News
IODC-III, call for abstracts - Join forces with OBIS to showcase the importance of fit-for-purpose and actionable data for ocean biodiversity
Participate in the OBIS-led session at the third edition of the International Ocean Data Conference on 10-11 March 2025
Living Data 2025 - The call for sessions is open. Submit yours today!
Participate in Living Data 2025 to increase collaboration, capacity and equitable access to data and tools supporting biodiversity monitoring and management.
UNESCO eDNA Expeditions - Successfully transforming innovative eDNA sampling into actionable data with OBIS expertise
Decoding the Ocean - UNESCO eDNA Expeditions Unveil Ocean Biodiversity
Help Build a Holistic Ocean Observing System: Survey for a Collaborative Ocean Observing Blueprint
The Horizon Europe project BioEcoOcean is seeking input via a survey for the development of a Blueprint for Integrated Ocean Science.
Marine perspectives on COP16-Reinforced global collaborations to better support conservation
With a dedicated Ocean Day and numerous positive concrete outcomes for ocean observations and marine biodiversity conservation, COP16 was a milestone for advancing global ocean observing and information systems. The formal recognition of OBIS and GOOS as crucial marine components of the Global Biodiversity Framework demonstrates the readiness of the two infrastructures to accelerate marine knowledge provision to better protect our Ocean.
Shaping the Future of Marine Biodiversity Data - Takeaways from the 6th OBIS Executive Committee Meeting
The Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) Executive Committee meeting took place at the InnovOcean Campus in Oostende, Belgium, from 14 to 16 October 2024\. The meeting aimed to set OBIS's strategic course for 2025 and establish a visionary document to set long-term goals and foster synergies with other IODE activities. In this article, we outline the three essential takeaways from the meeting.
PacMAN Fiji achieves "Marine Invasive Species Monitoring-Ready" status as project is completed
Suva, Fiji, 20 November 2024 – The Pacific Islands Marine Bioinvasions Alert Network (PacMAN) has concluded with resounding success, positioning Fiji as the first island nation recognised by UNESCO as "marine invasive species monitoring ready." Supported by the Flanders Government (Kingdom of Belgium), the four-year IOC-UNESCO project has significantly strengthened Fiji's ability to address the growing challenge of marine invasive species.
New OTGA/OBIS course in Spanish: Fundamentos para la publicación de datos de biodiversidad marina en OBIS
OBIS Colombia, OBIS Caribe, and ESP-OBIS have launched a self-paced course in Spanish on OTGA, covering OBIS data standards, quality control, and publishing. Available from 4 Oct, 2024 to 30 Jan, 2025.
Hack for a Livable Planet: join OBIS at the World Bank-led hackathon to answer biodiversity issues using available data
Biodiversity loss is one of the three main global threats to life on Earth, and if not addressed, could lead to a massive ecosystem collapse. Finding implementable solutions to protect biodiversity is critical for sustaining life on Earth and mitigating the ongoing environmental crises. OBIS is teaming up with the World Bank in a hackathon where citizens of all ages, researchers, community leaders, educators, activists, and elders team up to transform troves of publicly available biodiversity data repositories into actionable tools for education, policymaking and analysis. The great news? You can take part, too!
OBIS eDNA services, expertise and data publication
OBIS is actively engaged in eDNA research and the eDNA research community. Through its many projects, OBIS develops monitoring studies as well as tools for the bioinformatic processing and analysis of eDNA data, and works on the development of community-approved metadata standards. As a data publication platform, OBIS enables research teams, authors, and monitoring projects to publish occurrence data derived from quantitative (qPCR/ddPCR) or community-level (metabarcoding) eDNA approaches to make ocean biodiversity data globally accessible.
Laurent Chmiel joined the OBIS secretariat
We are glad to announce that Mr Laurent Chmiel has joined our OBIS secretariat. Laurent will contribute to enhance the OBIS team's capabilities in community engagement, partnerships, and outreach.
