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Black Girls Dive Foundation (BGDF) was established to empower and inspire young girls to explore their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) identities through aquatic-based STEM activities and ocean stewardship. BGDF’s STREAMS program integrates aquatic-based recreation of SCUBA with scientific diving, ocean science, and stewardship. STREAMS explores ways to have broader reach and impact on STEM identity and STEM interest for individuals who are historically underserved and underrepresented in the sciences and provides research informed ways to close the divide and bring about equity.

On 3 May 2020, an ML 3.1 earthquake occurred in Haenam, southwestern Korea, in an area devoid of recorded seismicity since instrumental observations began in 1978. Careful examination of the temporal occurrence of seismicity, and the magnitude distribution of the sequence before and after the ML 3.1 earthquake, indicates typical swarm-like behavior. The earthquake swarm started with an ML 0.6 event on 26 April 2020, intensified up to 3 May 2020, and abruptly terminated with an ML 1.0 event on 9 May 2020. The Pusan National University Geophysics Laboratory (PNUGL) deployed a temporary seismic array with eight three-component short-period instruments to monitor the short-lived bursts of seismicity. During the monitoring campaign, we detected > 700 microearthquakes by applying a matched-filter technique to the combined dataset produced by PNUGL, the Korea Meteorological Administration, and the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology. We determined earthquake parameters for 299 earthquakes that were detected at four or more seismic stations. We also determined the focal mechanism solutions of the 10 largest earthquakes in the swarm using first-motion polarities with S/P ratios. The focal mechanism, hypocentral depth, and stress orientation of the largest earthquake in the sequence were also determined using waveform inversions. The distribution of earthquake hypocenters, together with focal mechanism solutions, indicates that the earthquake swarm activated deeply-buried faults (~20 km) oriented either NNE-SSW or WNW-ESE. We also report details of the temporary seismic monitoring network, including the instrumentation, detection of microearthquakes, and variations in event-detection threshold influenced by anthropogenic and natural noise fluctuations. We also discuss the limitations associated with lowering the detection threshold of microearthquakes by increasing the number of seismic stations or by adopting advanced event-detection techniques.

Recent metagenomic studies have revealed that marine plankton is far more diverse than previously thought (Carradec et al. 2018, Salazar et al. 2019, Duarte et al. 2020), with hundreds of thousands of genetically distinct taxa and more than 116 million genes documented for eukaryotic plankton and 47 million genes for prokaryotes. However, the taxonomy and/or function of more than half of the planktonic ‘omic’ sequences is still unknown. These unprecedented amounts of data on planktonic communities call for innovative, data-driven approaches to quantify and observe their biogeographic importance (Faure et al. 2021). Marine plankton play a fundamental role in the global biogeochemical cycles and marine food webs. They are also a sentinel of environmental changes. Gathering more information about their genomics can help us better describe plankton distributions at global scale and further understand their response to environmental changes. The Blue-Cloud demonstrator Plankton Genomics responds to this challenge by mining the rich metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data collected during the Tara Oceans mission and combining it with in situ or climatological environmental information to infer the function, taxonomy and distribution of the large portion of unknown sequences. In this article, we are going to explore the main results of the demonstrator and its intended evolution. The demonstrator is led by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and created by the Faculty of Sciences at Sorbonne University. Test the Virtual Lab

The rapid development of intelligent navigation drives the rapid accumulation of ocean data, and the ocean science has entered the era of big data. However, the complexity and variability of the ocean environments make some data unavailable. It makes ocean target detection and the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) intelligent control process in ocean scenarios face various challenges, such as the lack of training data and training environment. Traditional ocean image data collection method used to capture images of complex ocean environments is costly, and it leads to a serious shortage of ocean scene image data. In addition, the construction of an autonomous learning environment is crucial but time-consuming. In order to solve the above problems, we propose a data collection method using virtual ocean scenes and the USV intelligent training process. Based on virtual ocean scenes, we obtain rare images of ocean scenes under complex weather conditions and implement the USV intelligent control training process. Experimental results show that the accuracy of ocean target detection and the success rate of obstacle avoidance of the USV are improved based on the virtual ocean scenes.

