Documents

Report on the 2015 Antarctic Near-shore and Terrestrial Observing System (ANTOS) Action Group Workshop

April 2016

Executive summary

Antarctic Near-Shore and Terrestrial Observation System (ANTOS) is a SCAR Action Group, established in August 2014. It is a biologically focussed initiative to coordinate a cross continent- and cross national programme-scale assessment of environmental variability and change. A major aim is to foster and facilitate collection and sharing of long-term automated climate and associated environmental observations across Antarctica and national programmes. In August 2015, a workshop was held to develop an implementation plan for ANTOS. The workshop was attended by 25 researchers from 12 countries (Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, NZ, Sweden, UK, USA).

At this workshop key characteristics of locations, parameters to measure, frequencies, scales and gradients of measurement, and the technical requirements of the system were discussed (i.e., what do we need to measure and monitor in order to detect change, where do we need to do this, and how?). The strong consensus was for locations that share basic characteristics of (a) representative biodiversity for the region concerned, (b) environmental features likely to be informative in a context of change studies, and (c) the practicality of access and working conditions. A 3-tiered approach both to platform complexity and cost was recommended, to enable wide national programme involvement and achievement of the scientific goals. At all tiers, biologically relevant attributes of change need to be assessed within six broad criteria (physical environment, colonisation, diversity, distribution, functional and genetic). ANTOS installations will use a suite of agreed methodologies to enable robust cross-programme and continent-wide comparisons of information. An ANTOS database will be designed and established to allow easy access to the real-time data that is intimately linked with existing databases and follows internationally accepted protocols.

The strength of ANTOS is its (i) unification of researchers over the necessity for, and the extreme value of, a long-term vision for observation systems to understand biological systems in a changing environment, and (ii) the comprehensive continent-wide approach. The value of this information in informing policy and management of the region at national and international levels cannot be understated.

Report on the 2016 Antarctic Near-shore and Terrestrial Observing System (ANTOS) Action Group Workshop

Date: Sunday, 21 August 2016, 12:00-16:00
Location: Renaissance Hotel Kuala Lumpur – Function Room 4

Workshop organisers: Craig Cary (University of Waikato, New Zealand) Vonda Cummings (NIWA, New Zealand)

Notes: Eric Sokol (University of Colorado, USA)

Executive summary

The Antarctic Near-shore and Terrestrial Observation System (ANTOS) is a SCAR Action Group that was created in August 2014 to coordinate a biologically focused, international effort to collect data necessary to assess environmental and biological variability and change in terrestrial and near-shore habitats across the Antarctic continent. Long-term goals of ANTOS include the establishment of technical guidelines for an internationally-coordinated installation of sensor networks, and standards for long-term data collection, storage, and sharing among national programs. The ANTOS Action Group hosted a workshop at the 2016 SCAR Open Science Conference (OSC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 21 August, 2016 that was attended by 50 researchers representing 16 countries (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom, and USA). The purpose of the workshop was to report to the international research community on progress toward the action group goals and to discuss the next steps toward implementing ANTOS as a long-term program.

At this workshop, ANTOS committee members reported on progress and deliverables from previous workshops that will direct the design and implementation of ANTOS, and attendees at the workshop discussed program “next steps”. Progress to date includes: (1) a preliminary version of a database management schema and user interface (UI) that will be the backbone of an ANTOS website. This has been developed by Soon Gyu Hong from the Korean Polar Research Institute (KOPRI). The website and database will provide a portal for data management and sharing among the international research community; (2) Action group committee members, led by Byron Adams (Brigham Young University, United States) have designed an online survey to poll the international community to designate suitable, high-priority sites that should be included in the ANTOS network; (3) Action group members have reviewed technical aspects of site instrumentation (e.g., sensor networks, telemetry, remote data transfer) and have drafted technical guidelines for standards for a 3-tier system to guide investment in ANTOS site infrastructure by national programs; (4) Peter Convey (British Antarctic Survey, BAS) presented results from a BAS supported workshop to create an Atlas of Ice-Free Areas of Antarctica to identify prospective terrestrial ice-free sites that should be prioritized to be included in the ANTOS network. The ANTOS action group has successfully identified a need for international collaboration to measure and understand continent-wide, long-term trends in Antarctic biology and environmental parameters, and has begun to design a framework for a coordinated international effort to address these issues. As such, the ANTOS action group is seeking to gain designation as a SCAR expert group by early 2017. As ANTOS shifts to an expert group, next steps include a cost-benefit analysis of SCAR investment in ANTOS, conducting the survey to identify candidate ANTOS sites, implementing the database design and user interface to create an ANTOS data portal website, developing a working relationship with COMNAP to communicate why it is necessary national programs invest in such an effort, and develop mock-up examples of the three investment tiers to facilitate this communication with national funding agencies and research programmes.

Report on the Workshops held in 2018 by the Antarctic Nearshore and Terrestrial Observing System (ANTOS) Expert Group:

• Workshop 1: ANTOS Scientific Committee Workshop, Genoa, Italy, 11-13 June 2018
• Workshop 2: ANTOS at the SCAR Open Science Conference in Davos, Switzerland, 16 June 2018

Agenda of the ANTOS workshop prior to the SCAR OSC meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Date: Sunday, 21 August
Time: 12:00-16:00
Location: Renaissance Hotel Kuala Lumpur – Function Room 4, Ground Floor