Animal Borne Ocean Sensors - AniBOS - an essential component of the Global Ocean Observing System

• Published in: Frontiers in Marine Science
• Main Authors: McMahon, CR, Roquet, F, Baudel, S, Belbeoch, M, Bestley, S, Blight, C, Boehme, L, Carse, F, Costa, DP, Fedak, MA, Guinet, C, Harcourt, R, Heslop, E, Hindell, MA, Hoenner, X, Holland, K, Holland, M, Jaine, FRA, du Dot, TJ, Jonsen, I, Keates, TR, Kovacs, KM, Labrousse, S, Lovell, P, Lydersen, C, March, D, Mazloff, M, McKinzie, MK, Muelbert, MMC, O'Brien, K, Phillips, L, Portela, E, Pye, J, Rintoul, S, Sato, K, Sequeira, AMM, Simmons, SE, Tsontos, VM, Turpin, V, van Wijk, E, Vo, D, Wege, M, Whoriskey, FG, Wilson, K, Woodward, B
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Research Foundation 2021
• Subjects: global ocean observing system; animal tracking; ocean sensors; ocean data management; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://eprints.utas.edu.au/38721/; https://eprints.utas.edu.au/38721/1/147548%20-%20Animal%20Borne%20Ocean%20Sensors%20-%20AniBOS.pdf

Marine animals equipped with biological and physical electronic sensors have produced long-term data streams on key marine environmental variables, hydrography, animal behavior and ecology. These data are an essential component of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). The Animal Borne Ocean Sensors (AniBOS) network aims to coordinate the long-term collection and delivery of marine data streams, providing a complementary capability to other GOOS networks that monitor Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), essential climate variables (ECVs) and essential biodiversity variables (EBVs). AniBOS augments observations of temperature and salinity within the upper ocean, in areas that are under-sampled, providing information that is urgently needed for an improved understanding of climate and ocean variability and for forecasting. Additionally, measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence and dissolved oxygen concentrations are emerging. The observations AniBOS provides are used widely across the research, modeling and operational oceanographic communities. High latitude, shallow coastal shelves and tropical seas have historically been sampled poorly with traditional observing platforms for many reasons including sea ice presence, limited satellite coverage and logistical costs. Animal-borne sensors are helping to fill that gap by collecting and transmitting in near real time an average of 500 temperature-salinity-depth profiles per animal annually and, when instruments are recovered (∼30% of instruments deployed annually, n = 103 ± 34), up to 1,000 profiles per month in these regions. Increased observations from under-sampled regions greatly improve the accuracy and confidence in estimates of ocean state and improve studies of climate variability by delivering data that refine climate prediction estimates at regional and global scales. The GOOS Observations Coordination Group (OCG) reviews, advises on and coordinates activities across the global ocean observing networks to strengthen the effective implementation of the ...