Description: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Sathyendranath, S., Brewin, R. J. W., Brockmann, C., Brotas, V., Calton, B., Chuprin, A., Cipollini, P., Couto, A. B., Dingle, J., Doerffer, R., Donlon, C., Dowell, M., Farman, A., Grant, M., Groom, S., Horseman, A., Jackson, T., Krasemann, H., Lavender, S., Martinez-Vicente, V., Mazeran, C., Melin, F., Moore, T. S., Muller, D., Regner, P., Roy, S., Steele, C. J., Steinmetz, F., Swinton, J., Taberner, M., Thompson, A., Valente, A., Zuhlke, M., Brando, V. E., Feng, H., Feldman, G., Franz, B. A., Frouin, R., Gould, R. W., Hooker, S. B., Kahru, M., Kratzer, S., Mitchell, B. G., Muller-Karger, F. E., Sosik, H. M., Voss, K. J., Werdell, J., & Platt, T. An ocean-colour time series for use in climate studies: The experience of the ocean-colour climate change initiative (OC-CCI). Sensors, 19(19), (2019): 4285, doi: 10.3390/s19194285.

Description: Ocean colour is recognised as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS); and spectrally-resolved water-leaving radiances (or remote-sensing reflectances) in the visible domain, and chlorophyll-a concentration are identified as required ECV products. Time series of the products at the global scale and at high spatial resolution, derived from ocean-colour data, are key to studying the dynamics of phytoplankton at seasonal and inter-annual scales; their role in marine biogeochemistry; the global carbon cycle; the modulation of how phytoplankton distribute solar-induced heat in the upper layers of the ocean; and the response of the marine ecosystem to climate variability and change. However, generating a long time series of these products from ocean-colour data is not a trivial task: algorithms that are best suited for climate studies have to be selected from a number that are available for atmospheric correction of the satellite signal and for retrieval of chlorophyll-a concentration; since satellites have a finite life span, data from multiple sensors have to be merged to create a single time series, and any uncorrected inter-sensor biases could introduce artefacts in the series, e.g., different sensors monitor radiances at different wavebands such that producing a consistent time series of reflectances is not straightforward. Another requirement is that the products have to be validated against in situ observations. Furthermore, the uncertainties in the products have to be quantified, ideally on a pixel-by-pixel basis, to facilitate applications and interpretations that are consistent with the quality of the data. This paper outlines an approach that was adopted for generating an ocean-colour time series for climate studies, using data from the MERIS (MEdium spectral Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) sensor of the European Space Agency; the SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide-Field-of-view Sensor) and MODIS-Aqua (Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer-Aqua) sensors from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (USA); and VIIRS (Visible and Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (USA). The time series now covers the period from late 1997 to end of 2018. To ensure that the products meet, as well as possible, the requirements of the user community, marine-ecosystem modellers, and remote-sensing scientists were consulted at the outset on their immediate and longer-term requirements as well as on their expectations of ocean-colour data for use in climate research. Taking the user requirements into account, a series of objective criteria were established, against which available algorithms for processing ocean-colour data were evaluated and ranked. The algorithms that performed best with respect to the climate user requirements were selected to process data from the satellite sensors. Remote-sensing reflectance data from MODIS-Aqua, MERIS, and VIIRS were band-shifted to match the wavebands of SeaWiFS. Overlapping data were used to correct for mean biases between sensors at every pixel. The remote-sensing reflectance data derived from the sensors were merged, and the selected in-water algorithm was applied to the merged data to generate maps of chlorophyll concentration, inherent optical properties at SeaWiFS wavelengths, and the diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm. The merged products were validated against in situ observations. The uncertainties established on the basis of comparisons with in situ data were combined with an optical classification of the remote-sensing reflectance data using a fuzzy-logic approach, and were used to generate uncertainties (root mean square difference and bias) for each product at each pixel.

Description: This work was funded by the Ocean Colour Climate Change initiative of the European Space Agency (Grant Number 4000101437/10/I-LG). We acknowledge additional funding support by NERC through the National Centre for Earth Observation (Grant Number PR140015). Additional funding from a Simons Foundation Grant (549947, SS) is also gratefully acknowledged. V.B. also acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme grant agreement N_ 810139: Project Portugal Twinning for Innovation and Excellence in Marine Science and Earth Observation – PORTWIMS.

Description: © The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Benson, A., Brooks, C. M., Canonico, G., Duffy, E., Muller-Karger, F., Sosik, H. M., Miloslavich, P., & Klein, E.. Integrated observations and informatics improve understanding of changing marine ecosystems. Frontiers in Marine Science, 5, (2018):428, doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00428.

