Developed in 2015, Sense-T’s oyster biosensors monitor environmental and biological change. Oysters are highly sensitive to changing environmental conditions, and can act like sentinel species of environmental change. Created via a collaborative project in conjunction with the Tasmanian Salmonid Growers’ Association, IMAS at the University of Tasmania and CSIRO, the biosensors were fitted to a network of oysters in order to determine their reaction to changing environmental conditions. The Tasmanian coast, where the project is located, has abundant oyster harvesting, but oyster cultivators are worried about pollution and climate change. Given the oyster’s sensitivity to environmental changes, the project aims to link environmental parameters such as water temperature, salinity, pH and algal abundance to biological parameters of the oysters (like heartbeat and metabolism). The biosensors act in real time, giving aquaculturists increased information on environmental threats and informing adaptive management. The extent to which this technology can be replicated is as yet unclear; while these findings may be useful to aquaculturists on the Tasmanian coast, conditions are variable in other parts of the ocean. If these calibration issues can be solved, the creators hope to offer this to other oyster cultivators around the world.
Sj, A., & Ng, E. (2015). “Aquaculture Sentinels: Smart-farming with Biosensor Equipped Stock“.
Categories
Biodiversity, Data, Ecological Monitoring, Industry/Natural Commodities, Monitoring, Regulation
Air Pollution Robot
The dangers of air pollution to human health are well documented, though the traditional methodology of collecting and reporting on sample lags behind the need to keep abreast and regulate air pollution in a meaningful amount of time. The use of drones and robots have been identified by researchers as resources that can be tweaked […]
Artificial Life, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Industry/Natural Commodities, Lifestyle, Monitoring
Telematic Rivers
Erica Kermani’s artwork seeks to answer a central question: if rivers were seeing an equal, living entity, would humans take issues like climate change threatening them more seriously? In his year-long art exhibition in 2017, Kermani, in collaboration with Diana Salcedo & Jeana Chesnik, created a new forum of interaction between humans and rivers to […]
Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Visual Technologies
Co-occupied Boundaries
Art is easily found in nature but rarely is what considered art today inherently natural. The concept of co-occupied mediums that serve to be both functional for nature and aesthetically pleasing to people is being actively explored by Asya Ilgun and Phil Ayres, from the CITAstudio at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In […]
Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Visual Technologies