GBIF Ecuador Joins the OBIS Network as a New Node
We are excited to announce that GBIF Ecuador has officially joined the OBIS (Ocean Biodiversity Information System) network and will now serve as the national OBIS Ecuador Node.
MARCO-BOLO Data Analysis Challenge for eDNA biodiversity monitoring
OBIS is joining forces with VLIZ and UiT to organise the MARCO-BOLO Data Analysis Challenge to improve recommendations for eDNA metabarcoding pipeline choice and develop indicator workflows to report on biodiversity monitoring. Already 43 participants have registered their interest to participate and add their pipeline to the comparison.
Join Our Team: Consultant - OBIS Community engagement officer
OBIS is seeking an individual consultant to support the OBIS Secretariat by providing administrative and communication support across various activities.
Marine Biodiversity Data Mobilization Workshop 2024
Together, several organizations and OBIS nodes organized the third edition of the Marine Biodiversity Data Mobilization Workshop, a three day virtual, interactive, learner-led workshop to address challenges around data standardization and facilitate publication to OBIS. This year there was a special focus on mobilizing animal telemetry data.
Updated OBIS Data Policy and Terms of Reference available on OBIS Manual
We are pleased to announce that the new OBIS Data Policy for data sharing and use in OBIS, which was adopted by the SG-OBIS-12, is available in the OBIS Manual. In addition to the revised data policy, the newly defined OBIS Terms of Reference for various roles within our community are also available in the manual.
2024 Ocean Training Internships available with OBIS-Australia and OBIS Deep-Sea - Applications open
UNESCO-IOC is excited to announce the call for applications for the Ocean Training Internships for 2024. For the 2024 cohort, six host institutions will offer placements, each specializing in key priority areas. Two OBIS nodes, OBIS Deep-Sea and OBIS Australia, will host one intern each.
First assessment of how many marine species, especially those threatened with extinction, occur in Marine Protected Areas
Recent statistics on marine biodiversity conservation published today in the IOC State of the Ocean Report 2024, reveal interesting statistics on how much do we know about what species, especially those threatened with extinction, occur in Marine Protected Areas.
Dan Lear Appointed New Co-Chair of OBIS Steering Group
30 May 2024, at the ad-hoc Steering group meeting of the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), Dan Lear has been appointed as the new co-chair of the OBIS Steering Group. Dan, who is the OBIS UK node manager and a prominent figure in marine biodiversity data management, brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his new role. Dan Lear will Co-Chair OBIS together with Katherine Tattersall (node manager of OBIS Australia).
12th Session of the OBIS steering group, 25-29 March 2024
The 12th session of the IODE Steering Group for OBIS was held on 25-29 March 2024 in South Korea, hosted by the National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea and supported by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and was attended by 23 participants representing 16 OBIS nodes and the secretariat. The meeting report is now online.
OBIS and GBIF endorse joint strategy and action plan for marine biodiversity data
Technical collaboration and capacity building activities to support shared objectives and ensure free and open access to comprehensive information about life in and around the world’s oceans.
State of knowledge on marine connectivity gathered by migratory marine species
Advancements in technology have improved our knowledge of how different areas of the ocean are connected by the movement of migratory and mobile marine species. This information is vital to inform area-based management and conservation efforts. The authors of this study, led by the OBIS-SEAMAP node, performed a literature review of 25 years of accessible connectivity data for 173 marine mammal, fish, sea turtle, and seabird species to shed light on the current state of knowledge. They found telemetry methods are the most effective tool for demonstrating connectivity, but that significant gaps and obstacles remain in this field of research.
OBIS secretariat now has two experts in eDNA
OBIS has a key role in several new projects that use eDNA or aim to further improve this technology for biological monitoring and we are glad to announce that we now have two knowledgeable staff members in our OBIS secretariat who are experts in eDNA - Dr Emilie Boulanger (consultant) and Dr Saara Suominen (project appointment).
BioEcoOcean - New Horizon EU project to co-create Blueprint for Integrated Ocean Science
BioEcoOcean is a newly launched Horizon EU project that focuses on raising the technical readiness for important EOVs and co-creating a guiding Blueprint that seeks to transform biological and ecosystem ocean observations.
