A metadata approach to evaluate the state of ocean knowledge: Strengths, limitations, and application to Mexico

Abstract

Climate change, mismanaged resource extraction, and pollution are reshaping global marine ecosystems with direct consequences on human societies. Sustainable ocean development requires knowledge and data across disciplines, scales and knowledge types. Although several disciplines are generating large amounts of data on marine socio-ecological systems, such information is often underutilized due to fragmentation across institutions or stakeholders, limited standardization across scale, time or disciplines, and the fact that information is often not searchable within existing databases. Compiling metadata, the information which describes existing sets of data, is an effective tool that can address these challenges, particularly when metadata corresponding to multiple datasets can be combined to integrate, organize and classify multidisciplinary data. Here, using Mexico as a case study, we describe the compilation and analysis of a metadatabase of ocean knowledge that aims to improve access to information, facilitate multidisciplinary data sharing and integration, and foster collaboration among stakeholders. We also evaluate the knowledge trends and gaps for informing ocean management. Analysis of the metadatabase highlights that past and current research in Mexico focuses strongly on ecology and fisheries, with biological data more consistent over time and space compared to data on human dimensions. Regional imbalances in available information were also evident, with most available information corresponding to the Gulf of California, Campeche Bank and Caribbean and less available for the central and south Pacific and the western Gulf of Mexico. Despite existing knowledge gaps in Mexico and elsewhere, we argue that systematic efforts such as this can often reveal an abundance of information for decision-makers to develop policies that meet key commitments on ocean sustainability. Surmounting current cross-scale social and ecological challenges for sustainability requires transdisciplinary approaches. Metadatabases are critical tools to make efficient use of existing data, highlight and address strengths and deficiencies, and develop scenarios to inform policies for managing complex marine social-ecological systems.

Untapped Potential of Citizen Science in Mexican Small-Scale Fisheries

“…Whilst meta-data is publically available for some of projects (e.g., Mascareñas-Osorio et al, 2017;Comunidad and Biodiversidad, 2018;Palacios-Abrantes et al, 2019) in public repositories, project data are not publically available in open access databases. The exception to this rule is Naturalista, where all information is immediately published online, can be consulted by anybody with internet access, and can be downloaded in full.…”

Asymmetry across international borders: Research, fishery and management trends and economic value of the giant sea bass (Stereolepis gigas)

“…In this study, we found that strong asymmetry exists in scientific research and funding across the US–Mexico border. Seven times more scientific articles have been published on the US population than the Mexican population, despite the fact that the Baja Peninsula is a hotspot for marine research activity in Mexico (Palacios‐Abrantes et al., 2019). Among the three articles that contained data on Mexican GSB populations, none addressed the past or ongoing fishery, a trend seen for many other coastal fisheries in the California Current region (Erisman et al., 2010; Johnson et al., 2017; Sáenz‐Arroyo et al., 2005).…”

Keeping Track of Samples in Multidisciplinary Fieldwork

“…Metadata, data about data, is well known to be of significant importance (Damerow et al 2021) and can be mined for information (Palacios-Abrantes et al 2019). It is needed in the process of publishing the recorded data to for instance (GBIF 2020), OBIS (UNESCO 2020) and SeaDataNet (Pecci et al 2020, Schaap andLowry 2010).…”