# A biological ocean data reformatting effort

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new effort to reformat and standardize biological ocean data for better reuse and analysis.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is the first version of BIO-MATE, a reproducible data reformatting system for subsurface bio-physical ocean data.

## Key findings

- BIO-MATE reformats biological and physical data from oceanographic voyages into an interoperable data product.
- The system supports easy application of QA/QC protocols for surface and subsurface applications.
- BIO-MATE uses open-source R software and openly sourced datasets to improve data accessibility.

## Abstract

Biological ocean data collected from ships find reuse in aggregations of historical data. These data are heavily relied upon to document long term change, validate satellite algorithms for ocean biology and are useful in assessing the performance of autonomous platforms and biogeochemical models. Existing aggregate products have largely been restricted to the surface ocean, omit physical data or have limited biological data. We present the first version of a BIOlogical ocean data reforMATting Effort (BIO-MATE) to begin to fill a gap in subsurface bio-physical data aggregates in a reproducible way. BIO-MATE uses open-source R software that reformats openly sourced published datasets from oceanographic voyages. These reformatted biological and physical data from underway sensors, profiling sensors, pigments analysis and particulate organic carbon analysis are stored in an interoperable BIO-MATE data product for easy access and use. Specific QA/QC protocols can now be easily applied to the BIO-MATE data product to support a variety of surface and subsurface applications.