ALBERT

Description: Digital twins are fine-grained digital replicas of physical objects and systems which have been widely applied in the engineering realm for tasks such as engine optimization and port management. Recently, digital twins have also caught the attention of marine scientists as a solution to socio-environmental problems. By bundling and providing access to observational data, models, and simulations, digital twins allow users to explore current and future ‘what-if’ scenarios, especially related to human interactions with the ocean. High-value application areas include fisheries and mariculture, marine protected areas, ocean-based tourism, ecological forecasting, nature-based solutions, marine infrastructure development, and the interactions between all of these with an ever-growing collection of data streams.In the context of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, we launched the international programme “DITTO - The Digital Twins of the Ocean“ (ditto-oceandecade.org) in May 2022. DITTO’s mission is to develop and share a common understanding of Digital Twins of the Ocean, to establish best practice examples and to advance a digital framework to empower ocean professionals to effectively create their own application-focused digital twin. This powerful framework will enable users to visualize and explore ocean knowledge and empower ocean professionals and models, forecasts, citizen scientists, policymakers, and the general public alike.A successful regional implementation of a Digital Twin depends on four aspects: A) a capable ocean observing system B) An innovative ocean modeling and prediction capability C) An interoperable, shared and easily accessible data environment. D) An interactive user interface. International cooperation will be key for success.

Description: Ocean Census is a new Large-Scale Strategic Science Mission aimed at accelerating the discovery and description of marine species. This mission addresses the knowledge gap of the diversity and distribution of marine life whereby of an estimated 1 million to 2 million species of marine life between 75% to 90% remain undescribed to date. Without improved knowledge of marine biodiversity, tackling the decline and eventual extinction of many marine species will not be possible. The marine biota has evolved over 4 billion years and includes many branches of the tree of life that do not exist on land or in freshwater. Understanding what is in the ocean and where it lives is fundamental science, which is required to understand how the ocean works, the direct and indirect benefits it provides to society and how human impacts can be reduced and managed to ensure marine ecosystems remain healthy. We describe a strategy to accelerate the rate of ocean species discovery by: 1) employing consistent standards for digitisation of species data to broaden access to biodiversity knowledge and enabling cybertaxonomy; 2) establishing new working practices and adopting advanced technologies to accelerate taxonomy; 3) building the capacity of stakeholders to undertake taxonomic and biodiversity research and capacity development, especially targeted at low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) so they can better assess and manage life in their waters and contribute to global biodiversity knowledge; and 4) increasing observational coverage on dedicated expeditions. Ocean Census, is conceived as a global open network of scientists anchored by Biodiversity Centres in developed countries and LMICs. Through a collaborative approach, including co-production of science with LMICs, and by working with funding partners, Ocean Census will focus and grow current efforts to discover ocean life globally, and permanently transform our ability to document, describe and safeguard marine species.