Implementation of Wireless environmental Sensor Networks in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands using the Long Range (LoRa) technology and Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) protocol

The Zone Atelier Antarctique et Terres Australes (ZATA) is a French CNRS Long Term Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure (LTSER) and one of the two French components of eLTER (Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem & Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure). It aims at monitoring the dynamics of biodiversity in the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic marine and terrestrial ecosystems, analyzing biodiversity patterns, mechanisms and interactions, as well as the effect of direct anthropogenic activities (fishing, tourism, management) and global changes (climate, toxics) on the resilience of biodiversity and ecosystems. Understanding the dynamics of biodiversity requires a correct assessment of environmental variations in either marine, terrestrial or freshwater ecosystems. Up to now, such an assessment is mainly achieved in the French Southern Lands by each IPEV scientific project individually and at the geographic scale of the respective study areas. Additionally, most of the sensors deployed in the field must be accessed on a regular schedule so as to download data but also to check for sensor integrity and state. Finally, not all datasets are fully known by the whole scientific community, since it requires an effort for each project to provide access to these data. In this context, the present WiSeNet project # 1258 (Implementation of Wireless environmental Sensor Networks in the French Southern and Antarctic Territories using the Long Range (LoRa) technology and Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN ) protocol) proposes a joint effort to design a common strategy between scientific projects of ZATA (but not only) and the French Polar Institute, to conceive, experiment and deploy intelligent networks of sensors in the various districts (Crozet, Kerguelen, and Dumont D’Urville). The main objectives are to create a technical, economical and methodological synergy between projects, to produce a replicable design for intelligent networks, wherein the Polar Institute resources are optimally allocated, and thereby to help science projects to take the next step of environmental variation sensoring.