2nd Marine Board Forum

Towards a European Network of Marine Observatories for Monitoring and Research

16 September 2010, Brussels

The 2nd Marine Board Forum brought together over 90 scientists, policy makers and stakeholders from 53 organisations to discuss critical gaps and opportunities for the long-term monitoring of Europe’s marine environment. The Forum addressed the role of marine observatories in the provision of long-term time series data from European seas, the technical challenges for an effective interoperability between systems, current observatories and projects in place and the critical gaps in coverage and measurements, and how sustained funding schemes, new partnerships and innovative governing structures can be designed to best support a stable observatory network.

The Forum agreed on a Vision Statement which includes high-level recommendations in support of a European network of long-term marine observatories.

Download:

Forum Presentations:

Session 1 - Marine observatories: the current landscape
Chair: Lars Horn (Marine Board Chair, Research Council of Norway, RCN, Norway)

Introduction of the draft Vision Statement - Peter Haugan (Marine Board Member, University of Bergen, UiB, Norway)

  • Opening address - Ocean Observations: the European landscape - Iain Shepherd (EC DG MARE) Download PPT
  • European Ocean Observatory Network: FP7 EUROSITES project - Richard Lampitt (National Oceanography Centre, NOC, UK) Download PPT
  • Ocean Observatories: the US case - Bauke Houtman (National Science Foundation, NSF, USA) Download PPT
  • From Time Series to Genomes: Challenges and Opportunities for Marine Research Stations - Michael Thorndyke (Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment / MARS network) Download PPT
  • Observation of Marine Biodiversity: Perspectives and Challenges - Carlo Heip (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, NIOZ, The Netherlands) Download PPT

Session 2 - Projects and initiatives
Chair: Alan Edwards (EC DG RTD) Download PPT

  • The TENATSO Case: critical results and data applications - Doug Wallace (Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, IFM-GEOMAR, Germany) Download PPT
  • The ESO-Net and EMSO initiatives: coordinating European Seas Observatories - Roland Person (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, IFREMER, France) Download PPT
  • The Medditerranean Operational Oceanography Network (MOON): ocean observatories in support of science and management - Giovanni Coppini (Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Italy) Download PPT

Session 3 - European Marine Long-term Time-series Observatories: critical issues
Chair: Edward Hill (Marine Board vice-Chair, National Oceanography Centre, NOC, UK)

  • Towards a network of Marine Observatories in Europe: what elements are missing? - Hans Dahlin (European Global Observing System, EUROGOOS) Download PPT
  • FP7 Euro-Argo Infrastructure Initiative: long-term support for a marine observation infrastructure - Pierre-Yves Le Traon (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, IFREMER, France) Download PPT
  • Interoperability of Marine Observatories in Europe: how to achieve technical and data harmonisation? - Kai Soetje (Bundesamt fuer Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie, BSH, Germany) Download PPT
  • European Marine Research Infrastructure: EC perspectives - Waddah Saab (EC DG RTD) Download PPT

Finalising of the common statement: discussion - Peter Haugan (University of Bergen, UiB, Norway)

Concluding remarks - Edward Hill (National Oceanography Centre, NOC, UK)