Following from SOCAT, GLODAP and MEMENTO, our community works hard to also implement a data synthesis product for Oxygen EOV. The goal is to advance from the idea of Global Ocean Oxygen Database and Atlas (GO2DAT) which was proposed back in 2021 (Grégoire et al.) to implementation, building a sustainable, interoperable, and inclusive digital ecosystem for all stakeholders who may use ocean oxygen data.
This work led by IOCCP co-Chair, Veronique Garçon and co-authored by over 40 colleagues representing more than 30 institutions across the globe, provides guidelines on necessary next steps including recommended practices for marine dissolved oxygen measurements, a working definition of ocean oxygen metadata, proposed data quality control levels and flags, and more.
When implemented, GO2DAT promises to make ocean oxygen data of known quality accessible to all scientists thereby greatly increasing the use of ocean oxygen data to understand the connection between oxygen loss, climate change, and ocean and human health. Provisioning consistent and structured information on dead zones and open ocean deoxygenation to all interested stakeholders and decision makers will open new avenues to take relevant action to better monitor and protect the ocean.
The development of GO2DAT requires human resources and engagement from the community of scientists, data managers, data providers and users, and also a clear roadmap for guaranteeing the sustainability of GO2DAT. The objective here is not to establish a new database but rather a federated system within the existing database architecture. With 5 current IOCCP SSG and Office Experts on the author’s list, it’s clear that we will continue working with our many partners to make GO2DAT a reality.
We congratulate all the authors and are looking forward to future collaborations!