September 2025 | Oceanography
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information and versioning for datasets should also be provided to
enable appropriate data reuse.
Lastly, engaging with international initiatives like the Global
Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and Ocean Data and Infor
mation System (ODIS) helps align data management practices
across the international ocean science community. Development of
community-driven data management guidelines and best practices
through inclusive working groups and workshops, and establish-
ment of governance structures to maintain standards and address
emerging needs, will ensure broad buy-in and sustainability.
ENHANCING COLLABORATION
Explicit financial support for enhanced collaboration, including
community activities (e.g., workshops, hackathons), and sharing
of resources to reduce communication barriers between stakehold-
ers are needed. Proposed solutions to address communication bar-
riers include glossaries, language workshops, and “matchmaking”
tools and activities to enhance sustained community dialog, along
with dedicated personnel to help with data interpretation/use.
Funding entities should encourage projects with co-development
designs that integrate observations, models, and data science
throughout the projects.
The oceanography community must move away from the idea
that scientists are either modelers or observers. Modeling and
observations are both tools that support knowledge generation.
Providing more opportunities at all career stages and developing
career structures that incentivize cross-training and application of
models, observations, and data science approaches will go a long
way towards developing more versatile researchers.
Looking to the future, it is essential to sustain investment in
observing infrastructure that transcends disciplines and strategi-
cally combines temporal and spatial coverage of the ocean. Filling
observing gaps will require continued progress in development and
deployment of sensors and platforms that can access even the most
remote and challenging (in space and time) ocean environments.
Techniques like OSSEs and data assimilation tools and approaches
provide opportunities for fruitful collaboration that will benefit
the BGC research community as a whole. The community can pre-
pare to address emerging scientific challenges, such as mCDR and
closing the ocean carbon budget, by working together to continu-
ally improve ocean BGC modeling and observations. Finally, con-
tinued investment in community-building will provide opportuni-
ties for networking, training, and building a common lexicon and
shared understanding.
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AUTHORS
Erica H. Ombres (erica.h.ombres@noaa.gov), Ocean Acidification Program,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Washington, DC,
USA. Heather Benway, Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program, Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Woods Hole, MA, USA. Kelsey Bisson,
Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, Washington, DC, USA. Alyse A. Larkin, University Corporation for
Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing, NOAA, Silver
Spring, MD, USA. Elizabeth A. Perotti, Ocean Acidification Program, NOAA, Silver
Spring, MD, USA. Elizabeth Wright-Fairbanks, UCAR, Ocean Acidification Program,
NOAA, Silver Spring, MD, USA. Joey Crosswell, Environment, Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Brisbane, Australia. Sandupal Dutta,
Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Cynthia Garcia, Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program, NOAA, Silver
Spring, MD, USA. Anand Gnanadesikan, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. Kalina Grabb, Marine Policy Center,
WHOI, Woods Hole, MA, USA. Amanda Fay, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of
Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA. Rui Jin, University of Washington, Seattle,
WA, USA. Kyla Kelly, Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing, NOAA; University
of Southern California Sea Grant, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Hayley Kwasniewski,
Environmental Studies, University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA. Alexa K. Labossiere,
Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William and Mary, Gloucester Point, VA, USA.
Jonathan Lauderdale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Jenna Lee, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. Yajuan Lin, Life Sciences, Texas
A&M University – Corpus Christi, TX, USA. Jacqueline S. Long, Submarine Scientific,
Santa Cruz, CA, USA. Anna Rufas, University of Oxford, UK. Cristina Schultz,
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
Nicholas D. Ward, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sequim, WA, USA.
Yifan Zhu, Marine Science, University of Connecticut, Groton, CT, USA.
ARTICLE CITATION
Ombres, E.H., H. Benway, K. Bisson, A.A. Larkin, E.A. Perotti, E. Wright-Fairbanks,
J. Crosswell, S. Dutta, C. Garcia, A. Gnanadesikan, K. Grabb, A. Fay, R. Jin,
K. Kelly, H. Kwasniewski, A.K. Labossiere, J. Lauderdale, J. Lee, Y. Lin, J.S. Long,
A. Rufas, C. Schultz, N.D. Ward, and Y. Zhu. 2025. Tools in harmony: Integrating
observations and models for improved understanding of a changing ocean.
Oceanography 38(3):74–79, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2025.e302.
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