Phytoplankton Taxonomy Working Group

Working group to establish data standards and practices for taxon-resolved phytoplankton observations - PIs: Heidi Sosik (WHOI), Christopher Proctor (NASA GSFC/SSAI), Aimee Neeley (NASA GSFC/SSAI), Ivona Cetinić (NASA GSFC/USRA)

Objective: In an effort to facilitate community-wide access to phytoplankton data products that support critical satellite algorithm development and validation, this working group will convene relevant expertise (e.g., phytoplankton ecology and taxonomy, data systems, informatics, etc.) to develop a set of standards and best practices for phytoplankton taxonomy data.

The OCB Phytoplankton Taxonomy Working Group has been working to establish standards and best practices for submitting taxonomic and morphological information for plankton and other particles from images collected by imaging instruments, such as the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB), FlowCAM and Underwater Vision Profiler (UVP), to data repositories (e.g., NASA’s SeaWiFS Bio-optical Archive and Storage System (SeaBASS) and the National Science Foundation’s Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO)). The working group, which combined expertise in phytoplankton ecology and taxonomy, data systems, and informatics, has just published a new Technical Manual entitled "Standards and practices for reporting plankton and other particle observations from images" that includes detailed guidance on the creation of a data table and the submission of the data, metadata and accompanying documentation to a repository.

Neeley, A., Beaulieu, S., Proctor, C., Cetinić, I., Futrelle, J., Soto Ramos, I., Sosik, H., Devred, E., Karp-Boss, L., Picheral, M., Poulton, N., Roesler, C., and Shepherd, A.. 2021: Standards and practices for reporting plankton and other particle observations from images. 38pp. DOI: 10.1575/1912/27377.

News and Resources

June 27, 2019 (at OCB Summer Workshop): OCB Phytoplankton Taxonomy Working Group Report (Heidi Sosik, WHOI and Aimee Neeley, NASA GSFC)   Video   Slides

May 2019: Working Group teleconference

January 18, 2019: Working Group teleconference

December 13, 2018: Fall AGU poster (8:00-12:20) B41L-2891: Building Essential Biodiversity Variable Data Sets from Plankton Imaging Systems to Support Satellite Ocean Color Algorithm Development and Validation

October 11, 2018: Lunch meeting during Ocean Optics Conference (Dubrovnik, Croatia)

June 28-29, 2018: Third Working Group meeting (Woods Hole, MA)

February 13, 2018: Second Working Group meeting (Portland, OR)

June 29-30, 2017: First working group meeting at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Woods Hole, MA)

 

Phytoplankton Taxonomy Working Group Proposal

Working Group Members

Stace Beaulieu - Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.

Ivona Cetinić - NASA GSFC/USRA

Susanne Craig -  Ocean Ecology Lab/NASA Goddard

Emmanuel Devred - Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Joe Futrelle - Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.

Lee Karp-Boss - Univ. of Maine

Aimee Neeley - NASA GSFC/SSAI

Marc PicheralCNRS

Nicole Poulton - Bigelow Labs

Chris Proctor -NASA GSFC/SSAI

Collin Roesler - Bowdoin College

Adam Shepherd - Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.

Heidi Sosik - Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.