OceanTeacher Global Academy

The course provides an introduction to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). This includes best practices in marine biogeographic data management, data publication, data access, data analysis and data visualisation.


Aims and Objectives




Reinforce and expand the OBIS network in the South-East Asian Region


Increase awareness on international standards and best practices related to marine biogeographic data management


Increase the amount and quality of open access biodiversity data published through OBIS and its OBIS nodes


Increase the use of data from OBIS for research, species conservation and area-based management applications for sustainable development

Training the OBIS nodes and the trainers (at the OBIS nodes and OceanTeacher regional training centres) was considered a top priority at the last SG-OBIS meeting. The training will include: 



The application of ratified Darwin Core terms 

OBIS-ENV-DATA standard (combining sampling events, occurrences, abiotic+ biotic measurements and sampling facts). 

QC tools (including the OBIS tools R package: https://github.com/iobis/obistools) 

Data publication (IPT), including metadata management 

Data access and visualization (including the OBIS R package: https://github.com/iobis/robis) 

There will be time for discussions and tackling specific use cases including output.

18 – 22 September 2017 Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK The course will deliver training in ocean-colour data and their applications in climate studies. Remote sensing experts from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) will guide students through a combination of lectures and computer-based exercises covering the following topics: Introduction to ocean colour; Modelling primary production; Ocean colour applications for ecosystem state assessment; Climate impacts and feedbacks; Ocean colour in data assimilation; Dataset archive, management, visualisation and analysis. Students will also have opportunity of informal discussion with instructors outside of the formal lectures. A visit of the NERC Earth Observation Data Acquisition and Analysis Service (NEODAAS) that is hosted at PML will be pr…

Unit on Marine Spatial Planning