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The International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) of the IOC was established in 1961 with an aim to “enhance marine research, exploitation and development, by facilitating the exchange of oceanographic data and information between participating Member States, and by meeting the needs of users for data and information products.” This is underpinned by a number of objectives, including supporting the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), developing best practice for management of data and narrowing the ‘digital divide’ between developing and developed countries.
The UK has been a very active participant in IODE, led by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) with support from the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN), the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) and the Marine Biological Association (MBA), contributing both to its implementation and strategic development. The UK has also Chaired the IODE, through Dr Nicholas Flemming (1990, 1992) and Dr Lesley Rickards (2005, 2007).
The governing body of the IODE programme is the IODE Committee, bringing together representatives of its main stakeholder communities: IODE national coordinators (data management and marine information management) and other specialists; (Co-)Chairs of Steering Groups of IODE Programme Components, Programme Activities and projects; Partner organizations and Programmes (UN, other international, regional,…); Observers; IODE Secretariat; IOC Secretariat representatives of other IOC programmes.
The committee meets every two years, usually March/April of the same year as the (June) IOC Assembly.
IODE Network Structure
IODE is comprised of a global network of Data & Information Centres, comprising over a hundred National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODCs) and Associate Data Units (ADUs).
- National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODC)
The mission of an NODC is to provide access and stewardship for the national resource of oceanographic data. This effort requires the gathering, quality control, processing, summarization, dissemination, and preservation of data generated by national and international agencies.
UK involvement: The British Oceanographic Data Centre is an IODE-accredited NODC. The accreditation procedure and criteria was built on the MEDIN accreditation criteria. The UK National Coordinator for Ocean Data Management is Mark Hebden, BODC.
- Associate Data Unit (ADU)
The ADU brings in wider ocean research and observation communities as key stakeholders of the IODE network. It allows these sectors to share, provide access to and preserve ocean research data.
UK involvement: The UK has three ADUs: MEDIN represented by Clare Postlethwaite, MBA represented by Dan Lear, Cefas represented by Laura Hanley. MBA and Cefas are both accredited MEDIN Data Archive Centres.
Overall activity is coordinated by the IOC Project Office for IODE, where day to day management of the programme is delivered by the IODE Secretariat. The Project Office is informed by the IODE Management Group - the UK representative is Dan Lear, MBA.
Work is structured around three major Programme Components which are complemented by Programme Activities and projects:
| IODE Programme Components | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programmes | Description | UK Contribution | Point of Contact | Organisation |
| Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) | The OBIS vision is to be the most comprehensive gateway to the world’s ocean biodiversity and biogeographic data and information required to address pressing coastal and world ocean concerns.
| The UK OBIS node is hosted at the MBA with over 20 data providers and five and half million occurrence records submitted. The MBA sits on the Steering Group of OBIS, the OBIS vocabulary infrastructure project team and the data quality assessment and enhancement project team. | Dan Lear - Co Chair of Steering Group | DASSH at the MBA |
| Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS) | The ODIS concept was presented at the 24th IODE Session after a review of the IOC operations in 2016. At the 25th IODE Session, the purpose of the ODIS was stated to “support the registration of a variety of sources, ranging from data and information, to systems such as catalogues/portals/webs sites, to manuals/guidance/standards”. It is currently in the early stages of development but has already a pilot catalogue site which houses descriptive information of data and access, rather than the data itself. The hope is that the catalogue will bring together information from all National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODCs). | Mark Hebden | BODC at NOC | |
| OceanTeacher Global Academy (OTGA) | The OGTA has trained nearly 2000 students from 120 countries since 2005. This web-based training platform supports classroom training, blended training (combining classroom and distance learning), and online learning and courses include: Scientific Knowledge and Research, Sustainable Use of Marine Resources, Marine Spatial Planning, Marine and Coastal Ecosystems, Disaster Risk Reduction, International Marine Law, Ocean Acidification, Marine Pollution. The courses contribute to the implementation of the IOC Capacity Development Strategy, enabling equitable participation of all IOC Member States and IOC Programmes. | UK scientists present on some of the Academy courses. The UK’s Val Byfield (NOC) was involved in the UNESCO Bilko project which has distributed software and hands-on training material in coastal and marine remote sensing to over 1500 organisations and over 5000 individual users in 168 countries around the world. MEDIN in collaboration with OceanWise created a free training course in 2021 for those responsible for collecting or managing marine data. | N/A | N/A |
| IODE Programme Activities | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programmes | Description | UK Contribution | Point of Contact | Organisation |
| AquaDocs | An open access repository covering the natural marine, coastal, estuarine /brackish and fresh water environments and includes all aspects of the science, technology, management and conservation of these environments, their organisms and resources, and the economic, sociological and legal aspects. | UK contributes to documentation on the website. | N/A | N/A |
| Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue Project (GODAR) | The goal of GODAR is to increase the volume of historical oceanographic data available to climate change and other researchers by locating datasets not yet in digital form, and then digitizing the data and submitting them to NODCs and including them in the World Ocean Database. | This project covers all forms of oceanographic data. The UK is involved with sea level data archaeology through the BODC and Met Office. | Elizabeth Bradshaw | BODC at NOC |
