Answers are being sought not only in Latvia
It is believed that overall we have a great deal of data about the Baltic Sea, and it has been extensively studied, yet a large amount of information still remains on researchers’ personal computers, Strāķe noted. This is why, in recent years, more and more data have been compiled into openly accessible databases, including the institute’s own database LATMARE, where researchers upload data collected during monitoring cruises so they are available to anyone interested. Other countries are doing the same, and now researchers have decided to bring these datasets together.
“Right now we are examining how much data are stored in such international databases, how freely accessible they are, whether there are any barriers between them, and we are trying to address important questions within this virtual platform,” the researcher explained. This large‑scale collaboration project is being carried out in countries around several seas — the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Mediterranean.
Researchers in various institutes around these seas are actively working to use data to find answers to key questions. It is an extensive effort involving enormous datasets.
“For example, our question in the Baltic Sea is to determine why the Gulf of Riga is becoming browner, what influences this browning, and how it might affect the organisms living there,” Strāķe said.
The more rows of data available to researchers, the clearer and more precise the answers can be. It may turn out that data from, say, the Gulf of Finland are very useful for understanding the situation in the Gulf of Riga — and vice versa.
“At first it may seem that data coming from the Finnish institute or perhaps from the North Sea are unrelated, but when we work together, we realise that these issues are much broader. For example, the browning aspect I mentioned is present throughout the Baltic Sea. In the Gulf of Riga, along the Finnish coast, and even in the North Sea basin, changes in water colour are a current concern,” the researcher explained.
Therefore, each scientific institute along the Baltic and North Sea coasts is trying to address the issue. But each researcher or research team approaches it from a slightly different angle. Only by combining these perspectives can a complete picture emerge. That is why it is important to share data and make them accessible to everyone.
“No single institution can cover all aspects. Contributions from different seas provide new opportunities and a slightly different viewpoint. When we come together in partner meetings and look at everything collectively, a much broader picture emerges — and that is the main reason why these long data series are valuable, especially when they are openly accessible,” Strāķe emphasised.
Digital twins
In addition, there is another benefit — if the data are accessible to everyone, any other institute or researcher can replicate the analysis and verify whether the calculations are reliable.
The next goal would be to use all these internationally collected data, including those from smart buoys and other technologies, and combine them to create a digital model of, for example, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean or the North Sea.
Researchers often refer to these models as digital twins, and they help both to address current problems and to forecast future challenges. However, Strāķe stressed that such models would be created in an ideal world — at present, the task appears too complex. “Right now there are many problems, an unbelievable number of problems. Even though we say our databases are open, they are still not compatible with one another. The same goes for satellite data or smart buoy data — the information is collected and is supposedly freely available, but these data still require analysis before they can be used further,” she explained.
Therefore, for now, researchers are still at the first step — collaboration that, in the future, would allow data collected across all hydroecology institutes to become accessible, open and easy to integrate.
