Finding forams with AI helps expand knowledge of the world's oceans

AI that provides species-level identification of forams could be incorporated into a robotic system that expands scientific understanding of the world's oceans both now and in prehistoric times.

This is the claim of researchers in the US whose AI program can identify six species of forams, which are microscopic marine organisms that have been prevalent in Earth's oceans for over 100 million years.

When they die, they leave behind minuscule shells that are said to provide insights into the characteristics of the oceans as they existed when the forams were alive. Different types of foram species thrive in different kinds of ocean environments, and chemical measurements can tell scientists about everything from the ocean's chemistry to its temperature when the shell was being formed.

Evaluating foram shells and fossils is time-consuming, so an interdisciplinary team of researchers, with expertise ranging from robotics to paleoceanography, is working to automate the process.