Vacancy: OBIS TECHNICAL COORDINATOR (UN-P3, fixed term)
OBIS is hiring an OBIS technical coordinator. The OBIS technical coordinator will be responsible for the technical and scientific coordination, implementation and maintenance of the OBIS data system and planning of related programme activities.
Meeting report of the 5th OBIS Executive Committee published
The OBIS Executive Committee met in Ostend to assess the OBIS 2023 work plan, formulate budgets for upcoming years, and initiate a review of the management structure aligned with new IODE Rules and Procedures, with a proposal to be presented at the upcoming OBIS steering group meeting in March 2024.
Invasive marine algae in the Mediterranean was misidentified for decades
The red algae, "Lophocladia lallemandii", one of the worst invasive species in the Mediterranean, was misidentified for nearly three decades. The researchers who discovered this error recommend genetic analysis as a mandatory first step when identifying, monitoring and managing invasives. OBIS served as a useful data repository to confirm the occurrence of this misidentified species.
Join Our Team: Consultant - OBIS scientific officer genetic data
OBIS is seeking an individual consultant to assist with the coordination and management of two European projects related to the development of eDNA data workflows and their integration in the European and international digital infrastructure.
Open Call: Up to 60,000€ for marine biodiversity monitoring data
The Horizon Europe DTO-BioFlow project has launched an Open Call of up to 60,000€ to international networks, citizen science networks, research institutes, universities, NGOs, and other eligible entities that manage marine biodiversity data.
Join Our Team: Associate Project Officer - Ocean Biodiversity Information System
OBIS is seeking a dynamic and skilled Associate Project Officer to support the OBIS secretariat in managing ongoing EU project activities and advancing OBIS's engagement in molecular observations.
Preserving seagrasses in a changing climate
This study provides the first comprehensive global assessment of how climate change may affect the distribution and range of 66 seagrass species. It also examines how well the current global MPA coverage will protect these important ecosystems in the future. The authors relied on occurrence records from OBIS, along with other sources of data and expert knowledge, to develop species distribution models under various scenarios.
Historians, Archaeologists and Paleontologists: OBIS, a leading global marine biodiversity database welcomes your time-series data
The Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) is a global repository for all types of marine biodiversity data, including invaluable historical, archaeological and paleontological data.
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Metabarcoding is a promising tool for identifying species of fish from their eggs and larvae
Understanding the diversity and distribution of fish egg and larvae in the ocean provides invaluable information on ecosystem health, capacity to recover from disturbances and helps guide management and conservation efforts. This study shows that metabarcoding is a promising tool that allows for rapid and accurate species identification. OBIS was used to validate and confirm the distribution range, habitat and occurrence of the species detected by metabarcoding.
New OBIS course - contributing and publishing datasets to OBIS
This detailed course will walk you through all the steps required for publishing data to OBIS, at your own pace. Available from Oct 2, 2023 to Feb 16, 2024.
National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea (MABIK) joins the OBIS Network
The National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea (MABIK) joined the OBIS network and will serve as the national OBIS node for the Republic of Korea (KOBIS).
How many species live in the world’s largest marine mineral exploration region?
This study offers the first comprehensive synthesis of published data for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the central and eastern Pacific. The authors report that this area, which covers 6 million km2, represents significant undescribed biodiversity with an estimated 88%–92% species waiting to be described. Data used in this research were extracted from OBIS highlighting its value as a global data repository for marine biodiversity.
Current knowledge on the reproduction of deep-sea corals
This study looks at the current state of research on the reproduction of deep-sea corals. Occurrence records were extracted from OBIS to find available information for species living at depths below 100m. Less than 7% of known deep-sea coral species were found to have any aspect of their reproduction reported in the literature highlighting significant gaps and priorities for future research.
Calling all Biodiversity Enthusiasts - Share Your Insights!
The new EU-funded MARCO-BOLO (MARine Coastal BiOdiversity Long-term Observations) project invites you to complete a survey to share your experiences in producing, managing or using marine, coastal, freshwater or terrestrial biodiversity data.
