Edited by: Sanae Chiba, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan
Reviewed by: Sanja Matic-Skoko, Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Croatia; John A. Barth, Oregon State University, United States
This article was submitted to Ocean Observation, a section of the journal Frontiers in Marine Science
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Maritime economy, ecosystem-based management and climate change adaptation and mitigation raise emerging needs on coastal ocean and biological observations. Integrated ocean observing aims at optimizing sampling strategies and cost-efficiency, sharing data and best practices, and maximizing the value of the observations for multiple purposes. Recently developed cost-effective, near real time technology such as gliders, radars, ferrybox, and shallow water Argo floats, should be used operationally to generate operational coastal sea observations and analysis. Furthermore, value of disparate coastal ocean observations can be unlocked with multi-dimensional integration on fitness-for-the-purpose, parameter and instrumental. Integration of operational monitoring with offline monitoring programs, such as those for research, ecosystem-based management and commercial purposes, is necessary to fill the gaps. Such integration should lead to a system of networks which can deliver data for all kinds of purposes. Detailed integration activities are identified which should enhance the coastal ocean and biological observing capacity. Ultimately a program is required which integrates physical, biogeochemical and biological observation of the ocean, from coastal to deep-sea environments, bringing together global, regional, and local observation efforts.
The coastal ocean is the water body from the shelf-break to the shore, including estuary waters. Presently about 40% of the world’s population live within 100 km of the coast. Anthropogenic activities within the watershed and the newly emerging maritime economy initiatives severely affect the coastal water. Monitoring of the coastal seas, therefore, becomes essential in providing marine information services for the maritime economy, for protection of marine environment and ecosystems and for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Coastal ocean observing has been developed in either national or regional level in the past decades, e.g., in Europe, United States, Australia, Japan, and China. Several papers or books discuss integrated and global observing systems (
However, there are significant gaps in observations and cost-effectiveness in the existing online monitoring programs. On the other hand, there is already a significant amount of coastal and biological observations being collected for supporting ecosystem-based management and climate change adaptation and mitigation, as is coordinated by ICES (International Centre for Exploring the Sea) for fishery and regional conventions for environmental assessment in Europe and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries in the United States. However, most of the data are delivered offline which do not fit the operational needs. There is an urgent need to integrate the online and offline monitoring programs to fill the observational and technological gaps. Instead of giving a comprehensive review of the existing coastal and biological observing, this paper aims at categorizing the “integrated observing” and how the existing gaps in coastal and biological observations can be filled through the integration. The integration discussed in this paper is at the scale of a regional sea basin, surrounded by one or more countries.
The integrated observing can be divided into three categories: fit-for-purpose integration, parameter integration, and instrumental integration, which addresses three stages of marine data value chain – observing, data management, and data usage. The fit-for-purpose integration is to integrate ocean observing from multiple sectors so that the observations can be measured for multiple purposes with improved data adequacy and cost-effectiveness. The parameter integration brings marine data of all parameters from air, water, biota, seabed to human activities together and makes them timely accessible. For the final data usage, the instrumental integration will produce the best monitoring products through integrating different monitoring components, e.g.,
Integrated observing – unlocking the value of ocean observing by integrating observations in three dimensions: fit-for-purpose, parameter, and instrumental.
According to its purpose, ocean observing can be divided into governmental, research, and commercial activities. The governmental activity covers operational, environmental, fishery, and hydrological sectors. For a given sector, the observing is often coordinated at the regional sea scale via an “observational network” consisting of governmental agencies from different countries and/or regions, such as ROOSs and Northeast Pacific cooperation (
The multi-network integration can be implemented in three stages: first, a fit-for-purpose assessment on data adequacy, appropriateness, and cost-effectiveness of the existing observational networks has to be carried out to identify the gaps. In Europe, the data adequacy assessment has been carried out by the EMODnet (European Marine Observational Data network) Sea Basin Checkpoint projects for eleven social-benefit areas (
Fit-for-purpose integration improves observation adequacy, appropriateness, and cost-effectives. However, the required observations also have to be easily accessible by the users. In many cases, data exist but not available as they are managed by different sectorial data centers and also subjected to different data policies. This makes data sharing more difficult and data usage less efficient. Integration of marine observations across entire parameter spectrum can significantly improve the efficiency of the data use.
