EMODnet Chemistry and FAIR principles; evaluating and updating vocabularies

The European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) was established in 2009 and is proposed as the European Commission (EC) in situ marine data service of the EC Directorate-General Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE). EMODnet represents a network of organisations providing free access to European marine data available as interoperable data layers and data products for seven themes: Bathymetry, Geology, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Seabed habitats, and Human activities. EMODnet Chemistry makes aggregated data collections and products available for contaminants, eutrophication, and marine litter following the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) principles (Wilkinson et al., 2016); for instance, the use of standardised vocabularies supports findability, interoperability, and reuse. EMODnet Chemistry uses the standardised, hierarchically mapped vocabularies of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Vocabulary Server (NVS, managed by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC)) for indexing and annotating meta(data). For example, the BODC Parameter Usage Vocabulary (P01, https://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/search_nvs/P01/) is used to describe variables by providing detailed information on the target chemical object (S27 vocabulary) or property and the matrix/medium including phase, while the SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary (P02, https://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/search_nvs/P02/) and EMODnet Chemistry chemical groups (P36, https://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/search_nvs/P36/) are used to group P01s. Recently, working group activities evaluated EMODnet Chemistry vocabulary issues and needs and proposed improvements; for example, deprecating and replacing the P36 for polychlorinated biphenyls with a new P36 for organohalogens. Thus, some new P36 vocabularies were created/deprecated and the names and definitions of other P36 chemical groups were revised for correctness and to ensure that lower-level vocabularies could be mapped. This work resolved numerous mapping issues for EMODnet Chemistry, allowing all chemical substances to be mapped, making more data findable and interoperable in EMODnet. It also increased alignment with the vocabularies of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Overall, these efforts improve EU marine data management and support alignment with other EU frameworks.

 

Reference

Wilkinson et al., 2016. The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. 10.1038/sdata.2016.18