Adopting best practices to better understand life on the ocean floor
As the gateway to the world’s ocean biodiversity and biogeographic data and information, the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) of the IOC-UNESCO joined a team of international researchers to develop a new set of best practices to help standardise the information collected for seafloor invertebrates.
OBIS appointed Katherine Tattersall (CSIRO/OBIS-Australia) as co-chair
At the 11th session of the OBIS steering group, Katherine Tattersall was appointed as the new Co-Chair of the IODE Steering Group for OBIS.
11th Session of the OBIS steering group, 23-26 May 2023 (Online)
Forty-five participants from 22 countries representing 24 OBIS nodes participated in the 11th session of the IODE Steering Group for OBIS (SG-OBIS) on 23-26 May 2023. The executive summary and meeting report are now online.
Marine Biodiversity Data Mobilization Workshop 2023
This workshop gave me the foundation that I needed in Darwin Core terminology and best practices to be able to submit data to OBIS and contribute to open and FAIR data principles -Marine Lebrec [workshop attendee].
Job Advertisement: eDNA Scientific Data Officer
Do you have a passion for marine biodiversity and climate change research? Are you data-savvy and love working with data? If yes, then we have an exciting opportunity for you! We are looking for an individual consultant to join our team for a 3-month consultancy, starting preferably on May 15th, 2023. The eDNA Scientific Data Officer will work on a citizen-science project called "eDNA Expeditions in Marine World Heritage Sites," which aims to determine the richness of fish species and other marine megavertebrates across 25 marine sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
OBIS 2030 - The biodiversity data hub for the Ocean Decade Actions
The UN Ocean Decade recently endorsed the OBIS2030 project, which brings OBIS in the forefront of supporting the Decade actions in providing standardised, quality controlled and managed data to create information tailored for decision makers to help them protect and restore marine ecosystems and protect life in the ocean.
Marine coastal biodiversity observations to be strengthened through €7.3 million Horizon Europe project
A new €7.3 million Horizon Europe project, MARCO-BOLO (MARine Coastal BiOdiversity Long-term Observations), has been launched to connect and strengthen existing European coastal and marine biodiversity observation capabilities across Europe, while linking these to global efforts. The project aims to improve the acquisition, coordination and delivery of marine, coastal and freshwater biodiversity observations to relevant users, and to test new tools, technologies and models to better understand biodiversity decline.
Silas Principe joined the OBIS secretariat
We are glad to announce that Mr Silas Principe (Brazil) has joined our OBIS secretariat on 11 April 2023. He is based at the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende (Belgium). Silas will be supporting the MPA Europe project, an EU co-funded project which aims to map the optimal locations for Marine Protected Areas in European seas.
Mapping the optimal locations for MPAs in Europe
A new Horizon EU project aims to identify the locations within the European seas where MPAs would protect the highest number of species, habitats and ecosystems. This information will support stakeholders involved in marine spatial planning in establishing effective conservation areas. Participants, including from OBIS, reunited in early March in Bodø, Norway, to kick off the project.
Lisa Benedetti joined the OBIS secretariat
We are glad to announce that Ms Lisa Benedetti has joined our OBIS secretariat on 6 March 2023. Lisa will be supporting a new 4-year EU-funded project, MARCO-BOLO (MARine COastal BiOdiversity Long-term Observations) which aims to structure and strengthen European coastal and marine biodiversity observation capabilities.
Vacancy: Associate Project Manager Marine & Coastal Biodiversity Observations
UNESCO-IOC is seeking an individual consultant to perform the role of Associate Project Manager for the EU-funded project, MARCO-BOLO (MARine COastal BiOdiversity Long-term Observations). The consultant will assist with the coordination of the Marco-Bolo project and more specifically the work related to Work Package 6 “Stakeholder Engagement and Community Integration”. The objectives of WP6 are to ensure that the project outcomes are stakeholder-driven and mission-oriented, that they match end-user needs and feed more effectively into policy processes and support the EU and its member states reaching its biodiversity targets.
