CaltechAUTHORS
Published May 11, 2024 | Version Published
Conference Paper Open

DeepSee: Multidimensional Visualizations of Seabed Ecosystems

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Georgia Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 3. ROR icon Harvard University
  • 4. ROR icon New York Times
  • 5. Research & Development, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Insitute, United States
  • 6. ROR icon Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
  • 7. Interaction Design, ArtCenter College of Design, United States
  • 8. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab

Abstract

Scientists studying deep ocean microbial ecosystems use limited numbers of sediment samples collected from the seafloor to characterize important life-sustaining biogeochemical cycles in the environment. Yet conducting fieldwork to sample these extreme remote environments is both expensive and time consuming, requiring tools that enable scientists to explore the sampling history of field sites and predict where taking new samples is likely to maximize scientific return. We conducted a collaborative, user-centered design study with a team of scientific researchers to develop DeepSee, an interactive data workspace that visualizes 2D and 3D interpolations of biogeochemical and microbial processes in context together with sediment sampling history overlaid on 2D seafloor maps. Based on a field deployment and qualitative interviews, we found that DeepSee increased the scientific return from limited sample sizes, catalyzed new research workflows, reduced long-term costs of sharing data, and supported teamwork and communication between team members with diverse research goals.

Copyright and License

© 2024 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

Acknowledgement

Funding for this work was provided by grants from the National Science Foundation including the STC Center For Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations and NSF-OCE 2048666 (to V.J.O.). D.R.U. is a National Science Foundation-Ocean Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2126631), R.L.W. is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, and S.A.P. is supported through a grant from the NASA FINESST program (80NSSC22K1336). V.J.O. is a science fellow in the Canadian Institute for Advanced Science (CIFAR) in the Earth 4D program.
Data included in this study was collected during cruise FK181031 on the R/V Falkor supported by the Schmidt Ocean Institute. AUV data have been archived at the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS) in the data compilation titled PescaderoBasin_MBARI5.
The research was carried out at in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). The development of DeepSee was enabled by Data to Discovery6, a data visualization, art and design research initiative based at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and ArtCenter College of Design; this support is gratefully acknowledged. Finally, we would also like to thank Jasmine Otto for her valuable discussions about this research.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Supplemental Material

Video Preview (MP4)

Video Presentation (MP4)

DeepSee Video Figure (MP4)

Source Code and Datasets (ZIP)

 

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Additional details

Related works

Is new version of
Discussion Paper: arXiv:2403.04761 (arXiv)

Funding

National Science Foundation
OCE-2048666
National Science Foundation
2126631
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC22K1336
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NM0018D0004

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS) , Division of Biology and Biological Engineering (BBE)
Publication Status
Published