The Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) in Australia in collaboration with the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) has developed a series of Marine Data and Science e-lectures that are openly available for all interested users. The lectures are designed to help marine scientists/students learn how to use IMOS ocean observations data in their research. The topic-specific lectures include: ocean primary productivity, the carbon cycle, and ocean acidification, with associated hands-on exercises using real observations to gain experience on how to analyse and interpret the data. While the setting is in Australia, most of the concepts are generic enough to apply to other regions, so the lectures can be freely utilised by others as training material.

You can access the lectures through the Open2U system at: https://open2u.utas.edu.au/Course/4261

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course,

• You will know the basics of ocean primary productivity/ocean carbon cycle/ocean acidification.
• You will be able to explain which processes are involved in primary productivity/carbon cycle/ocean acidification, how it is measured and why it is important.
• You will learn different methods of ocean observing including in situ and remote sensing and how these observations can be used.
• You will gain knowledge of the advantages of open data and know where to find ocean data through the Australian Ocean Data Network or other databases and how to access these datasets.
• You will gain experience on how to analyse and interpret the data with options given on coding languages to achieve this. The data laboratories are developed in Matlab and either in R or Python, or both.

Engagement

This is a self-paced online course.

Activities

The course consists of a mixture of material to read, video lectures, data laboratory using real datasets and computer coding.

Learning resources

To facilitate the learning process, all the presentations are narrated and the textual transcript available. You can also download the presentation files and the videos. The laboratory section contains selected MATLAB, R and Python scripts that allows you to interact and analyse data from IMOS in your preferred analysis tool.

What you need

A computer, internet connection and basic knowledge of marine science and basic coding skills in R, Python or MATLAB. Mobile devices may not be suitable for these lectures.