole new array of research opportunities.
Drone pilot Hamish Sutton (left) and Dr Leigh Tait check settings before launching another pre-programmed flight across the Taputeranga Marine Reserve. (Rebekah Parsons-King)
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Water & Atmosphere
August 2021
www.niwa.co.nz