This paper is a response to a 2018 call for greater understanding of how previous examples of marine science diplomacy could help shape present day efforts to draft a new law of the sea that protects marine biodiversity and conserves the marine environment. It tackles this through analysis of the various twists, turns, and challenges of early science diplomacy efforts in marine science during the early twentieth century. It looks in turn at questions of defining and agreeing on research objectives, how backchannel science diplomacy can become official government diplomacy, and finally, how careful science diplomacy brought Germany back to the international research arena so as to successfully put in place marine conservation measures during the 1920s. In doing this, it argues that the foundation of the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas in 1902 represented a revolutionary moment where supra-national scientific research, coordination, and conservation politics for the ocean first emerged; with International Council for the Exploration of the Sea becoming a key model for all subsequent marine science diplomacy. This essay is part of a special issue entitled Science Diplomacy, edited by Giulia Rispoli and Simone Turchetti.

Identifying and quantifying the effects of climate change that alter the habitat overlap of marine predators and their prey population distributions is of great importance for the sustainable management of populations. This study uses Bayesian joint models with integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) to predict future spatial density distributions in the form of common spatial trends of predator–prey overlap in 2050 under the “business‐as‐usual, worst‐case” climate change scenario. This was done for combinations of six mobile marine predator species (gray seal, harbor seal, harbor porpoise, common guillemot, black‐legged kittiwake, and northern gannet) and two of their common prey species (herring and sandeels). A range of five explanatory variables that cover both physical and biological aspects of critical marine habitat were used as follows: bottom temperature, stratification, depth‐averaged speed, net primary production, and maximum subsurface chlorophyll. Four different methods were explored to quantify relative ecological cost/benefits of climate change to the common spatial trends of predator–prey density distributions. All but one future joint model showed significant decreases in overall spatial percentage change. The most dramatic loss in predator–prey population overlap was shown by harbor seals with large declines in the common spatial trend for both prey species. On the positive side, both gannets and guillemots are projected to have localized regions with increased overlap with sandeels. Most joint predator–prey models showed large changes in centroid location, however the direction of change in centroids was not simply northwards, but mostly ranged from northwest to northeast. This approach can be very useful in informing the design of spatial management policies under climate change by using the potential differences in ecological costs to weigh up the trade‐offs in decisions involving issues of large‐scale spatial use of our oceans, such as marine protected areas, commercial fishing, and large‐scale marine renewable developments., This study tests a range of analytical techniques to quantify ecological costs of climate change on habitat availability of predator–prey or competing mobile species. The study demonstrates how to detect environmentally sensitive habitat areas and is highly useful for habitat management policies under climate change.

The present document contains information on activities of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Body and the Secretariat on the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) & the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon. 1. The United Nations have proclaimed the Decade to support efforts to gather ocean stakeholders worldwide behind a common framework that will ensure that ocean science can fully support countries in creating improved conditions for the sustainable development of the Ocean. 2. The Scientific and Technical Advisory Body (STAB) elaborated a Strategic Framework (see also full text in annex) on engaging in the UN Decade and presented it to the 8th Meeting of States Parties in 2021. The Meeting, in Resolution 4/8 MSP, welcomed the STAB’s Strategic Framework and reiterated the need to ensure full authorization of the concerned States and respect of confidentiality for unprotected sites in all mapping processes foreseen in it. The Meeting also called on Member States to support actions in the framework of the UN Decade of Ocean Science focusing on underwater and coastal cultural heritage financially. 3. In this regard, in February 2022, a letter was sent by the Secretariat to the States Parties to raise funding for the implementation of the Strategic Framework. Pending the necessary additional contributions, the STAB is invited to determine the priorities among the actions proposed in the Strategic Framework to launch its implementation. OPENASFA INPUT Item 5 - 'Ocean Decade & Ocean Conference' of the Provisional Agenda of the 16th Meeting of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Body (STAB) of the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage held in Tunis, Tunisia on 6 and 7 May 2022. Published Non Refereed

