Description: The Joint Task Force, Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications (JTF SMART) Subsea Cables, is working to integrate environmental sensors for ocean bottom temperature, pressure, and seismic acceleration into submarine telecommunications cables. The purpose of SMART Cables is to support climate and ocean observation, sea level monitoring, observations of Earth structure, and tsunami and earthquake early warning and disaster risk reduction, including hazard quantification. Recent advances include regional SMART pilot systems that are the first steps to trans-ocean and global implementation. Examples of pilots include: InSEA wet demonstration project off Sicily at the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory Western Ionian Facility; New Caledonia and Vanuatu; French Polynesia Natitua South system connecting Tahiti to Tubaui to the south; Indonesia starting with short pilot systems working toward systems for the Sumatra-Java megathrust zone; and the CAM-2 ring system connecting Lisbon, Azores, and Madeira. This paper describes observing system simulations for these and other regions. Funding reflects a blend of government, development bank, philanthropic foundation, and commercial contributions. In addition to notable scientific and societal benefits, the telecommunications enterprise’s mission of global connectivity will benefit directly, as environmental awareness improves both the integrity of individual cable systems as well as the resilience of the overall global communications network. SMART cables support the outcomes of a predicted, safe, and transparent ocean as envisioned by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and the Blue Economy. As a continuation of the OceanObs’19 conference and community white paper (Howe et al., 2019, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00424), an overview of the SMART programme and a description of the status of ongoing projects are given.

Description: Mit der Nationalen Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI) verfolgen Bund und Länder das Ziel, Datenbestände aus der Forschung für das deutsche Wissenschaftssystem nach den FAIR-Prinzipien systematisch zu erschließen, damit diese für Dritte besser zugänglich gemacht werden. Die NFDI wird als Netzwerk von Konsortien über einen Zeitraum von drei Jahren ab 2020 in drei aufeinanderfolgenden Förderphasen aufgebaut. Eine wichtige Rolle spielt dabei auch die Abdeckung disziplinübergreifender Querschnittsthemen. Zur Förderung des Dialogs zur NFDI in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft veranstaltete das Helmholtz Open Science Office am 4. Mai 2021 ein digitales Helmholtz Open Science Forum unter dem Motto „Helmholtz in der Nationalen Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI)“. Als Impuls für die weitere Diskussion lud das Helmholtz Open Science Office alle interessierten Mitarbeitenden der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft zu diesem virtuellen Helmholtz Open Science Forum ein. Neben einer Einführung durch das NFDI-Direktorat stellten Vorträge die Bandbreite der NFDI-Beteiligung in Helmholtz dar (z. B. Praxisberichte bereits bewilligter Konsortien sowie Vorträge zum Umgang mit der NFDI aus Perspektive eines Zentrums, eines Forschungsbereichs und einer Plattform des Inkubators “Information & Data Science”); auch wurde das Zusammenspiel von NFDI und European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) vom Büro Brüssel der Gemeinschaft beleuchtet. Im Kern stand die Identifikation und Diskussion zu Helmholtz-spezifischen Aspekten bei der Realisierung der NFDI.

Description: Zum Austausch von Best Practices aus den Zentren und zur Förderung der FDM-Community in Helmholtz veranstaltete das Helmholtz Open Science Office am 3. Februar 2022 das erste „Helmholtz Open Science Praxisforum Forschungsdatenmanagement“. In dem Helmholtz-internen Forum wurden exemplarisch verschiedene Herangehensweisen aus Zentren zur Organisation des FDM vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus standen konkrete Service-Angebote zu FDM im Mittelpunkt. Außerdem wurde die Vernetzung mit externen Akteuren, z. B. im Rahmen der NFDI, EOSC oder der RDA, beleuchtet. Die regen Diskussionen verdeutlichten den hohen Bedarf nach übergreifendem Community-Building im Bereich des FDM innerhalb von Helmholtz und darüber hinaus.

Description: Very large tsunamis are associated with low probabilities of occurrence. In many parts of the world, these events have usually occurred in a distant time in the past. As a result, there is low risk perception and a lack of collective memories, making tsunami risk communication both challenging and complex. Furthermore, immense challenges lie ahead as population and risk exposure continue to increase in coastal areas. Through the last decades, tsunamis have caught coastal populations off-guard, providing evidence of lack of preparedness. Recent tsunamis, such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, 2011 Tohoku and 2018 Palu, have shaped the way tsunami risk is perceived and acted upon. Based on lessons learned from a selection of past tsunami events, this paper aims to review the existing body of knowledge and the current challenges in tsunami risk communication, and to identify the gaps in the tsunami risk management methodologies. The important lessons provided by the past events call for strengthening community resilience and improvement in risk-informed actions and policy measures. This paper shows that research efforts related to tsunami risk communication remain fragmented. The analysis of tsunami risk together with a thorough understanding of risk communication gaps and challenges is indispensable towards developing and deploying comprehensive disaster risk reduction measures. Moving from a broad and interdisciplinary perspective, the paper suggests that probabilistic hazard and risk assessments could potentially contribute towards better science communication and improved planning and implementation of risk mitigation measures.