Description: Marine ecosystems have numerous benefits for human societies around the world and many policy initiatives now seek to maintain the health of these ecosystems. To enable wise decisions, up to date and accurate information on marine species and the state of the environment they live in is required. Moreover, this information needs to be openly accessible to build indicators and conduct timely assessments that decision makers can use. The questions and problems being addressed demand global-scale investigations, transdisciplinary science, and mechanisms to integrate and distribute data that otherwise would appear to be disparate. Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and marine Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), conceptualized by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON), respectively, guide observation of the ocean. Additionally, significant progress has been made to coordinate efforts between existing programs, such as the GOOS, MBON, and Ocean Biogeographic Information System collaboration agreement. Globally and nationally relevant indicators and assessments require increased sharing of data and analytical methods, sustained long-term and large-scale observations, and resources to dedicated to these tasks. We propose a vision and key tenets as a guiding framework for building a global integrated system for understanding marine biological diversity and processes to address policy and resource management needs. This framework includes: using EOVs and EBVs and implementing the guiding principles of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) data and action ecology. In doing so, we can encourage relevant, rapid, and integrative scientific advancement that can be implemented by decision makers to maintain marine ecosystem health.

Description: We thank T.Malone and A. Knap for the invitation to contribute our ideas to this topic. We also thank the two reviewers and editor for their comments, which strengthened our manuscript.

Description: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Pearlman, J., Bushnell, M., Coppola, L., Karstensen, J., Buttigieg, P. L., Pearlman, F., Simpsons, P., Barbier, M., Muller-Karger, F. E., Munoz-Mas, C., Pissierssens, P., Chandler, C., Hermes, J., Heslop, E., Jenkyns, R., Achterberg, E. P., Bensi, M., Bittig, H. C., Blandin, J., Bosch, J., Bourles, B., Bozzano, R., Buck, J. J. H., Burger, E. F., Cano, D., Cardin, V., Llorens, M. C., Cianca, A., Chen, H., Cusack, C., Delory, E., Garello, R., Giovanetti, G., Harscoat, V., Hartman, S., Heitsenrether, R., Jirka, S., Lara-Lopez, A., Lanteri, N., Leadbetter, A., Manzella, G., Maso, J., McCurdy, A., Moussat, E., Ntoumas, M., Pensieri, S., Petihakis, G., Pinardi, N., Pouliquen, S., Przeslawski, R., Roden, N. P., Silke, J., Tamburri, M. N., Tang, H., Tanhua, T., Telszewski, M., Testor, P., Thomas, J., Waldmann, C., & Whoriskey, F. Evolving and sustaining ocean best practices and standards for the next decade. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019):277, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00277.

Description: The oceans play a key role in global issues such as climate change, food security, and human health. Given their vast dimensions and internal complexity, efficient monitoring and predicting of the planet’s ocean must be a collaborative effort of both regional and global scale. A first and foremost requirement for such collaborative ocean observing is the need to follow well-defined and reproducible methods across activities: from strategies for structuring observing systems, sensor deployment and usage, and the generation of data and information products, to ethical and governance aspects when executing ocean observing. To meet the urgent, planet-wide challenges we face, methods across all aspects of ocean observing should be broadly adopted by the ocean community and, where appropriate, should evolve into “Ocean Best Practices.” While many groups have created best practices, they are scattered across the Web or buried in local repositories and many have yet to be digitized. To reduce this fragmentation, we introduce a new open access, permanent, digital repository of best practices documentation (oceanbestpractices.org) that is part of the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). The new OBPS provides an opportunity space for the centralized and coordinated improvement of ocean observing methods. The OBPS repository employs user-friendly software to significantly improve discovery and access to methods. The software includes advanced semantic technologies for search capabilities to enhance repository operations. In addition to the repository, the OBPS also includes a peer reviewed journal research topic, a forum for community discussion and a training activity for use of best practices. Together, these components serve to realize a core objective of the OBPS, which is to enable the ocean community to create superior methods for every activity in ocean observing from research to operations to applications that are agreed upon and broadly adopted across communities. Using selected ocean observing examples, we show how the OBPS supports this objective. This paper lays out a future vision of ocean best practices and how OBPS will contribute to improving ocean observing in the decade to come.

Description: The Ocean Best Practices project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant agreement no: 633211 (AtlantOS), no. 730960 (SeaDataCloud) and no: 654310 (ODIP). Funding was also received from the NSF OceanObs Research Coordination Network under NSF grant 1143683. The Best Practices Handbook for fixed observatories has been funded by the FixO3 project financed by the European Commission through the Seventh Framework Programme for Research, grant agreement no. 312463. The Harmful Algal Blooms Forecast Report was funded by the Interreg Atlantic Area Operational Programme Project PRIMROSE (Grant Agreement No. EAPA_182/2016), and the AtlantOS project (see above). PB acknowledges funding from the Helmholtz Programme Frontiers in Arctic Marine Monitoring (FRAM) conducted by the Alfred-Wegener-Institut. JM acknowledges fundng from the WeObserve project under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement no. 776740). MTe acknowledges support from the US National Science Foundation grant OCE-1840868 to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR, US) FM-K acknowledges support by NSF Grant 1728913 ‘OceanObS Research Coordination Network’. Funding was also provided by NASA grant NNX14AP62A ‘National Marine Sanctuaries as Sentinel Sites for a Demonstration Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON)’ funded under the National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP RFP NOAA-NOS-IOOS-2014-2003803 in partnership between NOAA, BOEM, and NASA), and the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Program Office.

