OUR MISSION
Create and implement a comprehensive,sustainable, easy to use Best Practices system for the ocean research and applications community. This includes:
- A sustained, open access, and internationally recognized repository with advanced indexing and search technology,also featuring DOI- based document IDs
- Best Practices in Ocean Observing Research Topic in Frontiers in Marine Science journal
- Community support for training and capacity building
CONTRIBUTORS & SPONSORS
IODE, GOOS, JCOMM, AWI,IEEE, IOOS, SAEON, SOCIBAtlantOS, INTAROS, ODIP,OceanObs RCN, Geoscience Australia
LINKS
OBPS
OBP Repository
Frontiers Research Topic
OBP on Twitter
Newsletter Archive |
What's Happening in OBPS?
New Manuals on OBPS
The Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) has submitted all their current available best practices to the OBPS here, in recognition of the global need to reduce fragmentation and limited accessibility of many guidelines, standards, and best practices (see full article). The IMOS manuals complement the benthic sampling field manuals released in 2018 through the NESP Marine Hub collection, thereby strengthening the consistency and associated comparability of marine observations and sampling throughout Australia.
To maintain currency, best practices must be periodically reviewed to determine if updates are needed. This was recently the case with the 2010 Go-SHIP hydrography nutrient manual which has been rewritten and submitted to the Ocean Best Practice System here. This manual reviews basic sample collection and storage, laboratory best practices, and specific nutrient methods in use by many laboratories doing repeat hydrography.
The Marine Technology Society (MTS) has announced its 2019 award winners, and we are pleased that OBPS contributor Ravi Venkatesan has been recognised as an MTS Fellow. Since 1975, this title has been awarded to MTS members who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of the Society’s objectives and who have distinguished themselves in their fields.
Journal Update
Currently 12 papers have been published to Frontiers of Science research theme on Best Practices, with a further five in review stages. Our research theme now shows more than 26,000 views, with submission open until 30 November.
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OceanObs'19 Update
Ocean Obs’19 is only two weeks away! The Ocean Best Practice Working Group (OBPWG) invites you to join us at the OceanObs’19 Conference breakout session “Ocean Best Practices, supporting efficiency, interoperability and quality ocean services”. The session will be held Thursday afternoon (19 Sept) starting at 14:00. This session will consider ocean-observing priorities for best practices across the ocean observing value chain including their creation, their use, and approaches to improve training and adoption at local, regional and global scales consistent with the FAIR principles. The discussions will also include the benefits to you and colleagues involving sustainability, peer review and accommodating the latest technologies. The breakout will be an informal setting between expert panelists and participants on these topics to formulate recommendations for further developments of best practices making them easier to use, and identification of use cases as models for the ocean observing community. In addition, the Monday Plenary Panel will feature Juliet Hermes of our OBPWG who will talk Information, Best Practices and Standards. This will be followed by a poster on Best Practices. We look forward to meeting and talking with you!
Community News
Seabed 2030: Building a Complete Global Bathymetry Map by 2030
Vicki Ferrini
Bathymetry data is important observational information that can be used for a wide variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies. Despite its importance for understanding processes at and beneath the seafloor, and throughout the water column, only a small portion of the global seafloor has been mapped with direct measurement. The Nippon Foundation – GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project aims to bring together all available bathymetric data to produce a complete map of the world ocean floor by 2030 (Mayer et al 2018) . The project aspires to empower the world to make policy decisions, sustainablyuse the ocean, and undertake scientific research that is informed by a detailed understanding of the World Ocean floor.
Seabed 2030 is an ambitious global initiative that relies heavily on coordination, capacity building and partnerships at local, regional, and global scales. Best practices with respect to data standards, data documentation, and acquisition of new data will be important throughout the project. By working with stakeholders to assemble information about the coverage of all existing data, public or embargoed, the project seeks to identify gaps in data coverage to prioritize new data acquisition. Opportunistic data acquisition aboard all vessels of opportunity are an important component of “mapping the gaps,” and crowd-sourcing is anticipated to be a significant source of data. It is also envisioned that emerging technology in ocean mapping sensors and platforms, as well as data processing and integration techniques will be important accelerators for this initiative. Please visit www.seabed2030.org for more information.
Essential Ocean Variables: Marine Turtle, Bird and Mammal Abundance and Distribution
Jordan van Stavel
Marine turtle, bird and mammal species are wide-ranging, large-bodied, long-lived animals that play a key role in structuring marine ecosystems. Also known as ecosystem engineers these megafauna interact and influence the population dynamics and distribution of important prey species as well as directly impacting their environment through nutrient exchange and transport. In this Essential Ocean Variable (EOV ) category, abundance refers to the number of individuals within a population while the distribution refers to the geographic or spatial extent of habitats used by individuals within the population. As they are at or near the top of the food web, marine turtle, bird and mammals are threatened by, and particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic contaminants that bio-accumulate up the food chain. Humans also face these threats as they share a similar trophic position and often consume the same marine resources. Marine turtle, bird and mammals are long-lived with life histories that are characterised by low reproductive rates, which when depleted may take many years to recovery. Therefore, these organisms are quite sensitive to human activities such as fisheries, and climate change, which makes them an excellent indicator of long term ecosystem health.
As “charismatic megafauna” marine turtle, bird and mammals have intrinsically high societal value. Given the societal importance of these organisms and their importance to marine ecosystems, it is crucial to monitor and evaluate the interactions and their variability by understanding the abundance and distribution of the turtles, birds and mammals. Such data will be used managers for stock assessments and to assess long term trends in marine ecosystems. This EOV is of critical importance for ensuring that the appropriate marine management measures are in place and their effectiveness is monitored, and also as marine turtles, birds and mammals can act as sentinels for human health risks.
In order to monitor this EOV, various methods have been implemented. The main methods are indicated below and the observing networks associated with this at a global level are SWOT, SOOS/CCAMLR-CEMP and ORNITHOECO.
• Species presence/absence
• Population Density
• Population structure; Age, sex, reproductive status
• Reproductive rate (natality or fecundity)
• Count Data
• Repeated individual presence (tracking/re-sights)
More information regarding the Best Practices associated with this EOV can be found on the Ocean Best Practice repository, as well as the GOOS specification sheet.
Workshop Summary - Designing the Global Observing System for Marine Life
A global ocean observing system based on monitoring biological essential ocean variables (EOVs) is urgently needed to assess, predict and manage the status of marine biodiversity and ecosystems. Earlier this year, more than 20 international specialists at Santa Barbara, California, met to design the necessary backbone for global data collection and reporting. Workshop co-leader Nic Bax says existing data collection networks vary widely in scope and sophistication, and for the next decade, technological developments supporting increasingly automated measurements, as well as significant improvements in metadata and data architecture, will be crucial. Just as critical will be encouraging marine scientists to share their data by making it findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) through the use of common metadata standards. The upcoming OceanObs’19 conference will be an opportunity to build the international consensus on what the global ocean observing system should look like.
Looking Ahead
Upcoming Events
Make a Difference
There are ways that you can make the OBPS a useful and robust resource for the ocean research and applications community:
- Contribute to the Repository - we will help you to do it.
- Become a user of best practices - they are yours to use.
- Volunteer to be a peer reviewer and also contribute methods papers to the journal.
- Contribute to the newsletter – tell us about your successes and lessons learned and news from your organization.
- Participate with us as an associate.
Contact obpcommunity@oceanbestpractices.org for further details
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