Proclaimed in 2017 by the United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development – the Ocean Decade – is a framework to identify, generate and use critical ocean knowledge that is needed to manage the ocean sustainably, and achieve global aspirations for climate, biodiversity, and human well-being. Through its vision of ‘The science we need for the ocean we want’, the Ocean Decade provides an inclusive, equitable and global framework for diverse actors to co-design and co-deliver transformative ocean science to meet ten Ocean Decade Challenges. Through a collaborative, solutions-oriented approach, the Ocean Decade will contribute essential knowledge to global, regional, and national policy frameworks, including the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.1 The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) leads the coordination of the Ocean Decade, in collaboration with numerous partners from the United Nations system, governments, philanthropy, industry, civil society and the scientific community. 2021 was the first year of implementation of the Ocean Decade – a watershed moment in ocean science globally – and the achievements since the launch have been significant. Although challenges remain, particularly in relation to investment in ocean science, a robust foundation is now in place for the next nine years of transformative ocean science. OpenASFA input Published Refereed

Experience is needed to prepare young ocean researchers to work in interdisciplinary environments and to teach them how to deal with complex processes. Such experience can be provided in courses/internships aimed at preparing qualified personnel to work on solution-oriented projects. These lessons are designed to deepen understanding in particular elements of ocean data science education: oceanography as a science in evolution, mutual understanding, the enrichment of data, and the process of moving from data to information. Such lessons combine the history of ocean science with ocean data methodologies and technologies, data quality elements, “fitness for use”/“fitness for purpose” and analyses. The approach consists of a significant mentoring program aimed at strengthening “thinking skills”—critical and creative thinking—and therefore the ability to solve complex problems.

In this study, tidal stream energy resources of the Southwestern Sea of Korea were assessed using a numerical model, Modelo Hidrodinâmico (MOHID). This numerical model is based on the finite volume method, which allows numerical experiments on estuaries, coasts, and oceans. For the numerical experiment, we used grid data of at least 90 m resolution by applying bathymetry data created by the Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (KIOST) and FES2012 data as a tidal boundary condition. Strong tidal currents occur in the Southwestern Sea of Korea due to the characteristics of the tidal systems of the West Sea and the South Sea, and the topographical characteristics of a Ria coast. These characteristics were appropriately reproduced by the numerical experiment. Accordingly, the average and maximum tidal currents calculated by the numerical model were used in the assessment. Two regions, Jangjuk and Maenggol-Geocha, were selected as the candidate areas for tidal stream energy development. In addition, the amounts of tidal stream energy resources were evaluated using geographical information system-based spatial analysis by applying the tidal current, depth data, and area of each region. The resource amounts were estimated to be 4,841 MW, with 5,743 tidal stream energy converters (TECs) for Jangjuk, and 3,497 MW, with 3,676 TECs for Maenggol-Geocha.

Finding high-value locations for in situ data collection is of substantial importance in ocean science, where diverse bio-physical processes interact to create dynamically evolving phenomena. These cover a variable spatial extent, and are sparse and difficult to predict. Autonomous robotic platforms can sustain themselves in harsh conditions with persistent presence, but require deployment at the correct place and time. To that end, we consider the use of remote sensing data for building compact models that can improve skill in predicting sub-mesoscale features and inform onboard sampling. The model enables prediction of regional patterns based on sparse in situ data, a capability that is essential in regions where use of satellite remote sensing in real time is often limited by cloud cover. Our model is based on classification of sea-surface temperature (SST) images, but the technique is general across any remotely sensed parameter. Images having similar magnitude and spatial patterns are grouped into a compact set of conditional means representing the dominant states. The classification is unsupervised and uses a combination of dictionary learning and hierarchical clustering. The method is demonstrated using SST images from Monterey Bay, California. The consistency of the classification result is verified and compared with oceanographic forcing using historical wind measurements. The established model is then shown to work in a real application using measurements from an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV), together with forecast and sampling strategies. Finally an analysis of the model prediction error is presented and compared across different paths and survey duration. © 2019. This is the authors' accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0278364919884141

