Progress report for
Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON)
Achievement at a glance
The Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) has been involved in numerous activities in 2018 through increased capacity building efforts, upgrading its data portal, and fostering collaborations within the ocean acidification (OA) community. Capacity building achievements have involved the growth of the GOA-ON Pier2Peer program, a scientific mentorship program that matches senior researchers with early career scientists to facilitate the expertise and to provide a platform for international collaborations. There have been 26 new Pier2Peer matches in 2018, and over the years GOA-ON has helped in providing monitoring equipment to 27 scientists and has collaborated with its partners to organize both basic and advanced OA training courses. GOA-ON was represented at many international meetings to communicate needs for the OA network, and has supported the inception and coordination of new regional OA hubs, including North American, North East Atlantic, and Pacific Islands and Territories Ocean Acidification hubs.<br>In 2018, a Distributed Secretariat was established to support GOA-ON activities. This Secretariat is comprised of three staff members based at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, and the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration.
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<br>IOC-UNESCO, which is part of the GOA-ON Executive Council, is the custodian agency for the SDG 14.3.1 Indicator ("average marine acidity (pH) measured at an agreed suite of representative sampling stations"), and has led the development of the Indicator Methodology with the support of ocean acidification experts, including members of GOA-ON. The Indicator has been upgraded from Tier III to Tier II, meaning that the Indicator is conceptually clear, has an internationally established methodology and standards are available, but data are not regularly produced by countries.
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<br>The World Meteorological Organization have also adopted OA as a headline climate indicator and GOA-ON is reporting on this indicator.
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Challenges faced in implementation
One of the challenges GOA-ON faces is a lack of resources and dedicated funding to the network.<br>There are still many gaps in OA observations around the world, partially due to monitoring equipment and reference materials being expensive, and capacity for observations is lacking in some regions. The lack of data centres and/or data accessibility in some regions will also restrict the delivery of data to SDG14.3.1 and the further development of the OA network.
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Beneficiaries
GOA-ON benefits the scientific community; the network presently includes more than 500 members from 83 countries. GOA-ON also benefits industries such as aquaculture who utilize real-time OA measurements to assess local water quality. Additionally, GOA-ON raises awareness to the scientific community through its website and social media. As part of the ongoing development of the GOA-ON website, the Resources section will provide more information about OA research, including guides to best practices, manuals and links to OA relevant resources, to provide valuable help, guidance and explanations for researchers and the general public. The SDG 14.3.1 Indicator Methodology, which includes guidance to scientists and countries on how to carry out measurements and report the findings following the established best practices, will also be featured in the Resources, along with the associated data files for reporting and instructions.