Abstract
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are one of nature’s responses to nutrient enrichment in aquatic systems and increasingly occur in coastal waters, such as in Lampung Bay and Jakarta Bay, Indonesia. HABs present environmental and fisheries management challenges due to their unpredictability, spatial coverage, and detrimental health effects on coastal organisms, including humans. Here, an automated algae species identification system assisted and validated by expert judgment was proposed. The system used ontology as guidance to determine the species of algae and certainty factors to indicate the level of confidence of the experts when providing a statement or judgment for a particular object or event under consideration. The system was tested to identify 60 samples using 51 predetermined algal characteristics. The tests were narrowed down to the 20 most common HAB-causing algae types found in the study sites and compared with identification by experts. The results showed that the system successfully identified the test data with an accuracy of 73.33%. The system also had a high agreement (above 79.75%) with the identification performed by experts on six algae species. Further improvement of the system’s accuracy could facilitate its use as an alternative tool in rapid algal identification or part of an early warning system for HABs.
Highlights
Algal blooms and red tides have become common in many saline or freshwater systems worldwide, including Indonesia
This study proposed a certainty factor (CF) to determine how confident an expert is in the assertion that an algal under consideration has specific characteristics
STUDY SITES AND DATA Based on the Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) events that occurred in Lampung Bay and Jakarta Bay over the last ten years, the types of algae reported include [21,22,23]: (1) Nitzschia, (2) Pseudo-nitzschia, (3) Skeletonema costatum, (4) Thalassiosira, (5) Chaetoceros socialis, (6) Noctiluca scintillans, (7) Protoperidinium claudicans, (8) Prorocentrum micans, (9) Gymnodinium catenatum, (10) Gymnodinium sanguineum, (11) Gyrodinium lachryma, (12) Pyrodinium bahamense, (13) Gambierdiscus toxicus, (14) Alexandrium, (15) Ceratium furca, (16) Dinophysis caudata, (17) Protoperidinium, (18) Trichodesmium, (19) Cochlodinium polykrikoides, and (20) Dinophysis acuminata
Summary
Algal blooms and red tides have become common in many saline or freshwater systems worldwide, including Indonesia. Both are considered a phenomenon in which one or more algae/phytoplanktons increase rapidly in the water column. Some causative red tide species are harmful and produce toxins that can directly kill the organism affected or be transferred through the food web chain from which they retain the name as harmful algal blooms or HABs [2]. HABs can cause respiratory damage to aquatic organisms due to the build-up of algal or its remains in the respiratory system and suffocating hypoxic conditions. Despite HABs being frequently reported by the media, research institutions, and government, HABs prevention or efficient mitigation to avoid or reduce losses to fish farmers or mass fish mortality has yet to be seen
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