News

OTGA/INIOAS/OBIS Training took place in Iran, 23-26 September 2018

A training course under the auspices of the Ocean Teacher Global Academy (OTGA) on Marine Biogeographic Data processing using OBIS was organized by the IOC of UNESCO and the Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science (INIOAS) at INIOAS, I.R.IRAN which also hosts the OBIS node for the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman (PEGO-OBIS node).

Aims & Objectives:

• Introducing OBIS to regional/national marine biodiversity researchers and data managers
• Expand the OBIS network of collaborators specially through the ROPME member states (Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, part of the Arabian Sea)
• Improve marine biogeographic data quality
• Increase awareness of international standards and best practices related to marine biogeographic data management
• Increase the amount of open access data published through OBIS and its OBIS nodes
• Increase the use of data from OBIS for research, species conservation and area-based management applications

The participants were from the ROPME member states (Pakistan, Oman, and Iran). Foreign participants were from University of Karachi (Pakistan) and Public authority for Aviation (Oman). Domestic participants were from University of Hormozgan; Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences; Shahid Beheshti University; University of Tehran and Iran Ports and Maritime Organization.

The training was officially opened by Dr. Hamid Alizadeh Lahijani on behalf of the Director of INIOAS Prof. Dr. Behrooz Abthi in 23 Sep 2018. Then Dr. Abdolvahab Maghsoudlou presented an introduction to INIOAS and its Research activities as IOC National Contact point and Regional training center of OTGA. The Course was conducted by three trainers: from the OBIS Black Sea node, Oleksander Neprokin; Dr. Hanieh Saeeidi from OBIS Deep Sea node and Dr. Abdolvahab Maghsoudlou from PEGO-OBIS node (located at INIOAS).

The course provided an introduction to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) which has over the years invested in collating geographic, taxonomic and temporal marine biodiversity data through a global framework. This includes best practices in marine biogeographic data management, data publication, data access, and data analysis and data visualization. In particular, the participants were trained about WoRMS taxon match system, installation and management of the Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) which facilitates publishing and sharing biodiversity datasets through the OBIS & GBIF network, the use of Darwin Core standards for species occurrence records, taxonomy, and additional biological and environmental parameters, how to quality control data using OBIS and LifeWatch QC tools and how to harvest or upload data and metadata in Global (OBIS and WoRMS) open access databases.

It was clear from the training that quality control and data standards are necessary and the key to data sharing with respective databases. Also the R software was introduced to participants through the course.

Finally all of the participants presented their understanding about the course and encouraged from trainers to introduce OBIS in their institutes/universities. The course finished on 26 Sep 2018.

All the training material is available online at the OceanTeacher website.