Archiving animal movements as a record of biodiversity
Tens of thousands of animals around the world are monitored using GPS trackers to protect wildlife and study animal behaviour. The collected data are also useful for biodiversity research, but are seldom available on platforms used for this purpose. Researchers have developed a workflow to make GPS tracking data available in biodiversity data portals, and applied it to publicly archive GPS tracking data for hundreds of birds across northwest Europe.
Climate-driven diversity changes of Mediterranean echinoids over the last 6 Ma
Echinoids are an important component of the Cenozoic marine benthic communities. In this publication, we review their diversity in the Mediterranean area within the Late Miocene to recent, a period of remarkable paleogeographic and paleoclimate changes.
UNESCO kicks off eDNA expeditions at COP 15
As the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) opens today, UNESCO is establishing a global biodiversity snapshot of marine species across 25 of the world's most unique marine protected areas. Analysis of these samples will help OBIS map biodiversity and develop citizen science protocols for eDNA sampling and data management.
Vacancy: Biodiversity Distribution Modeller
For the European Horizon project "Marine Protected Areas Europe" (MPA Europe) project we looking for a Biodiversity Distribution Modeller to join the OBIS Secretariat, based in Ostend (Belgium).
Marine Biodiversity Data: How USGS and NOAA are collaborating to make data more accessible now and into the future
USGS and NOAA have partnered through the Ocean Biodiversity Information System-USA and National Centers for Environmental Information to streamline ocean data collection and make sure it's available for decades to come.
Cumacea (Peracarida) from the deep Nordic Seas
This study compiled and analysed occurrence records of Cumacea from various courses and expeditions, including those available in OBIS, to provide insight into the diversity and distribution of the group from the deep North Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean. The data from this study resulted in the creation of a new OBIS dataset of Icelandic Cumacea (ICECU) from the IceAGE and PASCAL expedition records.
Digging up the oceans' past
Call for volunteers in helping digitize old biodiversity records from cruise reports
Detecting sperm whales in the eastern Canadian Arctic as sea-ice continues to melt
Marine environments in the Arctic regions continue to be altered due to prolonged durations of sea ice absence, as a result of climate change. Seasonal shifts of habitat use occur as warmer, ice-free regions become available to many ice avoiding marine mammals. In this study, authors combined collected sighting- and acoustic data, including whaling records accessed through the OBIS database, to explore the range expansion of the ice-avoiding sperm whale in the Eclipse Sound area, Baffin Bay. Sperm whale presence in Eclipse Sound is a recent phenomenon, with only two sighting records of these mammals in this region, in 2014 and 2018, respectively. However, acoustic recordings reveal that sperm whales are present in this region yearly between 2015 and 2019 and that there has been an increase in sperm whale presence over the 5 year study period, closely related to the minimum sea ice concentration of each year.
Launching: The GOOS BioEco portal
GOOS has officially announced the public launch of the BioEco portal, 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 (EOVs)
The OBIS user survey
Have you downloaded or used data from the OBIS database for your research, projects or publications? Then we want to hear from you!
Reconstructing ocean biodiversity hotspots of the Phanerozoic
Is there a limit to global biodiversity in our oceans? This recent study published in Nature using data from OBIS sheds some new insight into this controversial topic in evolutionary ecology and has led to the authors proposing a new hypothesis, the ‘diversity hotspots hypothesis’.
Detecting life in the deep-sea: a glimpse of the top predator, the Yokozuna Slickhead in Japanese waters.
New insights and video footage of possibly the largest deep-sea-endemic predatory teleost fish species, the Yokozuna Slickhead, using a combination of eDNA metabarcoding and baited camera observations, at depths of 2000 m. OBIS occurrence data contributed to the distributional comparison of this species to the only other deep-sea-endemic teleost fish species with total length over 2 m, the Giant Grenadier, Albatrossia pectoralis.
eDNA expeditions in full swing
OBIS joined the marine programme of the World Heritage Centre to embark on a new UNESCO global citizen science initiative, called eDNA Expeditions in marine World Heritage sites, aiming to measure marine biodiversity, across 25 UNESCO World Heritage sites, while also measuring possible impacts of climate change on distribution patterns of marine organisms. The project will focus on fish and other marine vertebrates, with special attention to vulnerable and endangered species as specified through the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, as well as those reflected in World Heritage sites’ Outstanding Universal Value.