Description: © The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Boss, E., Waite, A., Karstensen, J., Trull, T., Muller-Karger, F., Sosik, H., Uitz, J., Acinas, S., Fennel, K., Berman-Frank, I., Thomalla, S., Yamazaki, H., Batten, S., Gregori, G., Richardson, A., & Wanninkhof, R. Recommendations for plankton measurements on OceanSITES moorings with relevance to other observing sites. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9, (2022): 929436, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.929436.

Description: Measuring plankton and associated variables as part of ocean time-series stations has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of ocean biology and ecology and their ties to ocean biogeochemistry. It will open temporal scales (e.g., resolving diel cycles) not typically sampled as a function of depth. In this review we motivate the addition of biological measurements to time-series sites by detailing science questions they could help address, reviewing existing technology that could be deployed, and providing examples of time-series sites already deploying some of those technologies. We consider here the opportunities that exist through global coordination within the OceanSITES network for long-term (climate) time series station in the open ocean. Especially with respect to data management, global solutions are needed as these are critical to maximize the utility of such data. We conclude by providing recommendations for an implementation plan.

Description: This work was partially supported from funding to SCOR WG 154 (P-OBS) provided by national committees of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and from a grant to SCOR from the U.S. National Science Foundation (OCE-1840868). FM-K acknowledges the support provided for participation by the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) sponsored by NASA, NOAA, ONR, BOEM. HS acknowledges support from the Simons Foundation.

Description: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Speich, S., Lee, T., Muller-Karger, F., Lorenzoni, L., Pascual, A., Jin, D., Delory, E., Reverdin, G., Siddorn, J., Lewis, M. R., Marba, N., Buttigieg, P. L., Chiba, S., Manley, J., Kabo-Bah, A. T., Desai, K., & Ackerman, A. Editorial: Oceanobs19: An ocean of opportunity. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019): 570, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00570.

Description: The OceanObs conferences are held once every 10 years for the scientific, technical, and operational communities involved in the planning, implementation, and use of ocean observing systems. They serve to communicate progress, promote plans, and to define advances in ocean observing in response to societies' needs. Each conference provides a forum for the community to review the state of the ocean observing science and operations, and to define goals and plans to achieve over the next decade.

Description: The organizers of the OceanObs'19 conference thank the authors that conceived and jointly crafted the Community White Papers for their tremendous efforts, extensive international collaborations, and community wisdom. The organizers also thank the hundreds of reviewers of the CWPs for their dedication, and the time invested in reviewing the papers. The organizers of the OceanObs'19 conference wish to thank the chief editor of the journal, Dr. Carlos Duarte, and the Frontiers Marine Science staff, for their professionalism and support in this process.

Description: © The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in van Putten, I., Kelly, R., Cavanagh, R. D., Murphy, E. J., Breckwoldt, A., Brodie, S., Cvitanovic, C., Dickey-Collas, M., Maddison, L., Melbourne-Thomas, J., Arrizabalaga, H., Azetsu-Scott, K., Beckley, L. E., Bellerby, R., Constable, A. J., Cowie, G., Evans, K., Glaser, M., Hall, J., Hobday, A. J., Johnston, N. M., Llopiz, J. K., Mueter, F., Muller-Karger, F. E., Weng, K. C., Wolf-Gladrow, D., Xavier, J. C. A decade of incorporating social sciences in the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research Project (IMBeR): much done, much to do? Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, (2021): 662350, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.662350.

Description: Successful management and mitigation of marine challenges depends on cooperation and knowledge sharing which often occurs across culturally diverse geographic regions. Global ocean science collaboration is therefore essential for developing global solutions. Building effective global research networks that can enable collaboration also need to ensure inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches to tackle complex marine socio-ecological challenges. To understand the contribution of interdisciplinary global research networks to solving these complex challenges, we use the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR) project as a case study. We investigated the diversity and characteristics of 1,827 scientists from 11 global regions who were attendees at different IMBeR global science engagement opportunities since 2009. We also determined the role of social science engagement in natural science based regional programmes (using key informants) and identified the potential for enhanced collaboration in the future. Event attendees were predominantly from western Europe, North America, and East Asia. But overall, in the global network, there was growing participation by females, students and early career researchers, and social scientists, thus assisting in moving toward interdisciplinarity in IMBeR research. The mainly natural science oriented regional programmes showed mixed success in engaging and collaborating with social scientists. This was mostly attributed to the largely natural science (i.e., biological, physical) goals and agendas of the programmes, and the lack of institutional support and push to initiate connections with social science. Recognising that social science research may not be relevant to all the aims and activities of all regional programmes, all researchers however, recognised the (potential) benefits of interdisciplinarity, which included broadening scientists’ understanding and perspectives, developing connections and interlinkages, and making science more useful. Pathways to achieve progress in regional programmes fell into four groups: specific funding, events to come together, within-programme-reflections, and social science champions. Future research programmes should have a strategic plan to be truly interdisciplinary, engaging natural and social sciences, as well as aiding early career professionals to actively engage in such programmes.

Description: This publication resulted in part from support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant OCE-1840868) to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR).