Panel Tasks

The SCOR Panel on New Technologies for Observing Marine Life has several tasks for the period 2008 to 2010:

•    All CoML projects are in the process of synthesizing their results.  The SCOR Panel is conducting a cross-project synthesis of technology used by CoML projects. This activity will document technologies used by CoML projects, particularly in terms of technologies that CoML has advanced.  The resulting document will be a special issue of an open-access journal or a book.
•    A synthesis paper or chapter, placed on the Panel Web site, will summarize (for a wide audience) the state of the art of technologies for observing marine life, including the limits of knowledge.  This document will discuss how new observation technologies have been used to move our understanding of some CoML realms from the unknown to known, or at least to offer the promise of making organisms in these realms knowable in the near future.
•    Workshop on ocean biology observatories to contribute to the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)—The development of long-term biological monitoring programs in the ocean is critical in monitoring the impacts of climate change and other human impacts on marine ecosystems. This workshop will identify what the marine science community regards as the most pressing needs in terms of long-term biological observations. Workshop participants will identify the most promising technological advances to meet these needs (both those technologies adopted by CoML projects already and complementary technologies that have not yet been used by the projects) and initiate activities to stimulate their transition to use as ocean biology observatories.  The workshop will result in a summary publication and a more detailed science and implementation plan.
•    Panel Web site—The Panel’s Web site is its major vehicle for disseminating information about its activities and to serve as a source of information for the scientific community and public about technologies for observing marine life. 
•    The Panel is overseeing two activities on electronic tags that have been approved as part of the CoML synthesis: (1) Developing New Tag Technologies – Integrating the Marine Animal Tracking Products from TOPP and POST and (2) Animals as Ocean Sensors in the Global Oceans (see Appendix IV).  The Panel’s role is to help tie these activities into the overall synthesis of CoML-related observation technologies.