Predicting global distribution and population connectivity – the predatory broadnose sevengill shark as an example.
Presence data sourced from OBIS, amongst other repositories and literature sources, contributed to predicting the global possible suitable habitat for a highly mobile predator shark, the broadnose sevengill shark, based on environmental niche modeling.
10th Session of the OBIS steering group, 17-20 May 2022 (Online)
Forty-four participants from 23 countries representing 26 OBIS nodes participated in the 10th session of the IODE Steering Group for OBIS (SG-OBIS) on 17-20 May 2022. The executive summary and meeting report are now online.
Discovering life in extreme environments with deep-sea equipment
The development of deep-sea equipment has allowed researchers to start to unveil the vast biodiversity and ecosystems in the extreme deep-sea environments. Discoveries of deep-sea species, based on occurrences from the OBIS database, were compared to the global distribution of deep-sea equipment. The results suggest a correlation to the regions of extensive species discovery and the locational distribution of advanced deep-sea equipment.
Giant manta ray distribution in the western North Atlantic Ocean
Species distribution modeling (SDM) as a tool to predict the probability of occurrence for giant manta rays in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The data from this study is based on occurrence records and decades of sighting data from OBIS and an array of other data sources. These distribution predictions will ultimately allow for better protection and conservation of the threatened giant manta ray.
Through the eyes of a Cretaceous crab
By extracting depth data of extant benthic and pelagic Brachyuran crabs from the OBIS database, along with habitat and lifestyle information, authors were able to interpret the fossil species examined herein, to have been an active swimmer, most likely hunting and predating on pelagic comma shrimps.
An unconventional workshop in these unprecedented times
A recent workshop brought together international participants to mobilize existing biodiversity data, advance interoperability, and build community. The workshop curriculum is modeled after The Carpentries and available for anyone to reuse.
Cold-water species deepen to escape warm water temperatures
How species traits of cephalopods and malacostracans, extracted from the OBIS database contributed to evidence of cold-water species deepening in response to warming waters in the Mediterranean Sea.
Elizabeth Lawrence joined the OBIS secretariat
We are glad to announce that Dr Elizabeth Lawrence has joined our OBIS secretariat on 16 March 2022. In the coming year she will develop training resources to support researchers and data managers to manage and publish data from biological observing systems into OBIS following internationally agreed standards and best practices.
How anthozoan distribution records from OBIS contribute to the global biogeography of the ocean midnight zone
A global analysis of the benthic fauna of the lower bathyal using data from OBIS revealed a surprisingly high level of endemism. The study published in March 2022 by Watling & Lapointe (2022) proposed a revision of the bathyal provinces of the world.
Vacancy - OBIS Capacity Development Officer (one year)
We are offering a one-year consultancy contract to support OBIS in the development of training material. The deadline for applications is 31 December 2021.
Serita Van Der Wal joined the OBIS secretariat
We welcome Ms Serita Van Der Wal (South Africa) at the OBIS secretariat based at the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende (Belgium). She will support us in (i) managing the information about observing systems, networks, and data assets provided via a portal for the Global Ocean Observing System, Biology and Ecosystems Panel (GOOS BioEco) and (ii) provide coordination with the observing systems, networks, and data-producing projects contributing to biological and ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables (EOV) with the aim to bring more of the data from these facilities fully online through OBIS, and become interoperable and reusable as part of an integrated global ocean observing system.
Help us identify your needs for marine biodiversity data
To evaluate how growing needs for data and information can be met, OBIS is organizing an online survey. The survey closes at 14 November 2021. It will only take 5 minutes of your time. Thanks in advance!
OBIS partners with marine World Heritage sites in a global project to study biodiversity.
