By Carbon to Sea Initiative
Today, Carbon to Sea, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Submarine Scientific released a draft of a new Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) Data Management Protocol, which is now open for a public comment period. This work is part of a three-year partnership between Carbon to Sea and NOAA to support and accelerate ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (oCDR) research. The OAE Data Management Protocol aims to establish a new set of best practices for managing and sharing research data – ultimately helping to enhance the impact of scientific findings about OAE’s potential as a climate solution.
Researchers, partners, and other oCDR invested community members are invited to review the draft protocol and submit a comment by March 7, 2025. Following the close of the public comment period, Carbon to Sea and NOAA will summarize feedback, make necessary revisions, and publish the final protocol.
To review the new OAE Data Management Protocol and submit a public comment, please follow this link.
This new protocol is an important part of Carbon to Sea’s mission to promote evidence-based best practices that help lay the foundation for a highly accountable, collaborative, and transparent oCDR sector. The aim is to professionalize this emerging field by improving consistency and comparability across OAE research, making it easier for projects to build on and collaborate with each other. The draft protocol distinguishes between recommendations and requirements in OAE data management in order to set a high standard for research documentation, without hindering new or existing projects.
We emphasize collaboration across our work, and the OAE Data Management Protocol was developed in collaboration with many partners. Two workshops were held to solicit inputs from leading experts in the field – including a workshop hosted by Carbon to Sea at AGU 2024 – to ensure the protocol is both flexible and rigorous. Since then, several working groups have developed to gather feedback on early drafts of the protocol and specific inputs from experts on biology, sediment processes, and social sciences. More information on the experts and organizations that participated can be found in the Acknowledgements section of the draft protocol, and includes a wide range of academic, non-profit, private sector oCDR and sensor technology companies, and carbon registries.
We’ve also received Steering Team guidance from leaders of ongoing oCDR field trials and data management experts, including Ruth Musgrave, Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University, David “Roo” Nicholson, Associate Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Gabby Kitch, Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Lead at NOAA. Weekly meetings with LiQing Jiang, archives affiliate for oCDR at NOAA, continue to ensure the adoption of these guidelines into existing data repository frameworks.
Once finalized with inputs from the public comment period, the OAE Data Management Protocol will be applied across research efforts funded and supported by programs within NOAA and Carbon to Sea. It will also provide standard guidelines for oCDR researchers worldwide. The protocol will undergo annual reviews to ensure its continued relevance and effectiveness.
The public comment period is open from Thursday, January 23, 2025 through Thursday, March 7, 2025.
In order to make this protocol as useful as possible, we hope to solicit feedback from a wide range of oCDR invested community members. We encourage all interested parties to take this opportunity to shape best practices for this emerging field. Thank you to everyone who has already participated in workshops, working groups, or otherwise contributed valuable inputs to develop this draft.
Follow the link above to read the full draft protocol and submit a comment. Questions can be directed to Jacki Long at jacki@submarine.earth.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This work was performed under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between NOAA and Collaborator. However, the views expressed herein are not necessarily those of NOAA, the Department of Commerce or the U.S. Government.
