Macroalgal Essential Ocean Variable (EOV) data processing and workflow

Macroalgal assemblages (such as the giant kelp forests of south east Australia) are highly productive and biodiverse ecosystems providing critical habitat for coastal marine biodiversity and for humans. These assemblages are vulnerable to global pressures including ocean warming, acidification, pollution, invasive species, and overfishing among other stressors. Macroalgal composition and cover has been identified as an ‘Essential Ocean Variable’ (EOV) acknowledging its importance as an indicator of coastal ecosystem health.

IMAS will host a global data aggregation point to build the collection necessary for the macroalgal composition and cover EOV and provide transformed data to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), making data accessible to an international audience and increasing potential for new research at a global scale. 

A workshop in Hobart, including participants with international representation and relevant technical expertise, will focus specifically on the technical and data management specifications and design to meet the requirements for the processing of data, QA, publishing, transforming and aggregation.

Start date 24 July 2019
Expected completion date 21 October 2019
Investment by ARDC $49,999
Co-investment partners
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)
Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
University of Pisa
University of Massachusetts Boston
National Autonomous University of Mexico
NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub
Deakin University
Australian Institute of Marine Science
University of Alaska
University of New South Wales
Universidade do Algarve
Lead node
1 Three day workshop
Run a 3 day marine workshop
2 Develop governance model
Develop a governance model, terms of reference and data management policy for managing the Macroalgal EOV.
3 Create plan of hardware and software infrastructure
Detailed plan of hardware and software infrastructure that will be used to collect, QA, publish and aggregate the data to OBIS.
4 Draft data sharing agreement
Draft data sharing agreement for data contributors (pre legal input).
5 Documented formats
Documented formats required to submit data to the repository.
6 Presentation of project
The results of the project are presented at the ARDC Data and Services Summit.

Core features

Community support and involvement
Strong global representation and support and acknowledgement of the project and its importance from relevant global organisations (GOOS, POGO, OBIS).
A model for global aggregation and transformation of biological data into an EOV
While this has been implemented for physical environmental attributes, this will likely be the first case of disparate biological data in a similar system.

Who is this project for?

  • Peak bodies (GOOS, POGO, OBIS).
  • Research organisations (universities, including 5 International and 3 Australian, AIMS, CSIRO).
  • Infrastructure providers (AODN).
  • Researchers globally working with macroalgal assemblages.

What does this project enable?

This project will lead to making data accessible for an international audience and increase potential for new research at a global scale.

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)Visit
Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)Visit
Ocean Biogeographic Information SystemVisit
University of PisaVisit
University of Massachusetts BostonVisit
National Autonomous University of MexicoVisit
NESP Marine Biodiversity HubVisit
Deakin UniversityVisit
Australian Institute of Marine ScienceVisit
University of AlaskaVisit
University of New South WalesVisit
Universidade do AlgarveVisit