UNESCO launches an ambitious global citizen science project to assess the diversity of fish and endangered species at marine World Heritage sites. Environmental DNA analyses across a selection of these sites will also provide information to enable global analyses on the vulnerability of flagship marine protected areas to climate change. The project called: "eDNA expeditions in marine World Heritage Sites" is also endorsed as a project of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
OBIS webinar on genetic data, 28 October 2021
Occurrences based on genetic data can now be added to the OBIS database with the DNA-derived data extension. Join the webinar to hear more about how this is done, and how these data can be accessed.
A historic event - OBIS and GBIF nodes held a joint marine data mobilization session at the GBIF Global Nodes Meeting 2021
On the 1st of July, during the GBIF Global Nodes Meeting 2021, OBIS and GBIF nodes held a joint meeting for the first time in history. The objective was to update the community on the collaboration between GBIF and OBIS and discuss opportunities to work together on marine data mobilization.
Vacancy - Consultant strategic advice for OBIS (2 months)
To meet rising expectations related to the UN Ocean Decade, we have opened a call for a 2-month consultancy contract to review our stakeholder needs as well as the capacity in the OBIS network to meet those needs. The deadline for application is the 22nd of August.
Meeting report of the 4th OBIS Executive Committee and interim OBIS Steering Group is now online
On 26-27 May 2021, 35 participants from 20 countries representing 22 OBIS nodes participated in the 4th session of the OBIS Executive Committee, which was also held as an interim OBIS steering group meeting. The committee reviewed the status of the 2021 OBIS work plan and discussed new activities.
Vacancy - Data manager GOOS Biology
The Flanders Marine Institute is recruiting a Data Manager GOOS Biology, for secondment to the OBIS secretariat at the IOC Project Office for IODE, in Belgium. This is a short-term (initially one year) full-time contract. Duty Station is Oostende (Belgium). Application deadline 10 August 2021.
The International Seabed Authority joins the OBIS network
On World Ocean Day, 8th June 2021, we jointly organised a webinar and celebrated the collaboration between the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and OBIS. The ISA is now one of the 32 OBIS nodes and will publish the biodiversity data collected by the deep-sea mining contractors, to OBIS. This is an important milestone for OBIS and we welcome our new member. The ISA is also the first UN body that joins the OBIS network.
An unprecedented analysis of Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) events worldwide launched by UNESCO's IOC
The first-ever global statistical analysis examined roughly 9,500 HABs events over 33 years and found that the harm caused by HABs rises in step with growth of the aquaculture industry and marine exploitation and calls for more research on linkages. The analysis uses regional trends of microalgal observations in OBIS as a proxy for monitoring effort.
Flanders supported research data infrastructures played key role in UN Ocean report
On 21 April 2021, the United Nations launched the Second World Ocean Assessment on the state of the world’s ocean, covering environmental, economic and social aspects. OBIS, WoRMS and MarineRegions were among the key databases used to develop statistics on the trends in marine biota (chapter 6) as well as the state of biodiversity in marine habitats (chapter 7).
IODE honours past co-chairs Sky Bristol and Eduardo Klein
22 April 2021, Today, at the 26th session of the IOC Committee on International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE-XXVI), our two past OBIS Co-Chairs Mr Sky Bristol and Mr Eduardo Klein have been awarded the IODE Achievement Award. These awards are given to experts in recognition of making an exceptional contribution in time and effort to the IODE programme.
OBIS partners with the University of the South Pacific for a Marine Invasive Species Project
OBIS has partnered with the University of the South Pacific on a new marine invasives research pilot project called the Pacific Islands Marine Bioinvasions Alert Network (PacMAN). The project's overall goal is to build ocean science capacity for the early detection and rapid response to marine bioinvasions in Pacific Small Island Development State (PSIDS) using a range of different and novel molecular technologies.
In memoriam Daphne Fautin
We are saddened to learn about the death of Dr Daphne Gail Fautin. Daphne was born on 25 May 1946 and passed away on 12 March 12 2021. Daphne was a founding member of the first international committee of OBIS and during the Census of Marine Life period, she was our liaison person with GBIF, while also being the vice-chair of the GBIF science committee.
