She et al.
Integrated Coastal and Biological Observing
Frontiers In Marine Science | www.frontlersln.org
5
July 2019 I Volume 6 | Article 314
and standardization in sampling and taxonomic identification
techniques results in spatial and temporal gaps, that makes global
scale synthesis extremely difficult.
To understand and manage global changes requires working
across multiple geographical scales, which requires mechanisms
for sharing expertise, protocols and data between and within
scales. These mechanisms would help to minimize problems such
as the general lack of and uneven distribution of taxonomic
expertise among institutions and nations (Heip and McDonough,
2012). It is important to define and operate appropriate
mechanisms tailored to the needs and characteristics of different
scales as well as the links between them. Networking workshops
for the definition of standards, inter-calibration exercises, labels
of good practices and the exchange of staff are examples of
such mechanisms.
DISCUSSION
This paper proposes an integrated approach for developing
coastal and biological observing systems. Although the recently
developed cost-effective, near real time technology such as
gliders, radars, ferrybox, and shallow water Argo floats, can be
used to generate operational coastal sea observations, integration
with offline monitoring programs, such as those for research,
ecosystem-based management and commercial purposes, is
necessary to fill the gaps. Such integration should lead to a system
of networks which can deliver data for all kinds of purposes.
For the ecosystem-based management, the space for
integration is huge. For example, in Europe, Marine Strategy
Framework Directive (MSFD) and Marine Spatial Planning
Directive (MSPD), aiming at reaching Good Environmental
Status (GES) and planning on sustainable of marine resources,
will be implemented in the following decade by the EU Member
States. As the implementation is at national level, each member
state needs a comprehensive monitoring program which provides
hydrography, biogeochemical, biodiversity observations, and
also human activity data. These national monitoring programs
can be harmonized at regional sea level, together with operational
and research infrastructure to improve the cost-effectiveness.
In order to effectively filling the gaps for the stakeholders, it is
essential that the entire ocean observing value chain should be
addressed with the three kinds of integration (fit-for-purpose,
parameter, and instrumental).
It is also important to think how the integrated observing
should be implemented. The three stages of integrated approach
proposed in this paper can be used to fill the gaps. For
the fit-for-purpose integration, coordinated observing for
multiple observational networks can be a good start point.
EOOS, as a future coordination framework of European ocean
observing, has issued a call for action to the EU Member
States: “Countries should coordinate all national marine and
coastal data collection efforts to improve efficiency, and identify
priorities and gaps to meet policy and societal needs.” (EOOS
conference in November 21-23, 2018, Belgium, Brussels).
It is expected that such basic integration of observations at
national level will form a solid base for the fit-for-purpose
integration. For the parameter integration, existing data
policies should be further evolved to ensure open, free and
timely access to government-funded observations, as well
as engagement of research and commercial observations.
Instrumental integration is currently significantly limited for
the biogeochemical and biological variables: comparing to
hydrographic variables, their observations are much sparser,
models have much higher errors and species-dependent, and
monitoring technologies also less efficient. New observations
should be added with cost-effective sampling strategy. In
addition, ecosystem models and innovative monitoring
technologies should be further developed to facilitate the
instrumental integration.
Based on the above discussion, a promising solution is to
carry out an integrated observing program at regional sea level
to fill the observational, technological and knowledge gaps by
implementing all three kinds of integration.
Institutional barriers in different monitoring sectors, data
management, and research communities are major obstacles
when implementing the integration. Due to limit of space
and extensive scope of the barriers, detailed analysis on the
barriers is not given in this paper. We recommend readers to
further specify the potential barriers in their own interested
areas and systems. Timely delivery of biological observations
is an important issue in developing operational ecology. It
should be emphasized in the implementation of the three
kinds of integration.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Support integrated observing for coastal and biological
observations as an efficient way to unlock value of the
ocean observations, and as a key component of GOOS, by
developing a program which integrates observation on physical,
biogeochemical and biological aspects of ocean ecosystems and
which establishes standardized approaches so that data can be
shared, synthesized, analyzed, and interpreted from a large scale,
long term, whole-system perspective. Specific recommendations
for the three kinds of integration are:
Fit-for-Purpose Integration
• Identify the observation and technology (cost-effectiveness)
gaps via fit-for-purpose assessment.
• Harmonize ocean observing from fragmented purposes
to make them suitable for multiple purposes, fill the
observation gaps and improve cost-effectiveness by
barrier-breaking, coordination, sampling design, and
technology innovation.
• Sustain long time series observation and new emerging
observing approaches as technology progresses, making
it possible to measure new parameters and/or improve
existing protocols.
• Fill observation and relevant knowledge gaps by
implementing new, community observing capacities,
e.g., through a sustained and cost-efficient research
infrastructure at regional level.
