Description: Four years after the Genomic Observatories Network was formally established as a collaboration between the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network and the Genomic Standards Consortium, we review the development of the network. Considering institutional infrastructure, we note the growing role of omic observation in active and increasingly interlinked marine networks, with examples such as EMBRC/ASSEMBLE, International Long Term Ecological Research Network, AtlantOS, National Association of Marine Labs, Smithsonian MarineGEO, and Partnership on Observation of the Global Oceans. We also note some key human elements essential to meeting the networks' goals, address how the community is evolving, and why performing seemingly simple tasks within a broadly distributed community presents significant challenges even among those who have agreed to use standards. From the perspectives above, we review lessons learned from use cases that leverage Genomic Observatories Network, such as the Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS), Ocean Sampling Day (OSD) and myOSD, which included experiences with citizen science. Looking forward, we survey 1) promising new technologies for in situ biological observation (e.g., cheap 3D printed omics samplers), 2) progress towards adoption of omics methods in marine policy and conservation programs, and 3) opportunities that a Genomic Observatory brings, alone or embedded in a network, to address novel scientific questions and support Essential Biodiversity Variables, Essential Ocean Variables, and indices such as the Ocean Health Index. Given the data intensive nature of omics investigation, we note emerging cyberinfrastructure solutions, such as the Genomic Observatories Metadatabase (GeOMe), an open-access repository for geographic and ecological metadata associated with biosamples, and predictive modeling efforts, such as those of the Island Digital Ecosystem Avatar (IDEA) Consortium. Finally, we explore the potential of Genomic Observatories as components of high-resolution calibration sites. Such observatories would provide super-contextualized "data trusts" for machine learning and artificial intelligence applications that draw on multi-omic observation.

Description: Climate change and sustainable use of natural capital demand increased collaboration across the sciences. The first steps for effective collaboration often focus on improving interoperability between observation and analyses methodologies. This is traditionally done through a combination of standards and best practices. The ocean observation community and observing infrastructures - with regionally diverse members working in physics, chemistry, biology and engineering - is looking toward a dynamic consensus-building approach to match the rapid pace of technological evolution. This is an essential part of the long-term cooperation among ocean observing infrastructures. In the last 12 months, the ocean observing community has implemented an Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). This System was recently adopted by the Intergovernmental Ocean Commission as an international project under GOOS and IODE. The System consists of a permanent OBPS repository hosted by IODE with state-of-the-art semantic discovery and metadata indexing for improved access to best practices and, eventually, to the data associated with them. There have been discussions to understand how to deal with differing best practices and standards on the same observation or analyses objective and other issues that arise from a comprehensive ocean best practices system. A recent survey, to be described, offers options on alternative approaches. Further, we have created a forum, in “Frontiers in Marine Science” for discussion of best practices and their applications. This presentation will cover options for evolving and sustaining ocean best practices across infrastructures. The recommendations build upon the community survey, the OGC experience, the outcomes of the OceanObs’19 conference as well as inputs from the Decade for Ocean Sciences community meetings. The extension of this work to other communities will also be examined.

Description: Target audience: All ocean scientists who wish to share or discover best practice documents in their domain. Background: A working group convened under the AtlantOS project and including partners from ODIP, IODE, JCOMM, IEEE, and AWI is currently developing new technologies and approaches for handling best practices (BPs) across ocean science. The goal of the working group is to create a sustained repository for BPs, to ease their propagation and adoption. Goals: After briefly describing its work, the BP working group will engage town hall participants in a discussion on 1) how best to find and centrally archive BPs in participants' disciplines and 2) what capacities a central archive of BPs would need to help participants create, discover, share, and archive their BPs. The participant input gathered will be used to further the development of a multidisciplinary repository for BPs and better harmonise ocean observation.