Ed Urban

New Indian Ocean Program Builds on a Scientific Legacy

Prior to the International Geophysical Year (1957–1958) and before the acceptance of ideas about continental drift and the emergence of the theory of plate tectonics, the Indian Ocean was viewed as one of the last great frontiers of Earth exploration. During this post–World War II era, many new technologies were emerging for sampling the ocean and atmosphere and for mapping deep-ocean topography. Yet fundamental descriptive work still remained to be done on oceanic and atmospheric circulation, marine geology, and biological and ecological variability in the Indian Ocean.

Establishment, Goals, and Legacy of the Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB) Programme

The Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB) Programme was established in 2001 under the sponsorship of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). GEOHAB was the first international research programme focusing exclusively on harmful marine algae. The GEOHAB mission was to foster international cooperation to advance understanding of HAB dynamics and to improve our ability to predict these events, with the final aim to inform and facilitate management and mitigation of the associated negative impacts. GEOHAB focused on the physiological, behavioural, and genetic characteristics of harmful microalgal species and the interactions between physical and other environmental conditions that promote the success of one group of species over another. A hallmark of GEOHAB was that it championed a comparative approach, across organisms, regions, and ecosystems. GEOHAB advanced our understanding of the mechanisms underlying population dynamics of HABs within an ecological and oceanographic context and also from the ecosystem perspective at the regional scale. GEOHAB encouraged combined experimental, observational, and modelling tools using existing and innovative technologies in a multidisciplinary approach. This deliberately integrative and multidisciplinary framework was consistent with the multiple scales and oceanographic complexity of marine HAB phenomena. One of the legacies of GEOHAB was that it established the basis for continued international efforts to better understand and predict the complex global phenomena of harmful algal blooms, leading in 2016 to the follow-on effort, GlobalHAB, which will continue and extend GEOHAB’s mission.

GlobalHAB: Fostering International Coordination on Harmful Algal Bloom Research in Aquatic Systems

GlobalHAB, “Global Harmful Algal Blooms,” is a new scientific programme on harmful algal blooms (HABs) cosponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) that will operate for 10 years from 2016 to 2025. GlobalHAB builds on the solid foundation established by the former programme GEOHAB and will continue to promote coordinated international scientific activities, which is fundamental to keep progressing on the comprehension of the global complexity of HABs and that will contribute to the management and mitigation of their impacts worldwide. The GlobalHAB Scientific and Implementation Plan is briefly presented in this chapter.

A New Approach to Data Publication in Ocean Sciences

Data are collected from ocean sciences activities that range from a single investigator working in a laboratory to large teams of scientists cooperating on big, multinational, global ocean research projects. What these activities have in common is that all result in data, some of which are used as the basis for publications in peer-reviewed journals. However, two major problems regarding data remain. First, many data valuable for understanding ocean physics, chemistry, geology, biology, and how the oceans operate in the Earth system are never archived or made accessible to other scientists. Data underlying traditional journal articles are often difficult to obtain. Second, when scientists do contribute data to databases, their data become freely available, with little acknowledgment and no contribution to their career advancement. To address these problems, stronger ties must be made between data repositories and academic journals, and a “digital backbone” needs to be created for data related to journal publications.

Improved Tracking of Research Cruises

Every year, several hundred ocean research cruises are conducted by academic institutions and government agencies worldwide, with major expenditures of finances and human resources. Ships may be in the same ocean area at the same time without prior knowledge of one anothers activities, missing opportunities for joint work. Some ships go to sea with empty berths, which might have been filled if scientists from other institutions or countries had known about the availability of space. Many scientists using in situ instruments have missed opportunities to deploy them in seldom visited parts of the ocean because the scientists did not realize a ship was going to that area, and opportunities for ”sea truthing“ of satellite observations in remote regions are missed. In an era of stagnant or shrinking budgets for research and ship operations, and increasing operational costs, it is imperative that scientists and ship operators look for ways to increase the efficiency of research cruises, for example, by reducing transit time and sharing research cruises. In addition, synergy of observations and opportunities for intercalibrations can be achieved in coordinated, multiple-ship operations.

Pilot projects for publishing and citing ocean data

Linking published scientific results with the data on which they are based has been a growing trend. In some disciplines, such as molecular biology, journals require submission of data to a recognized data center as a condition for publication of the associated article. Data centers, government agencies, and journals have been seeking new ways to link publications and data. The push for transparency of science is also moving most fields of science in this direction. The benefits of publishing data and standardizing their provenance have been documented in several locations [European Union, 2010; Ball and Duke, 2012].

Implementing a Southern Ocean Observing System

The Southern Ocean is fundamental to the operation of the Earth system. It is the central connection among the major ocean basins and between the upper and lower layers of the global ocean circulation. It influences global climate and planetary-scale biogeochemical cycles, because the Southern Ocean accounts for half of the annual ocean uptake of anthropogenic carbon from the atmosphere [Rintoul et al., 2001; Le Quere et al., 2007; Meredith et al., 2012]. The Southern Ocean also supplies nutrients that fertilize the majority of global ocean biological productivity north of 30°S [Sarmiento et al., 2004].

Anthropogenic noise and effects on marine life: A survey of literature and metadata.

The Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research and Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans have initiated an effort to compile and review the literature on underwater noise with focus on the past 20 years. Literature on anthropogenic noise, ambient noise, and sounds made by marine organisms will be surveyed. Metadata concerning sound profiles of underwater noise sources will also be collected. Results will be made publicly available and links to the original literature and data will be provided where possible. The goal is to provide a baseline of information that can be used as a foundation for new cooperative international research on sound in the ocean as part of an International Quiet Ocean Experiment. An initial synthesis of the literature and any trends in research directions and gaps in research will be presented.

Organizations Urge Caution on Ocean Fertilization Experiments

The idea of stimulating ocean primary production to draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide and/or enhance production at higher trophic levels is not new. However, recent proposals to fertilize the ocean with iron or urea as part of commercial carbon sequestration and/or food production schemes have stimulated the ocean science community to publish papers and other statements documenting the communitys views on this topic [see Buesseler et al., 2008; Glibert et al., 2008]. While some are upbeat that commercial carbon sequestration through stimulating ocean primary production will help offset fossil fuel emissions, others worry that fertilizing the ocean will not result in the hoped for sequestration and/or will have significant adverse environmental consequences.