January 2021
The NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) and the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) partnered to create a publicly available spatial bibliography of Alaska deep waters in support of identifying exploration priorities in the region.
In preparation for future work in the deep waters (greater than 200 meters) of Alaska, OER collaborated with NOAA NCCOS to create an online, publicly available spatial bibliography (metadata here). Its purpose is to help identify scientific data and knowledge gaps, as well as unexplored and underexplored areas, in the Alaska region.
Unlike some bibliographies which are a list of publications, this tool presents documents on an interactive map, based on location of study. Other searchable features include academic discipline, data collection methods, and acquired sample types. There are over 300 scientific publications and technical reports included from an annotated bibliography by the NOAA Central Library.
Map of the geographic regions in Alaska as defined by the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center management areas. These regions do not reflect OER operational areas or priorities. Image courtesy of the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Shapefile available here.
This tool is the result of strong partnership among several NOAA program offices: the NOAA Central Library provided research services to lead the publication of the annotated bibliography used for the spatial analysis; the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) contributed seminal papers to the bibliography and guidance for regional delineations based on their science and management areas; the NOAA Regional Alaska Team and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management also contributed their local expertise to ensure the bibliography captured essential topics; and the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information generated GIS shapefiles to lay down the geospatial framework used in the tool, based on AFSC guidance.
Once the annotated bibliography and geospatial framework were set, the two were combined into the spatial bibliography. OER synthesized scientific information from the annotated bibliography. This information was in turn used by NCCOS to build the actual tool. By leveraging existing expertise, the team was able to create a robust product that would have been much more difficult to do individually.
This effort will help OER identify Alaska exploration priorities as well as support the broader community in other scientific and environmental management goals.