Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network (OBON)

Ocean life - from viruses to whales - is built from "biomolecules''. Biomolecules such as DNA infuse each drop of ocean water, grain of sediment, and breath of ocean air. The Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network (OBON) will develop a global system that will allow science and society to understand ocean life like never before. The programme will transform how we sense, harvest, protect, and manage ocean life, which faces multiple stresses including pollution, habitat loss, and climate change. It will also help communities detect biological hazards like harmful algal blooms and pathogens and be a key component of next-generation ocean observing systems.

The programme will utilize biomolecular technologies to monitor, research and understand life in the sea at every trophic level and scale, how life varies in response to climate and anthropogenic impacts, including fisheries, and how these changes impact society. This high level objective is broken down into the following four more detailed objectives:

1. To build a coastal-to-open ocean multi-omics biodiversity observing system over the Ocean Decade;
2. To develop and transfer capacity so as to initiate additional marine biomolecular observation activities through training programs combined with funded equipment programs supported by development/aid agencies and philanthropy;
3. To enhance marine ecosystem models (including new modelling based on machine learning) by adding biomolecular components so the models can utilize data collected from the coordinated molecular observations described in O1 and generate 4D multi-omic biodiversity seascapes;
4. To address pressing scientific, management, and policy questions linked to the state and dynamics of life in the ocean, including exploited resources and those affected by other pressures.