Progress report for
Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON)
Achievement at a glance
The Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) has grown to 700 members representing 98 countries. In April 2019, GOA-ON hosted its 4th International Workshop in Hangzhou, China, where 250 scientists from more than 60 countries participated. The main themes of the workshop were monitoring ocean acidification (OA) in multi-stressor environments, biological responses, OA modeling, and stakeholder’s needs. This workshop brought together scientists and stakeholders to discuss advances and identify needs and gaps in ocean acidification research.<br>
<br>In April 2019, the GOA-ON Implementation Strategy was published, which outlines ways to effectively implement the GOA-ON Requirements and Governance Plan, including expanding ocean acidification observations, building capacity, and communicating the science.
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<br>At the decadal OceanObs’19 international conference held in Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA, 16-20 September 2019, experts discussed the progress of ocean observing networks and charted solutions to society's growing needs for ocean information in the coming 10 years. Ocean acidification was featured throughout the conference, with GOA-ON representatives actively participating in sessions and panels. GOA-ON published a community white paper prior to OceanObs, entitled "An Enhanced Ocean Acidification Observing Network: From People to Technology to Data Synthesis and Information Exchange".
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<br>GOA-ON continued to be closely involved with the Sustainable Development Goal 14.3.1 Indicator Methodology ("average marine acidity (pH) measured at an agreed suite of representative sampling stations"), for which the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO), part of the GOA-ON Executive Council, is the custodian agency.
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<br>GOA-ON is involved in supporting and organizing capacity building activities with its partners. Achievements include the growth of the GOA-ON Pier2Peer program, a scientific mentorship program that links senior researchers with early career scientists. GOA-ON and its partners continue to provide “GOA-ON in a Box” ocean acidification monitoring equipment to researchers; to date, 39 scientists have received these kits. Additionally, training courses ranging from basic carbonate chemistry workshops to running advanced laboratory experiments were implemented this year.
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Challenges faced in implementation
One of the main challenges GOA-ON faces is a lack of resources and dedicated funding to the network.<br>There are unfortunately still many gaps in OA observations around the world, partially due to the fact that monitoring equipment is expensive and capacity for observations is still lacking in many regions. One of the major challenges expressed by ocean acidification scientists is the difficulty in paying for and accessing Certified Reference Materials (CRMs), which are required for reliable carbonate chemistry measurements.
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<br>Another key challenge is the ability to make surface-water ocean acidification measurements in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of certain countries, and to access data from EEZs. Due to these restrictions, ships and mobile surface platforms of foreign vessels traversing EEZ waters are often required to switch off instrumentation.
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Next Steps
GOA-ON will continue to work with its partners to organize international meetings and symposia relevant to ocean acidification research. GOA-ON is involved in organizing the 5th International Symposium on the Ocean in a High-CO2 World, to be held during 7-10 September 2020 in Lima, Peru. Following the symposium, Members of the GOA-ON Executive Council will meet to identify and plan GOA-ON activities for the upcoming year.<br>In 2020, the reporting process towards the SDG Indicator 14.3.1 will continue, and the GOA-ON data portal will serve as a visualization platform for the data and metadata collected for this Indicator. GOA-ON will continue to facilitate access to ocean acidification monitoring data around the world. The network plans to include new data streams on its data portal, including from autonomous platforms such as Biogeochemical Argos and Saildrones.
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Beneficiaries
GOA-ON greatly benefits the scientific community; the network presently includes more than 680 members from 98 countries. The GOA-ON website provides various resources, including Best Practices guides, action plans, as well as links to relevant resources useful to scientists, policy-makers, early career 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, is also featured on the GOA-ON website along with the associated data files for reporting of the data to IOC-UNESCO.
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