News
Launching: The GOOS BioEco portal
GOOS has officially announced the public launch of the BioEco portal! Follow this link to the announcement by GOOS.
The BioEco Portal is a freely available, open access platform that provides metadata and information on global ocean observing programmes that monitor Biological and Ecosystem (BioEco) Essential Ocean Variables (EOV’s).
The BioEco Portal user interface with interactive map and programme filtering options
The Portal is developed to be the go-to online resource for all the available information about where ocean observation is being done; what is the status and trends of ocean observation or specific programs; what are the standardisations and specifications being used; and of course, what organisms are being observed/ monitored. The aim of the portal is to aid in the coordination and collaboration of networks, programme managers and institutes to access and share information and metadata among global observing communities and allow the GOOS BioEco panel to build on its community of practice.
The Portal’s interactive map delivers a global spatial overview of the total number of programs contributed to the Portal, which can be selected or filtered for by name, variables and/ or readiness levels. The metadata fields available in the Portal and through GeoNode, broadly consist of: Programme specific information, including programme title and background and a contact person; temporal information, indicating when a program was initiated and whether it is still active or has been terminated/ completed; direct links, URLs and references to data, measurements, observations, standardisations, outputs and tools; indication of data in OBIS and interest in publishing data to OBIS; funding information and funding sector(s).
In addition to the indication of BioEco EOVs monitored for each program, the BioEco Portal provides metadata fields for information regarding observed variables, including: BioEco EOV sub-variables, indicating the specific measurements taken for each observed EOVs, for example cover, composition, diversity, abundance, biomass etc.; Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), including community and genetic composition; ecosystem functioning and structure; and species traits; non-BioEco EOVs, that is, variables relating to physics, biogeochemistry and cross-disciplinary variables.
The information contained in the BioEco Portal is referred to as the program ‘metadata’. All metadata and information that is available in the portal, is uploaded and created through the backend platform, the GOOS BioEco GeoNode, to ensure a user/ data provider driven approach. In GeoNode, registered users can independently upload, edit and manage contributed monitoring program details and metadata themselves, with no limit to the number of programmes that may be contributed.
The launch of the GOOS BioEco Portal is a call to programme managers and metadata providers to contribute to this resource by adding their programme to the Portal. We encourage visitors of the portal and registered users to call upon their networks and colleagues to contribute, regardless of the scale or developmental stage of their ocean observing programme. Although the portal focuses on sustained monitoring programmes meaning that the portal is not meant for one-off or ad-hoc observation activities. Contributing a new program to the portal is quick and straightforward. All users and visitors have access to the documentation that contains step-by-step instructions and guidelines on how to upload, edit or manage a program layer, complete with video segments, examples and help desk information. The Portal is developed for the user, by the user. This means that communication and feedback from our users and program providers regarding all aspects of using the portal and GeoNode, are encouraged. Get in contact with us by sending an email to s.van-der-wal@unesco.org or helpdesk@obis.org.
Partnerships and funding
The GOOS BioEco Portal is a product of the GOOS BioEco panel and developed in collaboration with the secretariat of the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) of the IOC Project Office for IODE and the data centre of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ).
The development of the portal has been made possible through financial support from the Project “Defining the observing system for the world’s oceans - from microbes to whales” funded under the PEGASuS 2 call on Ocean Sustainability sponsored by Future Earth and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) has provided funds to further develop and improve the content of the portal in 2021-2022.
