GRIIDC Involved in the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference

The 2017 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference (GoMOSES) was held on February 6-9 in New Orleans, Louisiana. While locals were preparing for the upcoming Mardi Gras season, researchers were busy presenting and attending sessions focusing on the conference theme “Ecosystem Approaches to Gulf Response and Restoration.” GRIIDC was once again in attendance to highlight new tools, present workshops, and review the year’s accomplishments with the GRIIDC Advisory Committee.

On the second night of the conference, GoMOSES hosted a Tools Café in conjunction with the moderated session “Decision Support and Integration Tools for Response and Restoration.” This session focused on how the large amount of data produced about oil spill science, post-oil spill assessments, and environmental restoration can be used to inform response, restoration, and planning. The goal of the session was to provide demonstrations of tools that will assist in getting data and information to decision makers and response personnel.

Some tools highlighted included Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC), the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) Data and Products Portal, the Data Integration, Visualization, Exploration, and Reporting (DIVER) Tool, the Oil Spill Modeling Toolbox, and the Zooplankton Data Portal. Tools Café booths were interactive and presenters were able to spend one-on-one time with participants to answer questions and provide demonstrations of their tools. The GRIIDC team participated by showcasing helpful tools on its website such as the GRIIDC ISO 19115-2 Metadata Editor, data management planning tools, and the Data Discovery portal.

The GRIIDC Advisory Committee (AC) met during a luncheon on Tuesday, February 6th. The luncheon provided an opportunity for GRIIDC to give mid-year updates on program progress to AC members, including research consortia representatives. Dr. Jim Gibeaut, GRIIDC Director, reported on a new path forward to archive data to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Other announcements included GRIIDC’s member-node status through the DataONE network and the improved dataset submission software. Lastly, discussions continued on guidance regarding the submission of specific data types to GRIIDC.

The GRIIDC team also held five workshops during the course of the conference covering the following topics: Data Management Planning via the GRIIDC Dataset Information Form (DIF), Organizing Your Data – Best Practices and GRIIDC Submissions, and Submitting Your Data to GRIIDC. During the Submitting Your Data to GRIIDC workshop, attendees learned about the new Dataset Submission interface that was recently released. Participants of these workshops were also entered into a drawing to win a free iPad mini, sponsored by the Harte Research Institute!

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) All Hands meeting, held after the GoMOSES conference, offered Dr. Peter Brewer, Chair of the GoMRI Research Board Data Committee and Dr. Gibeaut an opportunity to provide the entire GoMRI community updates on the data management program. The conference, as always, was a success and fostered collaboration between scientists around the Gulf of Mexico. The GRIIDC team looks forward to attending next year’s conference!