In Europe, the EMODnet (Míguez et al., this issue) is dedicated to integrate marine data across a full parameter spectrum – bathymetry, biology, chemistry, coastal mapping, geology, human activity, and physics. Recently emerging variables e.g., riverine inputs, underwater noise, sediment grain size, marine litter, and other datasets have been added in the portals. It was found, by the EMODnet Sea Basin Checkpoint projects, that the high integration level of marine data, such as done by EMODnet, has greatly facilitated the user applications and unlocks the value of observations.
The value of observations can only be realized when they are used.
Biological ocean observations are any data collected in a systematic and regular basis which are based on living ocean inhabitants.
Existing data currently supporting biodiversity assessments vary at a range of spatial and temporal scales, often severely limiting our capacity to understand the intensity, drivers and consequences of biodiversity change, and to assess the effectiveness of management measures. The availability of technology to enable more cost-effective collection of larger volumes of biological data is improving, such as Flowcam, but investment is needed to ensure that the most effective approaches are deployed widely and in a coordinated fashion.
Ultimately a program is required which integrates observation on physical, biogeochemical and biological aspects of ocean ecosystems and which establishes standardized approaches so that data can be shared, synthesized, analyzed, and interpreted from a large scale, long term, whole-system perspective. This has been identified as a priority for biological observations and operational ecology by the European Marine Board (
A key step in developing a balanced and integrated program is the agreement of key variables on which to focus coordinated observation programs to inform on the status and trends of marine biodiversity. Two complementary frameworks are of note: GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System) EOVs and GEO BON EBVs. However, the EOVs and EBVs are a priorities list only and additional biological variables should be considered as needed. Biological EOVs and some of the marine EBVs are not new, but build on a long history of biological observations in the ocean. Several of them have been measured for decades worldwide and the availability of historical records is a key strength of the EOVs/EBVs.
There is still a clear challenge in reaching a threshold between overall scientific relevance, the needs for legislation without compromising the interoperability at global level, and the feasibility when defining the variables to be monitored. Thus, discussions and refinement of the two sets of essential variables are continuing and in 2016, the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON), the GOOS Biology and Ecosystems Panel, and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) signed an agreement to work together to enhance existing biological observation scopes and capacities, to implement best practices and international standards, and to encourage open access and data sharing. MBON and the GOOS BioEco Panel have developed the implementation of biological EOVs and marine EBVs and increased the number of monitoring programs that include these variables (
Even though these variables are designed to be global, engaging regional systems such as the European Ocean Observation System (EOOS) will be key to ensuring progress and maturation.
Biological ocean observation is very fragmented and, despite progress in storage and dissemination of digital information, there is still reluctance to share data within the scientific community and industry, and among national authorities. Programs tend to be driven by scientific interest or local needs. It is thus essential to establish appropriate mechanisms to overcome these barriers and improve data integration and networking.
In order to capture adequately the effects of global change on biodiversity, long term observations in key areas are required (generally involving many nations distributed across continents with a sustained long-term commitment toward observations). Almost none of the global observation networks has sustained or secured funding for their activities (
Similar to those at the global scale, regional observing networks must be sustainable and adjustable to evolving observing requirements. Sustained long time series are of paramount importance and new observing approaches are emerging as technology progresses, making it possible to measure new parameters and/or improve existing protocols. New emerging techniques are often refined within SCOR working groups with suggestions for standardize use (e.g., WG154 and 156).
Most of the existing biological observing stations and platforms are operating at a local level (within a national sea area, or a given bay or stretch of coast within a national territory). These areas are characterized by high variability in terms of spatial and temporal resolution and are monitored often with infrequent and/or sporadic operations. Observation methods are usually specific to the needs for that specific area, either as variants of existing methods or completely new and locally developed. Local observing requirements may dictate specific approaches and techniques, ensuring a good “fit for purpose,” but conformity to agreed standards both in terms of the quality of the observations and the data must be in place to ensure scalability and comparability.
