Background & Objective

As we face present and future challenges towards sustainability, a great amount of Ocean data is generated by multiple observatories worldwide to monitor the health and state of marine ecosystems. Currently, only a small portion of this data is used by society to generate information and knowledge to better understand the Ocean, and even less data is effectively applied to make nature-based decisions. If we want to improve this scenario, it is crucial to adopt best practices of Ocean data management, from field acquisition to information sharing to users. This course aims to provide introductory content on different aspects of Ocean data management as well as basic analytical tools for long-term marine conservation. The course is prepared to help both Ocean professionals (e.g. scientists, managers, conservationists, technicians) and citizens to work with the available ocean data and implement simple data pipelines at monitoring programs. It is a volunteer initiative of the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS, IOC-UNESCO; Brazil Node) in order to contribute to capacity development at regional scales ('Portuguese Language countries'), invited by the Our Blue Hands project as a counterpart of the UNDP Accelerator lab support.

Course Duration: 4 weeks (30h total credits)

Coordinator: Dr. Ana Carolina Mazzuco, data manager of the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (Brazil Node; IOC/UNESCO), coordinated by The Long-Term Ecological Research Program Coastal Habitats of Espírito Santo (PELD HCES), Benthic Ecology Group, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo

* Invited speakers depend on availability and will provide content on additional topics.

Format

• Weekly schedule includes: 2 online classes (1.5h), which will be previously recorded and released on the scheduled day; 2 live moments to solve doubts on the activities and course content (1h, optional); and 1 live forum for panel discussions (1-2h; presence required). 
• Participants will be required to turn in a final activity at the end of the course. 
• Support material (course presentation, references, and additional classes) will be available online for download.
• Language: Brazilian Portuguese.
• Free of tuition.
• A certificate will be provided for those who completed the required activities during the course timeframe.
• Capacity: 100 participants.

Target public: Ocean professionals (e.g. scientists, managers, analysts, conservationists, technicians, etc.) from 'Portuguese Language countries'. The course is open to all disciplines related to Ocean Science and backgrounds (graduate preferred). 

Requirements

Participants must:

• be professionally active;
• have prior notion of ocean data
• have computer and internet access;
• have Portuguese Language skills (read/speak/understand);
• be able to read technical complementary material in English.

Preference will be given to those who are in the front-line of marine conservation, and/or are currently members of marine biodiversity and Ocean pollution initiatives (e.i., projects, programs, networks), and/or hold datasets that could be integrated to open-access repositories.  

Registration: 

https://forms.gle/7dfQBVuN45M9LJfeA

Partners:

Our Blue Hands Project

Ocean Biodiversity Information System (Brazil Node) - IOC/UNESCO

Deep Blue Associação Ambiental

Cape Verde Acceleration Laboratory - United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

UniCv - University of Cape Verde

Course Agenda (time zone: BRT GMT-3:00)

Week #1 (14th to 18th Feb)

Monday (Class 1, video release)

Content: Course Introduction; Coastal Monitoring - sampling design, hypothesis testing, and environmental impact protocols for observing changes in coastal marine ecosystems.

Tuesday (Live moment 1; 15:00h - 16:00 h)

Wednesday (Class 2, video release)

Content: Ocean Data sources - available online global databases and data systems that provide free access to marine data.

Thursday (Live moment 2; 15:00h- 16:00 h)

Friday (Panel 1; 15:00h) - presence required.

Week #2 (21st to 25th Feb)

Monday (Class 3, video release) 

Content: Ocean Data Management - organization, curation, quality control, vocabularies and standards, regulations, and agreements focused on general Essential Ocean Variables, Marine Biodiversity, and Microplastics

Tuesday (Live moment 3; 15:00h - 16:00 h)

Wednesday (Class 4, video release)

Content: Sharing pipelines - guided practices from ocean data providers to digital systems.

Thursday (Live moment 4; 15:00h- 16:00 h)

Friday (Panel 2; 15:00h) - presence required.

Week #3 (28th Feb to 4th Mar)

Monday  (Class 5, video release) 

Content: Data analysis - basic statistical tools and data processing environments to assess marine data for decision-making.

Tuesday (Live moment - Class 5; 15:00h-16:00h)

Wednesday  (Class 6, video release) 

Content: Outreach strategies - information sharing and science communication principles to the next Ocean Decade.

Thursday (Live moment - Class 6; 15:00h- 16:00h)

Friday (Panel 3; 15:00h) - presence required.

Week #4 (7th to 11th Mar)

Monday (asynchronous activities)

Tuesday (Live moment; 15:00h to 16:00h)

Wednesday (asynchronous activities)

Friday (Final Panel; 15:00h) - presence required.