Naming animals in images – a new guide to the process
The application of Open Nomenclature terms for indicating various degrees of species identification, such as aff., cf., inc., sp., ... has always remained unclear, until now. A new open-access paper has now come out which provides guidelines for providing names to image-based species identifications and for naming species that are (likely) new to science, but not yet formally described. As OBIS, we are looking forward to more consistent use of these terms.
Report of the 9th Session of the OBIS steering group, 17-20 November 2020 (Online)
58 participants from 25 countries participated in the virtual 9th Session of the IODE Steering Group for-OBIS (SG-OBIS), 17-20 November 2020,where we discussed and agreed on our 2021 work plan. Despite the COVID19 pandemic´s impact, a record amount of new records was published in OBIS in the past year (6 million presence records from 574 new datasets). This year, we also celebrated our 20th anniversary and changed our name into the Ocean Biodiversity (replacing biogeographic) Information System.
Saara Suominen joined the OBIS secretariat
We welcome Ms Saara Suominen (Finland) at the OBIS secretariat. She will support us in setting up a monitoring plan for early detection of invasive species, utilizing eDNA analysis, as part of the PacMAN Project (Pacific Islands Marine Bioinvasions Alert Network), funded by the Government of Flanders, as well as providing helpdesk support to OBIS nodes and users.
OBIS and Global Biodiversity Information Facility update and expand cooperation agreement
Renewal of partnership with GBIF targets improved data exchange, better network coordination and shared guidance on publishing marine biodiversity data
Meeting report of the 3rd OBIS Executive Committee is now online
The third session of the OBIS Executive Committee (OBIS-EC) was held between 23-25 June 2020 as an online meeting. The meeting report is now online and provides an overview of the status of the OBIS 2020 workplan.
Occupancy‐derived thermal affinities reflect known physiological thermal limits of marine species
In this study we used the robis package to extract 2,176,906 OBIS occurrence records for 533 marine species from 24 taxonomic classes for which we had access to experimentally derived thermal limits. By linking these occurrence records to global sea surface and sea bottom temperature, we compared the temperatures at which species actually live to their thermal limits.
(CLOSED) Vacancy - OBIS Communications Consultant (3-months)
OBIS is hiring a consultant (three months) to develop a number of visuals to illustrate the OBIS network, activities and key value propositions. The vacancy is open until 5 July 2020.
(CLOSED) Vacancy - Science Officer Genetic Data (OBIS)
The Flanders Marine Institute is recruiting a Science officer - genetic data, for secondment to OBIS. This is a short-term (initially one year) full-time contract. Duty Station is Oostende (Belgium). Deadline 30 June 2020.
(free e-book) Biogeographic Atlas of the Deep NW Pacific Fauna
The Biogeographic Atlas of the Deep NW Pacific Fauna’ has been published by Pensoft as an open-access e-book, after a three-year intense collaboration of more than 40 deep-sea experts around the word. This book is designed as a guide, synthesis, and review of the current knowledge of the benthic fauna that is distributed in the bathyal and abyssal zones (below 2,000 m) of the NW Pacific. All the data (old and new) used are available in OBIS.
OBIS celebrates 20 years and changes name to Ocean Biodiversity Information System
On 26 May 2000, the Census of Marine Life issued a press release to launch the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). 20 years later, OBIS continues to grow and innovate under IOC/IODE, both in terms of number of records, in data quality as well as in the variety of data types and technologies. OBIS remains to be place to find accurate information on marine biodiversity. The 20th anniversary also marks the change to a new name, the Ocean Biodiversity Information System.
Call for abstracts to OBIS Session at the 5th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity, 13-16 December 2020, Auckland, New Zealand
We are inviting abstracts to be submitted to our session "OBIS celebrates 20 years. The power of integrated data" at the 5th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity, 13-16 December 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand. Please share this invitation within your network. Deadline for abstract submissions is 1 May 2020.