The largest proportions of marine biological data available to scientists today are generated by short-term monitoring or research activities (such as the length of a Ph.D. program), which are organized regionally or locally. The lack of coordination and standardization in sampling and taxonomic identification techniques results in spatial and temporal gaps, that makes global scale synthesis extremely difficult.
To understand and manage global changes requires working across multiple geographical scales, which requires mechanisms for sharing expertise, protocols and data between and within scales. These mechanisms would help to minimize problems such as the general lack of and uneven distribution of taxonomic expertise among institutions and nations (
This paper proposes an integrated approach for developing coastal and biological observing systems. Although the recently developed cost-effective, near real time technology such as gliders, radars, ferrybox, and shallow water Argo floats, can be used to generate operational coastal sea observations, integration with offline monitoring programs, such as those for research, ecosystem-based management and commercial purposes, is necessary to fill the gaps. Such integration should lead to a system of networks which can deliver data for all kinds of purposes.
For the ecosystem-based management, the space for integration is huge. For example, in Europe, Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and Marine Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD), aiming at reaching Good Environmental Status (GES) and planning on sustainable of marine resources, will be implemented in the following decade by the EU Member States. As the implementation is at national level, each member state needs a comprehensive monitoring program which provides hydrography, biogeochemical, biodiversity observations, and also human activity data. These national monitoring programs can be harmonized at regional sea level, together with operational and research infrastructure to improve the cost-effectiveness. In order to effectively filling the gaps for the stakeholders, it is essential that the entire ocean observing value chain should be addressed with the three kinds of integration (fit-for-purpose, parameter, and instrumental).
It is also important to think how the integrated observing should be implemented. The three stages of integrated approach proposed in this paper can be used to fill the gaps. For the fit-for-purpose integration, coordinated observing for multiple observational networks can be a good start point. EOOS, as a future coordination framework of European ocean observing, has issued a call for action to the EU Member States: “
Based on the above discussion, a promising solution is to carry out an integrated observing program at regional sea level to fill the observational, technological and knowledge gaps by implementing all three kinds of integration.
Institutional barriers in different monitoring sectors, data management, and research communities are major obstacles when implementing the integration. Due to limit of space and extensive scope of the barriers, detailed analysis on the barriers is not given in this paper. We recommend readers to further specify the potential barriers in their own interested areas and systems. Timely delivery of biological observations is an important issue in developing operational ecology. It should be emphasized in the implementation of the three kinds of integration.
Support integrated observing for coastal and biological observations as an efficient way to unlock value of the ocean observations, and as a key component of GOOS, by developing a program which integrates observation on physical, biogeochemical and biological aspects of ocean ecosystems and which establishes standardized approaches so that data can be shared, synthesized, analyzed, and interpreted from a large scale, long term, whole-system perspective. Specific recommendations for the three kinds of integration are:
• Identify the observation and technology (cost-effectiveness) gaps via fit-for-purpose assessment.
• Harmonize ocean observing from fragmented purposes to make them suitable for multiple purposes, fill the observation gaps and improve cost-effectiveness by barrier-breaking, coordination, sampling design, and technology innovation.
• Sustain long time series observation and new emerging observing approaches as technology progresses, making it possible to measure new parameters and/or improve existing protocols.
• Fill observation and relevant knowledge gaps by implementing new, community observing capacities, e.g., through a sustained and cost-efficient research infrastructure at regional level.
• Contribute to a global observatory network, using standard protocols, techniques, and appropriate platforms, and ensuring quality, scalability, interoperability and comparability, especially for biological observing.
• Support parameter integration to deliver efficiently and timely marine observations in the entire spectrum of ocean variables and significantly improve the efficiency of the data use.
• Bring together and connect the different marine and maritime stakeholders (from research, operational service, environmental assessment to commercial activities), developing common data policy to engage data providers from different sectors for wider data access.
• Support integration initiatives, like the EMODnet, EOOS and the agreement between MBON, the GOOS Biology and Ecosystems Panel, and the OBIS; to facilitate user applications and unlock the value of observations.
• Support instrumental integration to deliver the best monitoring products through integrating different monitoring components –
• Filling knowledge gaps for the development of coastal and ecological services, e.g., biogeochemical and biological data assimilation, uncertainty in ecological models, optimal sampling design methodology.
All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.
• The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.