Artificial intelligence studying cetaceans in the Gulf of Taranto – Science

(ANSAmed) – ROME, MARCH 1 – Artificial intelligence systems have discovered that the striped dolphin, bottlenose dolphin and Risso’s dolphin are the most widespread cetaceans in the northern Ionian Sea. It is one of the findings of Italian research published in the journal Scientific Reports and conducted by the Institute of Industrial Systems and Technologies for Advanced Manufacturing of the National Research Council (Cnr-Stiima) in Bari with the Jonian Dolphin Conservation Society, Fondazione Centro Euro-on Climate Change (Cmcc) and the Universities of Bari and Basilicata. AI techniques for monitoring cetaceans in the Gulf of Taranto were trained with data from the European Union’s Copernicus Programme, European Marine Services; Visibility data collected over a 10-year period in northern Ionian by the Jonian Dolphin Conservation was also used in the research.

For Rosalia Camiseta, an expert in artificial intelligence from Cnr-Stiima, assessing the conservation status of these species is “strategic for the development of effective plans for the sustainable management of marine resources and, at the same time, for the preservation of critical marine animal areas of interest to society.” To do this, he continues, “we used ecological descriptors provided by the CMCC Foundation and obtained through the use of spatial remote sensing techniques and digital modeling products of the European Maritime Base Service, which provide a wide range of information in relation to the data collected on the environment in which the dolphins live. It was examined for the first time and presented in a scientific study.

“Artificial intelligence has shown that the concentration of inorganic nutrients, such as nitrates and phytoplankton, temperature and salinity, are the environmental variables that most affect the distribution and abundance of the cetaceans under study,” revealed Roberto Carlucci, of Barry University. Indeed, as demonstrated by analyzes by ecologists in the Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Environment at Barry University, these specific ecological parameters of a marine habitat are directly related to primary production and, therefore, to the abundant presence of prey.” (ANSAMD).