[Pilot] Marine Climate Change Encyclopaedia

Reid, P.C.^1*, Edwards, M. ¹, Bigot, S. ², Lindley, A. ¹, Johnson, A. ¹, Stevens, D.¹ Sidey, J.¹, Beaugrand, G. ^3,1, Dowland, P. ⁴ , John A.W.G.¹, and Fischer A.¹

1 The Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB, UK
2 IUP Calais , Université du littoral Côte d'Opale, IUP Calais, 40 Rue Ferdinand Buisson, Bat A BP649, 62228 Calais Cedex, France
3 Station Marine de Wimereux, CNRS UMR 8013 ELICO, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, BP80, F-62930 Wimereux, France
4 School of Computing, Communication & Electronics, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK
* Corresponding author (pcre@sahfos.ac.uk)

Introduction

Over a three month period in the summer of 2005, a pilot CD and web based encyclopaedia that provides summary information on the important role that the oceans play in climate change, as well as presenting the evidence for the impacts of climate change in marine and other natural systems, was designed and developed as an interactive, open access, software system. The demonstrator is intended to show what can be achieved and to better gauge the amount of time and effort that will need to be invested in what it is hoped will be a longer term project. The pilot was completed on a modest financial budget that does not reflect the work hours and resources that have been put in to complete the product. The first version of the demonstrator in CD form was produced in time to support a conference of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC) that was held in Oxford in September 2005 as part of the UK Presidency of the European Union. It has taken a further six months to carefully check all parts of the encyclopaedia for accuracy, design features and especially copyright before we were able to launch version 1.1 on the World Wide Web in February 2006 and make it available at nominal cost in a CD version. In the CD version a number of the web links are replaced by PDF files. As can be seen from the authorship the project has been a team effort involving input from a number of institutions in France and the UK and was completed at the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS).

The aim of the project is to provide an accessible, informative and complete as possible briefing for the general public, government policy makers and the scientific community on marine climate change issues. It is hoped that a more comprehensive version of the software will include films of interviews with scientists, coloured diagrams of processes, maps, photographic images, models and their output as well as games within an interactive and play framework. To achieve this in the pilot phase was too ambitious a goal although as wide a range of features as possible has been included. For example, moving diagrams are shown (see arrows on global conveyor belt diagram), a range of illustrative material is included from photographs to maps and a wide range of material in pdf and from web based links is included. The text in the demonstrator has been produced in a format that can be printed as briefing notes on key marine climate change issues. In a subsequent version two different levels of information may be provided, a simplistic explanation, a more technical referenced version and possibly a children’s version. For ease of reading scientific referencing has not been included although appropriate references are included and can be accessed via the green button in the bottom left hand corner of relevant pages. It was originally hoped that input could be obtained from the Hadley Centre and other appropriate institutions involved in climate research around the world and that the contents would also reflect and summarise information presented within the last year at climate change conferences held at the University of Plymouth and at the Hadley Centre in Exeter. Neither the timeframe, or the funding available, made this possible and all the text has been produced in-house at SAHFOS.

The original idea for the project derived from discussions held between Gregory Beaugrand and Philip (Chris) Reid on ways of making the lectures that they had both given on marine climate change issues available to a wider audience. It was also planned that the software would build on the experience already gained in the production of WinCPR, a web based North Sea plankton browser www.sahfos.org/WinCPR.htm and in the creation of a soon to be published web based plankton Atlas for the North Atlantic by Sylvain Bigot and Gregory Beaugrand at Wimereux. Much of the illustrative material has been derived from this lecture archive. Researching the background text for the CD involved considerable effort and in some cases was a minor research project. We wish to stress that the text has not been peer reviewed and may include inaccuracies although we have strived to ensure that all statements can be referenced. Reference lists have been produced for nearly all the sections, but time was not available to make these fully comprehensive or to input all the information compiled.

Sylvain Bigot and Martin Edwards, with initial input from Paul Dowland, designed the site and Sylvain implemented the computerised development. Sylvain has played a key role in the project, building the encyclopaedia on a web site structure adapted for publication on a CD, and capable, in due course, of being used to form a web site. He undertook the work as a final year degree project and demonstrated great technical competence. Martin Edwards, Alistair Lindley, Philip Reid and Gregory Beaugrand provided text and illustrative material with Alan Johnson as coordinator. In the second phase of the project Darren Stevens and Johanna Sidey compiled and checked information on copyright, added new illustrative material and further improved the design with Philip Reid providing drafting and editorial oversight. Text and other input was provided by Astrid Fischer and Tony John.

Financial support for the project was provided by a grant from National Aquarium Ltd, Plymouth with additional funding under contract to English Nature. It is hoped that the project will fit well into proposed plans at the National Marine Aquarium to develop a new visitor theme focusing on climate change over the next twelve months. Interest has been expressed by the Executive Secretary of OSPAR in the demonstrator and by the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), hosted at the Meteorological Office, Exeter. We hope that both organisation will be able to contribute to the project as it develops into its next stage. It is expected that the product will also be of use to a new UK government initiative on climate change: the ‘Marine Climate Change Impact Partnership’ (MCCIP) set up as a response to the recently published assessment of UK seas: Charting Progress The interim Secretariat for MCCIP was based at SAHFOS until July. As of December 2005 the secretariat is hosted at CEFAS in conjunction with the Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia (www.mccip.org.uk).

Initial pop up box and information bar on CD version

When the CD is used without connection to the internet a pop up box appears drawing attention to an information bar that appears below the tool bar with a lock symbol at the front and text which comments on security. This is a protective Microsoft software feature that it has not proved possible to remove. When the CDs were burnt this product, to our knowledge was virus free and should not harm a user's computer. Click on the information bar after removing the pop up box by clicking OK and three options appear –

Allow blocked content
What is the risk?
Information bar help

Commentary on the pilot format

It needs to be emphasised that the pilot Marine Climate Change demonstrator is being circulated without peer review. It is possible that it contains inconsistencies and inaccurate statements. here a number of comments are made on aspects of the draft as well as drawing attention to some missing sections.

A question mark button key has been inserted in the bottom right of all figures to provide information on their source plus copyright information if appropriate and further information on their contents if necessary.

To use ‘Key references’ place the cursor over the button; it does not need to be clicked. References included in the demonstrator do not provide a complete coverage of the topic they address and may be too parochial. In a future version it is planned that the reference sections can be expanded to form Endnote bibliographies. For topics where a web link (or a pdf file in the CD version) has only been provided for a key theme e.g. ‘Acidification’ a ‘Key reference button’ is not available at present. However, a comprehensive reference list is available in the Royal Society report.

The glossary is illustrative of what can be achieved and is not comprehensive e.g. terms such as trophic, anthropogenic and recruitment are not defined nor are acronyms such as NAO for North Atlantic Oscillation or SST for sea surface termperature explained.

Conclusions

The presentation format adopted in the Marine climate Encyclopaedia is an important innovation that will help to raise public awareness of climate change issues and the key role that the oceans play in modulating change. Before long we hope that it will be possible to make the pilot available to a global audience via the SAHFOS web site. The experiences gained in this initial exercise will help plan and cost a full development of the web based encyclopaedia.

References

Longhurst, A., 1998. Ecological Geography of the Sea.. Academic Press, London. 398pp.

Sarmiento, J. L. and Gruber, N. 2002. Sinks for anthropogenic carbon. Physics Today. 55, 30.

Sherman, K. and Duda, A. M. 1999. An Ecosystem Approach to Global Assessment and Management of Coastal Waters. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 190, 271-287.