The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems. It supports human life, provides food, and sustains countless ecosystem services. As highlighted by thesixth principle of Ocean Literacy, our existence is inextricably interconnected with the ocean, and fisheries are a prime example of this relationship. Providing millions of jobs and sustenance to communities worldwide, fisheries have been identified as a core element for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 2,"Zero Hunger". FAO is the official custodian of and SDG14 -"Life below water"to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Progress towards each target is being measured with one indicator each, andD4Scienceis the platform for FAO training on SDG14.4.1 - Fish stocks sustainability: “Proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels”. In addition to the training activity, in the Blue Cloud fisheries demonstrator, other activities are ongoing to support the sustainable use of our marine living resources. Collecting and disseminating quality data in this sector is fundamental to enable researchers and professionals to perform research across disciplines and countries, combining for example biodiversity and fisheries monitoring data. The Blue-Cloud demonstratorFish, a matter of scales, is delivering a scalable and robust open data portal for fisheries data in EU waters and beyond, with a focus on a Fisheries Atlas and a Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries (GRSF). This demonstrator is developed by theInstitute of Computer Science at FORTH, the Information and knowledge management Team (NFISI) of theFisheries and Aquaculture Division, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and theFrench National Research Institute for Sustainable Development IRD. In this article we will focus on the Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries (GRSF). Test the Virtual Lab

At the start of the United Nations’ Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), this working paper explores key epistemological and institutional trends in global and European ocean science. Noting differences in how both scholars from diverse disciplines and policy makers define the boundaries of and within ocean science and the FluidKnowledge project’s focus on diverse ocean science areas, we analyse two inclusive field delineations of ocean science, and we do so in three ways. First, we study key topics and their temporal and geographic variability using term co-occurrence networks. Second, we study changes in key journals using bar charts. Third, we study key institutions and their research foci using bar charts, co-authorship networks and term co-occurrence networks. We hope this report can facilitate ongoing discussions about the present and future of ocean science. To this end, we include links to online, interactive network visualisations readers can explore.

The ocean is tightly connected to our well-being, providing a wealth of resources fundamental to human sustenance and global food security, as also affirmed in thesixth principle of Ocean Literacy. Aquaculture offers precious opportunities for us to reduce hunger and improve nutrition while also generating economic growth and tackling poverty. The global relevance of aquaculture was especially highlighted in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly inSDG 2 - Zero HungerandSDG 14 - Life Below Water. More than 500 aquatic species are currently farmed all over the world, representing a wide range of biodiversity, and aquaculture is practiced by local coastal communities as well as large companies. Based on the data from the past three decades, it is likely that the future growth of the fisheries sector will mainly come from aquaculture. Comprehending and collecting quality data in this sector, enabling researchers and professionals to perform research across disciplines and countries, is crucial to enable stakeholders in policy making and the blue economy to take evidence-based decisions on the sustainable management of such a precious resource. The Blue-Cloud demonstratorAquaculture Monitoris delivering a tool to produce national aquaculture sector overviews, whereby a country can make use of OGC-compliant data services to monitor its aquaculture sector, built on interoperable services where teams can compute and publish reproducible experiments. This demonstrator is jointly developed by the Information and knowledge management Team (NFISI) of theFisheries Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the French provider of environmental monitoring solutionsCollecte Localisation Satellites(CLS). A specific Virtual Lab was developed in the Blue-Cloud Virtual Research Environment powered by D4Science, and presented with a public webinarin September 2020describing its scope, key features and the potential benefits for the aquaculture sector in Europe and beyond. Test the Virtual Lab

The UN declared 2021-2030 as the Decade of Ocean Science and identified research and technology priority areas to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. We reviewed the current status of scientific support for coastal management in South Africa within the context of these priorities and found promising development. However, challenges for the next decade remain, such as rolling out pilot projects into sustainable, national-scale programmes, facilitating greater collaboration and coordination among scientific role players, and achieving long-term commitment and political will for dedicated financial support. Through our lens as natural scientists we focused on the ecological system and coupling with the social system; however scientific support on better characterisation and understanding of the dynamics within the social system is also critical as sustainable development relies heavily on the willingness of the social system to embrace and execute related policies.Significance: The UN Decade of Ocean Science (2021–2030) sets research and technology priority areas to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. We found promising development in scientific support for coastal management in South Africa. Future challenges include greater collaboration and coordination among scientific role players and long-term commitment and political will for dedicated financial support.

