Druing GE-BICH IV (27 – 30 January 2009), the Group decided to focus its activities on key priorities within three main areas of activities:
- quality control/quality assurance (QC/QA) of chemical and non-taxonomically defined biological oceanographic data;
- controlled vocabularies for biological and chemical oceanography;
- data reporting and data exchange of chemical and non-taxonomically defined biological oceanographic data.
In the first area of activities, the key objectives are:
- to compile existing protocols for the QC/QA of chemical oceanographic data collections;
- to organise a workshop of experts in the QC/QA of chemical oceanographic data, focusing on inorganic macronutrients and dissolved oxygen
- to write a white technical paper on issues discussed during the workshop,
- to revise the IOC Manual 26
- to provide some input to OceanTeacher.
Although we will be focusing on a limited number of chemical measurements in a first instance, it is expected that this initiative will serve as a benchmark for the compilation of QC/QA guidelines for other commonly measured chemical and biological variables such as for example chlorophyll a.
In the second area of activities, the key objectives are:
- to compile lists of vocabularies and glossaries related to terms used to identify a number of sampling gears used to collect biological and chemical samples and measurements, marine biological organisms life stages and life cycles, and non-taxonomic plankton groups.
- to submit these vocabularies for governance by the combined SeaDataNet and MarineXML Vocabulary
Content Governance Group (SeaVoX) and start the process of having them accepted as standards through the JCOMM/IODE Ocean Data Standards process.
and exchange by contributing to existing initiatives and reviewing and cataloguing existing documents. |
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