The Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences

2027 Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences

January 12-15, 2027

Seeing the Invisible: Scientific Visualization of Multimedia Heavy-Metal Pollution in Sanmen Bay as a Bridge Between Ocean Science and Art
ID:1562 Poster Presentation

2027-01-15 16:15 (China Standard Time)

Session:Session 40 - Ocean Art—Ocean Science - Collaborations Between Artists and Ocean Scientists

Abstract
Marine pollution is often invisible: potentially toxic elements (PTEs) move unseen through seawater, sediments, and living organisms, and the science that tracks them usually stays locked inside tables, indices, and statistical models that few outside the laboratory can read. Drawing on our multimedia study of eight PTEs (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Hg, As, and Ni) in Sanmen Bay — the “Cradle of Chinese Mud Crabs” — this presentation explores how scientific visualization can act as a bridge between ocean science and art, turning abstract data into an interpretable visual language. We show how three families of images speak to different audiences: GIS pollution-hotspot maps that give contamination a place and a geography; a graphical abstract that compresses the biogeochemical journey of trace elements — from water to sediment to the shellfish and crabs of a fishing community — into a single readable scene; and, most strikingly, the topological grids of a self-organizing-map (SOM) neural network, whose colour fields and clustered patterns render the machine's “reading” of the bay as an almost painterly composition. Together these visuals translate quantitative findings — the marked enrichment of Cd and Hg as key ecological stressors, and four apportioned pollution sources — into forms that invite attention, curiosity, and dialogue. We argue that the graphical abstract and the SOM map are not merely decorative endpoints but genuine ArtScience objects: designed images that make the imperceptible perceptible and carry environmental knowledge back to the communities it concerns. The talk shares these visuals, reflects on the aesthetic choices behind them, and considers how scientist–artist collaboration could deepen the ocean literacy of coastal audiences.
Speaker
Yuhong Lin Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources

Author
Yuhong Lin Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources

    Important Dates

    • Jan 30

      2026

      Session / Event proposals open

    • Mar 31

      2026

      Session / Event proposals close
      (Extended to April 7)

    • Apr 30

      2026

      Session acceptance notifications

    • Apr 30

      2026

      Abstract submissions & registration open

    • Jun 30

      2026

      Abstract submissions close
      (Extended to July 21)

    • Aug 31

      2026

      Abstract acceptance notifications

    • Sep 15

      2026

      Scientific program released

    • Oct 15

      2026

      Early bird registration closes

    • Jan 12–15

      2027

      XMAS 2027