An Automated Pipeline for Image Processing and Data Treatment to Track Activity Rhythms of Paragorgia arborea in Relation to Hydrographic Conditions
Author(s)
Date Issued
2020
Type
article
Volume
20
Issue
21
Journal
Abstract
Imaging technologies are being deployed on cabled observatory networks worldwide. They allow for the monitoring of the biological activity of deep-sea organisms on temporal scales that were never attained before. In this paper, we customized Convolutional Neural Network image processing to track behavioral activities in an iconic conservation deep-sea species-the bubblegum coral Paragorgia arborea-in response to ambient oceanographic conditions at the Lofoten-Vesterålen observatory. Images and concomitant oceanographic data were taken hourly from February to June 2018. We considered coral activity in terms of bloated, semi-bloated and non-bloated surfaces, as proxy for polyp filtering, retraction and transient activity, respectively. A test accuracy of 90.47% was obtained. Chronobiology-oriented statistics and advanced Artificial Neural Network (ANN) multivariate regression modeling proved that a daily coral filtering rhythm occurs within one major dusk phase, being independent from tides. Polyp activity, in particular extrusion, increased from March to June, and was able to cope with an increase in chlorophyll concentration, indicating the existence of seasonality. Our study shows that it is possible to establish a model for the development of automated pipelines that are able to extract biological information from times series of images. These are helpful to obtain multidisciplinary information from cabled observatory infrastructures.
Additional information
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, J.A., E.R., J.V., S.M.; Data curation, E.R., A.Z., V.L.-V., G.Z., H.W.; Formal analysis, J.A., A.Z., V.L.-V., C.C., L.O., J.G.; Funding acquisition, E.R., H.W.; S.F.; Methodology, J.A., A.Z., V.L.-V., C.C., L.O., S.M.; Project administration, E.R., G.Z., H.W.; Software, A.Z., V.L.-V.; Writing—review and editing. All authors equally contributed. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Conceptualization, J.A., E.R., J.V., S.M.; Data curation, E.R., A.Z., V.L.-V., G.Z., H.W.; Formal analysis, J.A., A.Z., V.L.-V., C.C., L.O., J.G.; Funding acquisition, E.R., H.W.; S.F.; Methodology, J.A., A.Z., V.L.-V., C.C., L.O., S.M.; Project administration, E.R., G.Z., H.W.; Software, A.Z., V.L.-V.; Writing—review and editing. All authors equally contributed. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Subjects
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sensors-20-06281.pdf
Size
8.88 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5137fd989d8b1d0b9abfa179d666b3e9
Project(s)
The Norwegian Research Council, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany (03SX464C) and the Helmholtz Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren (HGF) project Modular Observation Solutions for Earth Systems (MOSES), Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (EXP 00108707/SERA-20181020), and co-funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the framework of European Research Area Network (ERA-NET) Cofund Maritime and Marine Technologies for a new Era (MarTERA).