We are delighted to let you know that an important paper describing a roadmap for an open-access Global Ocean Oxygen Database and ATlas (GO₂DAT) has been published in Frontiers in Marine Science (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.724913/full). 

Eight current and recent IOCCP SSG members contributed to the work carried by 57 scientists from 45 institutions in 22 countries aimed at fully harnessing the increasing volumes of oxygen data already delivered and in anticipation of much higher quantities of data from autonomous platforms in the open ocean and coastal areas.

In coming months and years, IOCCP’s engagement around the Oxygen EOV will, to large extent, focus on implementing the roadmap laid out in this paper. GO₂DAT is hoped to combine oxygen data from the coastal and open ocean measured by a variety of methods on a myriad of operating platforms. Community-agreed, fully documented and consistent quality control (QC) procedure and quality flagging (QF) system will be adopted to support the development of advanced biogeochemical models and data synthesis products, significantly improving our mapping, understanding and forecasting capabilities.

These comprehensive data synthesis products will support the development of climate and ocean health indicators allowing for knowledge-based decision-making processes aimed at sustaining a healthy, productive and resilient ocean as prioritized by international policies and initiatives (e.g., UN SDG 14, the EU MFSD, the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development) associated with the emerging blue economy, the conservation of marine resources and their associated ecosystem services and the development of management tools required by a diverse community of users (e.g., environmental agencies, aquaculture and fishing sectors).

The implementation of the proposed roadmap for GO₂DAT requires internationally coordinated engagement from the scientific community, data providers, data managers and end-users. Engagement around and implementation of GO₂DAT will be promoted by the UN Decade GOOD Programme.