The activities of women are usually underestimated in areas traditionally dominated by men. Thus, the ocean is not different. Ocean has been seen as a male environment, especially in navigation, fisheries and hard sciences. Because the acceleration of the blue economy brings socio ecological risks to humanity, notably to people in the so-called Global South, and particularly to women, we advocate for transformative change. How the UN Decade for Ocean Science may contribute to transform barriers to gender equity in opportunities to promote blue justice? Our main goal is to show that the Ocean Decade may play a role in fostering a more sustainable blue economy, in accordance with the UN 2030 Agenda, because it focuses on “the science we need for the ocean we want”, therefore encouraging participative and interdisciplinary research. Moreover, scientific research offers space for women to harness their preferences and priorities. In this perspective article, we employ an interdisciplinary approach to draw insights over the transformation pathway to blue justice. As atividades das mulheres são geralmente subestimadas em áreas tradicionalmente dominadas por homens, e no oceano não é diferente. O oceano tem sido visto como um ambiente masculino, principalmente na navegação, na pesca e nas ciências exatas. Como a aceleração da economia azul engendra riscos socioeconômicos para a humanidade, notadamente para as pessoas no Sul Global, e mais especificamente para as mulheres, defendemos as mudanças transformadoras debatidas no âmbito multilateral. Neste cenário, como a Década da ONU para a Ciência Oceânica pode contribuir para transformar barreiras à igualdade de gênero em oportunidades para a justiça azul? Nosso principal objetivo é destacar que a Década é baseada na ciência e no conhecimento, e pode ter papel central na promoção de uma economia azul mais sustentável, nos moldes da Agenda 2030. Por focar na “ciência que precisamos para o oceano que queremos”, ela incentiva a pesquisa participativa e interdisciplinar. Neste artigo de perspectiva, a abordagem é interdisciplinar para fomentar reflexão sobre o caminho para a justiça azul.

As highlighted by Principle 5 ofOcean Literacy, the ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems, which make up the vast majority of all life on our planet and are crucial for biological cycles as well as for economies all around the world. Comprehending this wealth of biodiversity, collecting reliable marine biodiversity data, being able to perform high-quality research across disciplines and countries, are all critical steps towards a sustainable management of the precious resources that the ocean provides. Marine plankton are at the base of the marine food web and play an important role in the functioning of coastal and open ocean ecosystems. Understanding how plankton changes through time and space is of key importance to assess the state of the marine plankton ecosystems and their response to climate change. The Blue-Cloud demonstratorZoo- and Phytoplankton EOV Productsis creating phyto- and zooplankton biomass and diversity products, working on data from leading European marine data infrastructures such as EMODnet, SeaDataNet, and Copernicus. In this article, we are going to explore the main results of the demonstrator, and its intended evolution. The Zoo and Phytoplankton EOV Products demonstrator is developed by theFlanders Marine Institute(VLIZ), in collaboration with theFaculty of Science and Engineering at Sorbonne UniversityandGeoHydrodynamics and Environment Research (GHER)at the University of Liège. A dedicated Virtual Lab was developed in the Blue-Cloud Virtual Research Environment powered by D4Science, and introduced through a public webinar inFebruary 2021describing its scope, key features and the potential benefits for the ocean science community. Test the Virtual Lab

We investigated the number of references per page for different European Geophysical Union journals, which share the same text formatting. Although the journals formally all focus on geoscience, different disciplines are accommodated, from ocean science and biogeosciences to the technical description of numerical model development. Here, we show that across such different disciplines, the number of references per page is remarkably constant, revealing that there is a consensus regarding optimum reference density in the community. Further, this value has remained constant in the last decade, despite the consistent increase in the number of pages and in the number of references in almost all journals investigated. Independently of the quality of the references used in a article, we show that for the EGU journals the average number of references per page is 3.82 (1.87–6.18 at 90 % confidence level).

