Progress report for
Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON)
Achievement at a glance
Seagrasses-Developing a Community of Practice and Linking Existing Groups:MBON, most notably the Pole-to-Pole project, is working in partnership with the Smithsonian MarineGEO program, as well as with OBIS, the UNEP-WCMC, and others, to build standard workflows and data pipelines and enhanced capacity for global delivery of the GOOS seagrass Essential Ocean Variable.
To date this has involved (1) publication of a global Community White Paper on recommendations for macrophyte observing, associated with OceanObs19; (2) The first of several international workshops, supported by SCOR and NASA, to develop workflows and data standards for the seagrass (and mangrove) Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs); (3) a global standardized field survey of seagrass systems at >100 sites and involving several MBON partners, conducted in 2019/2020 to test the system and produce a new global data set; and (4) beginning to transition the long-running SeagrassNet program (University of New Hampshire) to the Smithsonian, to update and secure existing data, expand standardized observations, and make the data publicly available to the extent possible.
Challenges faced in implementation
The process to establish a global community of practice around best practices to sample, analyze, and monitor seagrasses is based on numerous conversations through which members of the community gain trust in each other.Substantial efforts have been conducted, including finding resources to meet in person. A proposal was written by MarineGEO and UNEP WCMC, in partnership with MBON. This was funded by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) to establish a SCOR Working Group and further facilitate networking around best practices.
Beneficiaries
Researchers, marine resource managers and planners
Actions
Researchers around the world are now being grouped and linked together around a global standardized field survey of seagrass systems.SeagrassNet (University of New Hampshire) is now being transitioned to the Smithsonian, to update and secure existing data, expand standardized observations, and make the data publicly available to the extent possible.