The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) includes sensors that measure key biogeochemical properties (pH, pCO2, bio-optics, nitrate, dissolved oxygen) on both moored and mobile autonomous platforms across arrays in the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern Oceans. These sensors provide enormous potential to support the oceanographic community in studying a wide range of important interdisciplinary questions.
However, OOI biogeochemical sensor data have thus far been underutilized by the oceanographic community, as the application of these rich data streams to quantify biogeochemical fluxes and answer many questions of scientific interest (e.g., rates of air-sea CO2 flux, productivity, and export; comparison across sites; monitoring of long-term changes) require effective calibration and validation, including post-deployment human-in-the-loop processing.
To broaden the use of OOI biogeochemical sensor data and increase community capacity to produce analysis-ready data products, we acquired NSF support to bring together scientists with expertise in biogeochemical sensor calibration and analysis from both within and beyond the current OOI user community to develop guidelines and best practices for using OOI biogeochemical sensor data. These recommendations will be collated in a published white paper that will be shared with the broader oceanographic community to build data user capacity and enable new scientific applications of OOI biogeochemical sensor data.
The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Biogeochemical (BGC) Sensor Data Best Practices and User Guide is the result of an NSF-funded (OCE2033919) grass-roots community effort to broaden the use of OOI biogeochemical sensor data and increase community capacity to produce analysis-ready data products. The guide includes five chapters: The Introduction (Chapter 1) provides information on the OOI program, including data access, processing, and recommended end user QA/QC relevant to all OOI biogeochemical sensors, and Chapters 2-5 cover the following groups of BGC variables and associated sensors: Dissolved oxygen, nitrate, carbonate chemistry, and bio-optics.
This effort brought together an international group of 39 ocean observing experts, across all career stages, from 19 institutions and 5 countries, each of whom brings expertise on biogeochemical sensors, data analysis and ocean observing infrastructure, as well as research expertise in ocean biogeochemistry. The initial OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data (OOI BGC) Working Group was formed in July 2021 through an open application process. A three-day virtual meeting in July 2021 launched the Working Group, with consensus-building activities to develop the scope and structure of the Best Practices and User Guide. From July 2021 to June 2022, the Working Group drafted a beta version of the Best Practices and User Guide that went through two rounds of internal review within the Working Group. A draft version of this document was beta-tested by 14 current and prospective OOI BGC data users, who joined the Working Group members for a 3-day workshop in June 2022 to provide feedback that was subsequently used in revising and finalizing Version 1.0.0 of the document.
Version 1.0.0 was disseminated for open review by the scientific community, and we received reviews from 10 community members during the review period from December 19, 2022 to February 28, 2023. All comments received by the reviewers, as well as changes made to the Best Practices and User Guide in response to these reviews, can be found in our response to the reviewers and in the marked-up copy of the Best Practices and User Guide including tracked changes. The final version was endorsed by the Global Ocean Observing System and uploaded to the Ocean Best Practices Repository.
Sophie Clayton (Old Dominion University), Hilary Palevsky (Boston College), Heather Benway (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Annie Bourbonnais (University of South Carolina)
Susan Hartman (NOC)
Hilde Oliver (WHOI)
Kristen Fogaren (Boston College)
Merrie Beth Neely (Global Science and Technology - embedded contractor at NOAA)
Filipa Carvalho (National Oceanography Centre)
Andrew Reed (OOI - CGSN)
Isabela Le Bras (WHOI)
Alison Chase (University of Washington - Applied Physics Laboratory)
Cara Manning (University of Connecticut)
Rob Fatland (University of Washington)
Ellen Briggs (University of Hawaii at Manoa)
Christina Schallenberg University of Tasmania)
Ian Walsh (Freelance Researcher)
Jennifer Batryn (WHOI)
Christopher Wingard (Ocean Observatories Initiative Endurance Array)
Jonathan Fram (Oregon State University (OOI))
Roman Battisti (University of Washington/NOAA PMEL)
Dariia Atamanchuk (Dalhousie University)
Jennie Rheuban (WHOI)
Rachel Eveleth (Oberlin College)
Joseph Needoba (Oregon Health & Science University)
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Funding for the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry Project Office is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The OCB Project Office is housed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.