Predicting deoxygenation and health of open and coastal ocean waters
Under the auspices of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development’s GOOD programme (Global Ocean Oxygen Decade) and the international Global Ocean Oxygen Network (GO2NE), several members of the ODATIS data hub’s dissolved oxygen scientific expertise consortium (CES) are set to publish an article in Frontiers in Marine Science on the need for an international dissolved ocean oxygen database.
Ocean deoxygenation and climate change
Ocean deoxygenation is receiving increasing attention as a key element of climate change. Better knowledge of spatial and temporal variations in ocean oxygen would therefore bring more insight into this matter while enabling us to craft mitigation and adaptation strategies to sustain the ecosystem services that oceans provide.
The article published in Frontiers in Marine Science, authored by 50 scientists, sets out the roadmap of the GOOD programme accepted for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). It underlines the need for a coordinated international effort to build a database and global atlas of ocean oxygen (GO2DAT), affording free access and in line with FAIR* principles.
* Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable
A preliminary version of the article can be viewed here: Grégoire, M., V. Garçon et al. (2021), A global ocean oxygen database and atlas for assessing and predicting deoxygenation and ocean health in the open and coastal ocean.
GO2DAT: a global ocean oxygen database and atlas
GO2DAT will support development of advanced data analysis and biogeochemical models for improving mapping, understanding and forecasting of ocean oxygen variations and deoxygenation trends. It will offer the opportunity to develop quality-controlled synoptic data products with unprecedented spatial (vertical and horizontal) and temporal (sub-seasonal to multi-decadal) resolution. These products will enable assessment, improvement and evaluation of models, as well as development of climate and ocean health indicators. GO2DAT will combine data from open and coastal ocean waters.
ODATIS data hub contribution
At national level, the ODATIS data hub’s oxygen scientific expertise consortium is contributing to the GOOD programme. Its ambition is to collect and distribute FAIR oxygen data to the French and international community, generated by French research teams from open and coastal ocean waters. A first action was initiated at a workshop comparing oxygen sensors during the Calib’O2 workshop in Brest from 4-7 October 2021, funded by the ILICO research infrastructure.