There is a growing interest in utilizing energy storage for behind-the-meter customers. Energy storage systems have many functions for behind-the-meter use such as energy time shifting, peak demand shaving, and backup power. However, demand side management of energy consuming systems can also provide similar energy shifting functionality often with a significantly lower upfront cost. Though energy storage systems and demand side management can both be applied, each option has strengths and weaknesses that can make the optimal selection of measures difficult in many cases. In this study, the tradeoff between energy storage and demand side management is investigated at the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology (HOST) park of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA). The major energy consumption at the HOST park is for pumping the seawater that serves many functions at the park, including supplying temperature-controlled water for various agriculture applications and even building air conditioning measure. NELHA’s facilities are broken into two major load centers that are connected by the piping network, though they are electrically isolated and subject to different electricity price tariffs. This scenario is modeled to optimize the dispatch of the pump stations and potential battery systems to minimize the cost of electricity for both load centers. This scenario is a good example of the interplay between demand side management and energy-storage-based cost reduction measures.

The global challenges that humankind is called to face highlight the need for establishing innovative algorithms and technologies to enable the transition from data to knowledge, and foster the consolidation of a science-informed decision-making process. For a successful implementation of this value chain, the development of science-based algorithms clearly represents a crucial phase. We will analyse the latest updates on the application of machine learning methods to ocean patterns and the ocean regimes indicators in the context of Blue-Cloud. The Blue-Cloud demonstrator“Marine Environmental Indicators”has a specific focus on data related to the marine environment. Its development is led by theCMCC Foundation, in collaboration withIFREMER,Mercator Ocean International, theRoyal Netherlands Meteorological Institute(KNMI), and theUniversity of Bergen. Its dedicated Virtual Lab was created in the Blue-Cloud Virtual Research Environment powered by D4Science, and introduced in a public webinar inDecember 2020outlining its scope, key features and the potential benefits for the ocean science community. Test the Virtual Lab

In five comprehensively researched chapters, Neptune’s Laboratory manages to provide a detailed account on the development of ocean science as a unique and highly complex discipline, coupled with a...

This commentary shares a unique collaborative experience between a student and faculty mentor, made possible by the shift from in-person to virtual conferences during summer 2020. Although the two never met face-to-face, online technologies made it possible to facilitate the mentoring, project development, and dissemination of ArcGIS StoryMaps themed on ocean literacy, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The StoryMap collection is available at: https://bit.ly/thepowerofconnections .

The scientific and technological revolution in Internet of Things is set off in oceanography. Humans have always observed the ocean outside the ocean to study the ocean. In recent years, it changes have been made into the interior of the ocean and the laboratories have been built on the sea floor. Approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. Ocean of things is expected to be important for disaster prevention, ocean resource exploration, and underwater environmental monitoring. Different from traditional wireless sensor networks, ocean of things has its own unique features, such as low reliability and narrow bandwidth. These features may be great challenges for ocean of things. Furthermore, the integration of artificial intelligence and ocean of things has become a topic of increasing interests for oceanology research fields. Cognitive ocean of things (COT) will become the mainstream of future ocean science and engineering development. In this paper, we provide the definition of COT, and the main contributions of this paper are (1) we review the ocean observing networks all the world; (2) we propose the COT architecture and describe the details of it; (3) important and useful applications are discussed; (4) we point out the future trends of COT researches.

MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses are picking up momentum in popularity. Unlike regular courses, MOOCs can attract many thousands of enrollees around the world and engage broader audiences outside of academia, such as governent officials and NGOs. With scientific communication and policy engagement practices shifting online due to the current pandemic, MOOCs can be seen as a digital tool that acts as a confluence for education, public engagement and capacity development. In this presentation we will introduce you to a MOOC “Ocean Sceince in Action: Addressing marine ecosystems and food security”, which attracted ~1800 participants from over 100 countries for its first run in October 2020 with these numbers continuing to increase for subsequent runs (the next started on 18th January). The MOOC aims to introduce the participants to innovative marine technologies and their applications used to tackle the challenges of the sustainable management of marine ecosystems with specific lectures focussed on food security, impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems and fisheries, the sustainable development goals and the Ocean Decade 2030.Marine autonomous systems are becoming ever more reliable and easy to use for environmental observations – at a fraction of the cost of a research ship. Earth observation satellites monitor the oceans daily, collecting a wide range of marine data, most of which are freely available from global archives. Ocean models of increasingly high resolution make it possible to explore regional ecosystem dynamics and gain insights into reasons for variability and change. Engaging participants globally into the cutting edge research and the use of marine data requires novel approaches to engagement, communication and teaching. Using elements of MOOC created by SOLSTICE (Sustainable Oceans, Livelihoods and food Security Through Increased Capacity in Ecosystem research in the Western Indian Ocean) program, this presentation will explore how research projects can create inspiring and informative digital content to communicate their findings to achieve a long lasting legacy of their results and better inform managers and politicians responsible for decision making.

The world ocean is a life-supporting system for humanity, yet it remains largely unknown. Based on data collected from around the world, the Global Ocean Science Report 2020 offers a global record of how, where and by whom ocean science is conducted. It monitors our capacity to understand the ocean and seize new opportunities. More generally, the Report underlines the essential role of ocean research and international cooperation for all key issues of the 21st century.

Thesis: Ph. D. in Mechanical and Oceanographic Engineering, Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), February, 2021

Multi- to hyperspectral evolution of satellite ocean color sensors is advancing space- based coastal ocean science and applications. An approach for optically partitioning phytoplankton (microalgae) communities into component groups is being developed for the Chesapeake Bay.

Over the past two decades, the scientific study of marine biodiversity developed into one of the most dynamic research fields within environmental research in general and ocean science in particular. Marine biodiversity research spans a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, scientific disciplines, and infrastructures for assessing patterns of change in marine biodiversity with different topics and regions contributing to the abstract construction of the field. Yet, beneath the surface of these abstract constructions and attributions such as “big science” to assess the international, interdisciplinary and data-driven nature marine biodiversity research, patterns of scientific collaboration emerge that shape the contributions of different world regions to the field. Furthermore, legal, political and territorial orders shape scientific collaboration by determining access to the marine environment and the study thereof. To understand these dynamics, this study analyses scientific publications on marine biodiversity using topic modeling methodology. Our approach provides the opportunity not only to describe large clusters within the field of marine biodiversity, but also to show how these topical clusters differ in time and across regions. By looking at the temporal and regional level, we wish to contribute to a deeper understanding of collaboration and regional specificity in the emergence of new research fields and – what we call – “selective world-building” across time and space.

Given the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which is to run from 2021 to 2030 (UN Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization, undated), together with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Agenda for 2030, many chapters of this volume highlight the pressing issues concerning sustainability in maritime niche areas with a sharp focus on ways forward aligned with the concept of good ocean governance. This concluding chapter provides a holistic overview of pertinent overarching interlinkages that bind the different SDG, by identifying areas where the targets contained within those SDG can be directly, or partially, related to various aspects of the maritime domain—shipping, ports, fisheries, climate change, renewable energy, for example. It also highlights the diverse and varied nature of the chapters contained in this volume, covering areas where sustainability strategies are needed not only at the current time, but also extending beyond 2030.

The ocean provides crucial resources for humanity and enables human existence, but its size and opaqueness limit our capacity for observation and understanding. A recent shift in focus toward developing economic opportunities associated with the ocean, referred to as the “blue economy,” demands environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable planning based on sound scientific knowledge generated from relevant and reliable data. Generating such data requires expanded ocean observations and data management in forms useful to diverse stakeholders, from other scientists to managers to policymakers and society at large. We review past and present biological, physical, and chemical ocean observing technologies, describing some major advances in recent decades and identifying technological gaps and opportunities to improve ocean observation and capacity enhancement. Finally, we discuss what a well-sensed ocean might require to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.