The OAO (Oceanographic Autonomous Observations) team operates automatic platforms such as gliders and profiling floats and is also strongly implicated in the technological development of their "new generation" in terms of scientific payloads. The acquired multi-sensor data, particularly focusing on marine biogeochemically-relevant data (e.g. oxygen, nitrate, chlorophyll-a, amount of light penetrating the Ocean) together with temperature and salinity, then serve within the wide fields of fundamental research and operational applications. Within this framework and making use of the exceptional characteristics of such autonomous platforms (e.g. multidisciplinary real-time data in high resolution, possibility for sub-regional to global perspectives), the OAO team also seeks to contribute the more and more towards educational and outreach activities. On a local/and international basis, thus several activities are proposed and the development of attractive outreach approaches is undertaken.
Process studies employing autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) off central California have advanced the scientific understanding of harmful algal blooms (HABs), as well as the educational resources to explain them. These process studies gathered multidisciplinary observations from AUVs, moorings, ships, aircraft, and satellites. Moored systems included autonomous robotic biochemistry systems for in situ detection of HAB species and toxins.
Integrating the knowledge gained from a series of process studies, we developed a visualization of processes that influence bloom ecology in Monterey Bay, California. This visualization, rendered to static and dynamic content, emphasizes how HAB ecology is profoundly influenced by processes that originate at the boundaries of coastal marine ecosystems. In its dynamic form, the illustration is presented in language that is accessible to resource managers and the general public.
A poster presentation of the Lamont-Doherty Secondary School Field Research Program in Piedmont Marsh, including a description of the marsh, list of participants, and information on plankton tows, sediment accretion, fish, phragmites, soil carbon, hydrology, and nutrients concentrations.
The Mediterranean, a semi-enclosed regional sea with more than twenty riparian states, has its specificities and characteristics from an environmental and societal point of view. It represents a challenging “playground” for all concerned, including actors within the fields of research or decision-making. In the light of this, it also seems necessary to develop strategies and collaborations to educate and outreach on “Mare nostrum” and the today’s challenges associated.
We believe that public outreach is one of our duties to society. We organize activities in order to popularize oceanography and the impact of climate change on marine ecosystem in the schools. The activities are mainly proposed to 10-12 year old children and they are organized in two meetings. These activities started in the framework of the European IP Project SESAME (Southern European Seas: Assessing and Modeling Ecosystem changes), but they continue today.
In 2007, The Island School launched the BESS Program targeting the next generation of Bahamian leadership who will be most important for the social, environmental, and economic stability of this island nation.
BESS students enroll in a year-long, high school post-graduate program that includes a semester at The Island School and a six-month internship at a conservation-related organization such as Bahamas Reef Environment Education Foundation, the Bahamas National Trust, or the Cape Eleuthera Institute. The internship gives students real-world work experience and helps them develop an understanding of the environmental and conservation issues that are of primary importance to The Bahamas.
