Interested in international ocean data?
Students Kjetil Grotle and Erlend Mundal from University of Bergen prepares for CTD-sampling.
Photo: Arnbjørg Aagesen/ IMRPublished: 24.08.2023 Updated: 28.08.2023
In August 2021, the Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl embarked on a circumnavigation of the globe that lasted almost two years.
The voyage went under the name One Ocean Expedition and is a recognized part of the UN's ocean decade.
Before the ship set out from Arendal, Norway on a late summer day two years ago, IMR scientists had prepared it into a modern research vessel.
"The ship was equipped with modern instrumentation to collect high-quality data on ocean physics, chemistry and biology", says research director Geir Huse at the Institute of Marine Research (IMR).
The scientific program was carried out along the sailing route of Statsraad Lehmkuhl, with occasional stops for station work.
"The aim of the data collection on board the vessel was to improve knowledge about the state of the world's oceans. We have focused on everything from the distribution and diversity of organisms to environmental status, climate and human impact on the marine ecosystem", says Huse.
In a new report, both the data collection and some preliminary results from the leg across the Atlantic are summarized.
The main types of instrumentation are sensors that measure continuously while underway, including sonar, hydrophone, temperature and salinity sensor, and various instruments that collect and analyse water samples from an inlet in the ship's hull, including for environmental DNA and microplastics.
A bonus was good work training for future marine scientists, namely young students who were able to take part in the various stages to try and follow up the data collection.
Curious? The data is available to everyone
All the research data that was generated during the voyage is open and available at the Norwegian Marine Data Center - just search for One Ocean Expedition.
This work is a contribution to the establishment of FAIR marine data, which is the focus of the UN's ten-year scientific program FAIROD, which is led by the Institute of Marine Research.