Applications of OA Science
The Ocean Acidification Data QC Online Package
As the field of ocean acidification research has evolved over the past decade, individual laboratory groups have developed standardized data quality control (QC) protocols for use within the group. There has historically been some transfer of QC knowledge through formal and informal collaborations between lab groups. However, a set best practices for Level 1 QC of ocean acidification chemical data has not yet emerged. Given the recent expansion of scientists collecting ocean acidification observations, there is a need for community-developed information that is accessible online to aid in learning and putting into practice carbonate chemical data QC techniques.
To address this need, the OARS Outcome 1 Working Group has envisioned an online package for Level 1 QC that will bring together a combination of different types of resources, from video and written materials to decision-making trees. In its first iteration, this project will provide a QC Info Catalog containing links to existing quality control tools and protocols. This will serve as a basis for building out the full product: The Ocean Acidification Data QC Online Package.
The Ocean Acidification Data QC Online Package will cover QC techniques for ocean acidification chemical data, data QC best practices such as flagging conventions identifying outliers, and identifying sensor drift, and how to estimate data uncertainty, that enable the primary QC required for contributing to databases. The package will cover general data QC principles and approaches with examples, but due to the variety of data formats and software used by the community for data QC, it will not provide new scripts or programs which implement these tests. The goal of the online package will be to provide a new resource on data Level 1 QC best practices that directs users on what primary QC resource to use and how to use it. It will act as a portal for connecting all four main steps in the data workflow by compiling resources in one place.
Global access is a priority for this work. Resources will be available for download to enable offline use for researchers in areas with unreliable access to the internet.
Development of the material requires a team of experts in data QC methods who are comfortable communicating scientific aspects to the public, have time and interest to follow through with the tasks, and provide linkages to related efforts to create synergies and avoid overlaps. Some materials developed by the team may require review by the broader community prior to implementation, which will be organized through IOCCP, OARS and GOA-ON.
Logistics
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Kim Curry, NIWA
Adrienne Sutton, NOAA
Carla Berghoff, INIDEP
Nico Lange, NORCE
Katherina Schoo, IOC-UNESCO
Members of OARS Outcome 1 Working Group
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A community survey was undertaken in 2023 and is ongoing. Working Group members are currently running feedback loops in the development of a catalog of existing quality control tools and protocols. This catalog is expected to be published by 2026. The future of this project involves the creation of the online package and accompanying tutorials by 2030.
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A survey was conducted of all labs known to be performing QA/QC for ocean acidification data to gather internal protocols. Through the ongoing activity of the OARS Outcome 1 Working Group, researchers from around the globe will contribute to the synthesis of existing data to develop Ocean Acidification Data QC Online Package.
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The Ocean Acidification Data QC Online Package will eventually support different pathways for discrete sampling to autonomous sampling across a range of collection frequencies.
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The QC Info Catalog will contain quality control tools and protocols designed to support chemical data from the open ocean, intertidal areas, and laboratory manipulation experiments, including:
pH
Total dissolved inorganic carbon content (DIC)
Total alkalinity content (TA)
Partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2)
Fugacity of carbon dioxide (fCO2)
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This project will enable the quality control of existing data, collected by researchers.
The QC Info Catalog will provide information on level 1 data QC, which is QC completed by the data collector prior to data submission and/or analysis and does not include real-time QC or community-level QC.
The QC Info Catalog will include tools such as MATLAB software developed in-house to QC pCO2 collected on GO systems, Excel spreadsheets developed to detect outliers and average bottle sample duplicates, sensor manufacturer-provided software, etc.
Objectives
This ambitious project aims to create the first data quality control tool of its kind that will enable scientists to conduct primary quality control (Level 1 QC) of their carbonate chemistry data, to provide reliable and comparable data on ocean acidification to the research community as well as trusted data for policy decisions, such as mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Ocean acidification data collection is a costly endeavor. Improving the quality of data through the minimal effort of Level 1 QC can greatly increase the efficient usage of the data and funding to address ocean acidification.
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Challenges
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Ocean acidification measurements are often made at different times, in different places and using different instrumentation, and may be maintained by different data collectors. Given these differing conditions, it is important to communicate the uncertainty related to a specific OA measurement. Unfortunately, data collectors often provide uncertainty in completely different terms that are not comparable to each other.
Consistency estimates used in the Ocean Acidification Data QC Online Package are based on uncertainty, and therefore require the establishment of clear guidelines for estimating uncertainty to ensure various measurement quality goals are met. Consistent QC protocols will reduce uncertainties, thereby improving predictive capabilities in modeling and increasing data interoperability.
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There is currently no funding associated with this project; the OARS Outcome 1 Working Group is currently undertaking this endeavor on a volunteer basis. This will ultimately impact the timeline of development for the Ocean Acidification Data QC Online Package, as the availability of volunteer contributors is often inconsistent and dependent on their professional and personal responsibilities. The volunteer status of the Working Group may determine the feasibility of creating tutorials for utilizing the Online Package once it is complete.
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Ocean acidification research and advances vary from region to region, and different communities of practice grow at different rates. From the historically well-resourced and more established OA scientific communities of Europe and North America to the burgeoning monitoring networks of Africa and the Latin America, communication and collaboration is required to support global cooperation toward consistency in data QC protocols.
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Description text goes hereStudies regarding multi-decadal time-series changes in an open ocean station will deal with a "signal to noise" relationship different from that observed in an estuarine system study. In order to take this into consideration, two distinct quality criteria have been defined for use in ocean acidification research: weather data and climate data.
Weather data are those of "sufficient quality to identify relative spatial patterns and short-term variation", which supports interpretation of ecosystem response in dynamic studies.
Climate data are those with "quality sufficient to assess long-term trends with a defined level of confidence", which is related to low dynamic studies, like changes in the hydrographic conditions in long-term studies.
Despite their names, these criteria are not related to climate science, but are only a way to distinguish the quality of the carbonate system data acquired.