| Global Ocean Surface Underway Data Project (GOSUD) | The main objectives of GOSUD are to provide near real time sea surface salinity and sea surface temperature data for operational needs, and to provide delayed mode sea surface salinity for research purposes and for satellite data validation. GOSUD aim to work closely with FerryBox and GO-SHIP (see GOOS page). | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Programme (GTSPP) | GTSPP is a cooperative international project seeking to develop and maintain a global ocean temperature-salinity resource with data that are both up-to-date and of the highest quality. | The Met Office were invited to the GTSPP meeting in 2019 to provide feedback on GTSPP data that was used for the Hadley Centre EN4 dataset. The Met Office is looking to become a GTSPP Product Centre. | Rachel Killick | Met Office |
| International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN) | The strategic aim of the IODE ICAN project is to share experiences and to find common solutions to coastal web atlases (CWAs) development while ensuring maximum relevance and added value for the end users. | The UK has historically had individuals take part in the project, but as it stands there are no known individuals who are currently part of this steering group or project. | N/A | N/A |
| International Quality Controlled Ocean Database (IQuOD) | The primary focus of IQuOD is to produce and freely distribute the highest quality and complete single ocean profile repository along with (intelligent) metadata and assigned uncertainties for use in ocean climate research applications. This goal will be achieved by developing and implementing an internationally-agreed framework. | One co-Chair of the IQuOD is a UK representative, with two other UK representatives on the steering team. | Matthew Palmer | Met Office |
| OceanExpert | This project created and maintains a global directory of marine and freshwater professionals, their institutions, involvement with IOC groups and publications. | There are hundreds of UK individuals on the OceanExpert website along with a dozen institutes. | N/A | N/A |
| Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS) | OBPS was formally approved in 2019 and supersedes the OceanDataPractices repository project. OBPS provides publication, discovery and access to relevant and tested methods, from observation to application, as well as a foundation for increasing capacity. The Ocean Best Practice System supports the entire ocean community in sharing methods, developing best practices and capacity development in their use. | Scientists from the UK have provided hundreds of ‘best practice’ documents, which can be found using the OBPS search engine.
| Justin Buck | NOC |
| IODE Quality Management Framework (IODE-QMF) | This provides the overall strategy, advice and guidance for NODCs and ADUs to design and implement quality management systems for the successful delivery of oceanographic and related data, products and services. | Mark Hebden | BODC at NOC | |
| World Ocean Database (WOD) | The WOD represents the world’s largest collection of vertical profile data of ocean characteristics available internationally without restriction. WOD is hosted by the WDC Oceanography. | Data is submitted to the WOD via the UK Hydrographic Office and the BODC. | Mark Hebden | BODC at NOC |
| IODE Projects | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project | Description | UK Contribution | Point of Contact | Organisation |
| Pacific Islands Marine bioinvasions Alert Network (PacMAN) - Lead by IODE | PacMAN is a three year project (2020 – 2023) looking to develop a national invasive species monitoring system for Pacific Small Islands Developing States. | The IMO will be a key stakeholder and therefore will sit on the advisory board. The role of the IMO will be to give advice on the monitoring plan design and decision-making support tool, and to help raise awareness of the outcomes and local and regional levels. | John Alonso | International Maritime Organisation (IMO) |
| eDNA Expeditions - Lead by IODE | Environmental DNA Expeditions is a global, citizen science initiative that will help measure marine biodiversity, and the impacts climate change might have on the distribution patterns of marine life, across UNESCO World Heritage marine sites. | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Marine Protected Areas Europe (MPA Europe) - IODE as partner or contractor | Aims to identify the locations within the European seas where MPAs would protect the highest number of species, habitats and ecosystems. This information is crucial to establish a functional MPA network and will help managers to propose further areas for conservation in the future. Factors in the potential blue carbon benefits of the prioritization. The OBIS secretariat are contributing information to the project. | Fabrice Stephenson | Newcastle University | |
| Michael Burrows | SAMS | |||
| Helen Lillis | JNCC | |||
| Eleanor Stewart | JNCC | |||
| Integration of biodiversity monitoring data into the Digital Twin Ocean (DTO-BioFlow) - IODE as partner or contractor | Significant advancement has been made in Europe to collect, harmonise, and make available data on marine biodiversity, DTO-BioFlow aims to unlock data amongst these that would otherwise be unavailable and inaccessible. It enables the sustained flow data into the EU Digital Twin Ocean. It will create a digital replica of marine biological processes transforming new and existing data flows into evidence-based knowledge. | The MBA and St Andrews University are amongst the project partners. | ||
| MARCO-BOLO | MARine COastal BiOdiversity Long-term Observations (MARCO-BOLO): Strengthening biodiversity observation in support of decision making. A project that will strengthen European marine, coastal and freshwater biodiversity observation to understand and restore ocean health. | Contributions include some on Data management, eDNA-based approaches, workshops and reporting, sensor network design, biodiversity mapping, training. Full details for each partner organisation are provided on the website. | Dan Lear | MBA |
| Julie Robidart and Mojtaba Masoudi | NOC | |||
| eDNAqua-Plan | A plan for a European eDNA digital ecosystem for the next generation of aquatic biodiversity monitoring. | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| BioEcoOcean | a 4-year (2024-2027) Horizon Europe project with the goal of co-creating a Blueprint for Integrated Ocean Science (BIOS). | N/A | N/A | N/A |