Best Practice Data Standards for Discrete Chemical Oceanographic Observations

Li‐Qing Jiang ,Mario Hoppema,Alex Kozyr,Rik Wanninkhof,Jonathan D Sharp,Xinping Hu,Are Olsen,Thomas W Trull,Richard A Feely,Robert H Byrne,Toste Tanhua,Johannes Karstensen,Liang Xue,Brendan R Carter,Leticia Barbero,Chris Langdon,Siv K Lauvset,Dana Greeley,Denis Pierrot,Kitack Lee,Joe Salisbury,Zhaohui Aleck Wang,Nico Lange,Bronte Tilbrook,Andrew G Dickson,Ernie R Lewis,Matthew Humphreys ,Jean‐Pierre Gattuso ,A Allegra ,Fíz F Pérez ,Simone R Alin ,Wei‐Jun Cai ,A Velo ,Paul M Barker ,E F Burger ,Christopher L Sabine ,Hernan E Garcia ,Jessica N Cross ,José Martín Hernández-Ayón ,Chen‐Tung Arthur Chen

doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.705638

Abstract

Effective data management plays a key role in oceanographic research as cruise-based data, collected from different laboratories and expeditions, are commonly compiled to investigate regional to global oceanographic processes. Here we describe new and updated best practice data standards for discrete chemical oceanographic observations, specifically those dealing with column header abbreviations, quality control flags, missing value indicators, and standardized calculation of certain properties. These data standards have been developed with the goals of improving the current practices of the scientific community and promoting their international usage. These guidelines are intended to standardize data files for data sharing and submission into permanent archives. They will facilitate future quality control and synthesis efforts and lead to better data interpretation. In turn, this will promote research in ocean biogeochemistry, such as studies of carbon cycling and ocean acidification, on regional to global scales. These best practice standards are not mandatory. Agencies, institutes, universities, or research vessels can continue using different data standards if it is important for them to maintain historical consistency. However, it is hoped that they will be adopted as widely as possible to facilitate consistency and to achieve the goals stated above.

Highlights

Standards for reporting both data and metadata are important for data sharing, quality control (QC), and synthesis efforts (Tanhua et al, 2019; Brett et al, 2020)
Metadata conforming to community-driven standards, such as those described by Jiang et al (2015a) for ocean acidification data, should accompany any oceanographic data to allow them to be documented in a manner that best serves the scientific needs of users
The present paper introduces data standards for chemical oceanographic observations from discrete water samples

Summary

Introduction

Standards for reporting both data and metadata are important for data sharing, quality control (QC), and synthesis efforts (Tanhua et al, 2019; Brett et al, 2020). Standards are presented for (a) column header abbreviations, (b) quality control flags, (c) missing value indicators, and (d) calculations for certain properties and parameters.

Results

Conclusion