Description: This brochure is designed for scientists and engineers of upcoming drilling projects and explains the key steps and important challenges in planning and executing continental scientific drilling.

Description: The demand for mobile applications in agriculture is increasing as smartphones are continuously developed and used for many purposes; one of them is managing pests and diseases in crops. Using mobile applications, farmers can detect early infection and improve the specified treatment and precautions to prevent further infection from occurring. Furthermore, farmers can communicate with agricultural authorities to manage their farm from home, and efficiently obtain information such as the spectral signature of crops. Therefore, the spectral signature can be used as a reference to detect pests and diseases with a hyperspectral sensor more efficiently than the conventional method, which takes more time to monitor the entire crop field. This review aims to show the current and future trends of mobile computing based on spectral signature analysis for pest and disease management. In this review, the use of mobile applications for pest and disease monitoring is evaluated based on image processing, the systems developed for pest and disease extraction, and the structure of steps outlined in developing a mobile application. Moreover, a comprehensive literature review on the utilisation of spectral signature analysis for pest and disease management is discussed. The spectral reflectance used in monitoring plant health and image processing for pest and disease diagnosis is mentioned. The review also elaborates on the integration of a spectral signature library within mobile application devices to obtain information about pests and disease in crop fields by extracting information from hyperspectral datasets. This review demonstrates the necessary scientific knowledge for visualising the spectral signature of pests and diseases using a mobile application, allowing this technology to be used in real-world agricultural settings.

Description: Nearly half a century ago, two papers postulated the likelihood of lunar lava tube caves using mathematical models. Today, armed with an array of orbiting and fly-by satellites and survey instrumentation, we have now acquired cave data across our solar system—including the identification of potential cave entrances on the Moon, Mars, and at least nine other planetary bodies. These discoveries gave rise to the study of planetary caves. To help advance this field, we leveraged the expertise of an interdisciplinary group to identify a strategy to explore caves beyond Earth. Focusing primarily on astrobiology, the cave environment, geology, robotics, instrumentation, and human exploration, our goal was to produce a framework to guide this subdiscipline through at least the next decade. To do this, we first assembled a list of 198 science and engineering questions. Then, through a series of social surveys, 114 scientists and engineers winnowed down the list to the top 53 highest priority questions. This exercise resulted in identifying emerging and crucial research areas that require robust development to ultimately support a robotic mission to a planetary cave— principally the Moon and/or Mars. With the necessary financial investment and institutional support, the research and technological development required to achieve these necessary advancements over the next decade are attainable. Subsequently, we will be positioned to robotically examine lunar caves and search for evidence of life within Martian caves; in turn, this will set the stage for human exploration and potential habitation of both the lunar and Martian subsurface.

Description: Iron-bearing nanominerals such as ferrihydrite, schwertmannite, and green rust behave as metastable precursors leading to the formation of more thermodynamically stable iron mineral phases (e.g., jarosite, goethite, hematite, and magnetite). However, this transformation may last from days to tens or even hundreds of years, making them the most predominant iron-bearing minerals at environmental conditions and at the human time scale. The present review characterizes ferrihydrite, schwertmannite, and green rust nanominerals according to their main physical and chemical properties, and at both nano- and meso-scales. It also presents a comprehensive review of the multiple past and present Earth environments where these nanominerals have played, and still play, a pivotal role in the geochemistry, mineralogy and environmental nanogeosciences of these environments. Finally, the present and future technological applications of these nanominerals as well as their role in the generation of a more sustainable human-Earth relationship is discussed, with a special emphasis on their use in new circular economies and green based technologies.

Description: Marine sediments comprise one of the largest microbial habitats and organic carbon sinks on the planet. However, it is unclear how variations in sediment physicochemical properties impact microorganisms on a global scale. Here we investigate patterns in the distribution of microbial cells, organic carbon, and the amounts of power used by microorganisms in global sediments. Our results show that sediment on continental shelves and margins is predominantly anoxic and contains cells whose power utilization decreases with sediment depth and age. Sediment in abyssal zones contains microbes that use low amounts of power on a per cell basis, across large gradients in sediment depth and age. We find that trends in cell abundance, POC storage and degradation, and microbial power utilization are mainly structured by depositional setting and redox conditions, rather than sediment depth and age. We also reveal distinct trends in per-cell power regime across different depositional settings, from maxima of ∼10–16 W cell–1 in recently deposited shelf sediments to minima of 〈10–20 W cell–1 in deeper and ancient sediments. Overall, we demonstrate broad global-scale connections between the depositional setting and redox conditions of global sediment, and the amounts of organic carbon and activity of deep biosphere microorganisms.