RugOBSS - Hackathon 2025
In the European Union, 40% of marine invasive alien species are macroalgae. Rugulopteryx okamurae, a brown macroalgae first detected in 2015 in the Strait of Gibraltar, has been causing biodiversity degradation, ecosystem disruption and economic losses in tourism, aquaculture and fisheries. Since its introduction, it has rapidly expanded through both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, creating frequent high biomass accumulations on beaches.
The early-warning detection and forecasting of macroalgal biomass would help affected stakeholders to better manage its removal. To assess this problem, and having existing long-term ground-truth data, we suggest developing a habitat suitability model to accurately monitor these macroalgae species trends, and integrating satellite- derived products and modelling to relate environmental variables and forecast biomass drift.
The current database with ground-truth data and detection through remote sensing data could be complemented by Blue-Cloud resources, leveraging a forecast service for our solution. In this platform, four Virtual Labs would be of interest, including: Integration of Coastal Observations along Europe; Coastal Currents from Observations; ICOOE; and Marine Environmental Indicators.
Moreover, the satellite-derived macroalgae detection service could be integrated into the EDITO platform, together with CMEMS variables of interest such as currents, wave/wind direction, sea surface temperature and EMODnet bathymetry.
This information will help users spatially understand the rapid invasion trends, monitor the biomass in near-real time and forecast potential high-risk areas. Our solution will help to solve Challenge 2 by assessing the impact of invasive species on tourist beaches.