Happy New Year, Happy New Newsletter!
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With the new year comes a new incarnation of our newsletter. You’ll notice a shorter and (hopefully) more consistent format.
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As always, please send us your feedback at newsletter@oceanbestpractices.org.
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Currently 15 papers have been published to Frontiers of Science research theme on Best Practices in Ocean Observing. The most recent additions are about in situ sensors for ocean acidication research, sea ice based ocean profilers , and an international partnership for quality assurance of oceanographic observations. Our research theme now shows more than 41,200 views! Consider submitting your own article to our theme and sharing your own work to the international community.
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OBPS Success Story
First use of the Ocean Best Practice System for the Development of QARTOD Manual
Mark Bushnell, US IOOS®,
QARTOD National Coordinator
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The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) has managed the Quality Assurance/Quality Control of real-Time Oceanographic Data (QARTOD) project since 2012. Launched in 2004 as a grass-roots effort, the QARTOD focus on the evaluation of real-time data is what makes this project unique. A total of 13 QC manuals have been created, addressing many of the IOOS core variables.
The effort to create the most recent manual, a pH QC manual, began in February 2019 and was completed in August 2019. During this period, a search of the OBPS repository for “pH measurement” and “quality control” returned eighteen highly relevant documents. This was the first time the QARTOD project team had the opportunity to use this repository, effectively using a collection of methods to create this new best practice with a focus on real-time observations. This greatly facilitated the production of the first draft, which then went through the traditional series of expanded subject matter expert reviews and refined drafts before being accepted.
This simple example clearly demonstrates the value of the OBPS and provides a hint of the benefits yet to be realized. In addition to making very effective use of resources (i.e., faster creation of the first draft), the initial draft was based upon a collection existing community knowledge, was of superior quality, and reduced the burden on the following reviewers. This compounded the time savings throughout the entire generation of this QC manual. It is precisely what the OBPS was designed to do, and it worked very well!
This is the first in a series of articles chronicling the successes of the Ocean Best Practice System. If you have an example of how the OBPS has helped you or your research, please email us!
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From the Repository
Traditional Ecological Knowledge
When talking about ocean best practices, we may neglect those related to indigenous groups despite the long history of local knowledge that such groups often have.
Such best practices encourage consistent but achievable methods, facilitate data compilation, and meet the increasing obligations of many countries for scientists to appropriately consider indigenous knowledge.
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The OBP Repository currently has only three manuals related to traditional ecological knowledge or indigenous engagement, focusing on remote tehcnologies, coastal monitoring, and marine turtles. All of these, however, are from Australia.
There are heaps more out there from all over the world! We would love for those who have been involved in or know about ocean best practices relating to indigenous groups to submit them to the OBP Repository.
Every month we'll be featuring best practices from the repository on a particular theme.
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Poet's Corner
Francoise Pearman
This is the English translation of the French poem that appeared in our Dec issue
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Could you compose in a few words
For the poets' corner,
Rachel asked me,
A poem of four stanzas, on a marine theme.
And I replied, I have read many French poems,
Such as Marine Cemetery by Valery,
But do I have what it takes to create one,
A poem of four stanzas, on a marine theme.
I will talk about the estuary, where the river pours
Its clear water in the ocean, for the benefit of crustaceans,
I will speak in the third stanza, of the methods employed,
To ensure the harvest and feed the planet.
I will sing in the fourth stanza,
Telling how currents, while routing
Plankton and tuna schools,
Will also play with our weather.
And to finish this poem with its marine theme,
I would think of unfathomable trenches
Hardly discovered, and everything that awaits us
Two thousand leagues under the sea.
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There have been five meetings for regional inputs to the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development during the month of January. In many of these, the benefits of best practices for improved interoperability have been mentioned. At the India Regional Meeting hosted by National Institute of Ocean Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences in Chennai, there was a special session on Ocean Best Practices attended by 75 participants from 19 countries. Three of the recommendations were to
- Support the need for best practices to be a recognized and structural part of the Decade and that the operational OBPS is a safe, sustained, and trusted archive for existing and new best practice documents.
- Best Practices are valuable across the Decade's themes. OBPS has been co-designed by users and invites new requests / co-development to respond to and support community needs.
- The OBPS technology can support the evolution of the Decade initiatives and allows, for example, machine-actionable interlinking of methods and data, code, and observation and application products.
For more information, please contact the session chair R. Vanketesan, the session chair.
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Please visit our website for a full list of upcoming events related to ocean best practices.
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