IPHAB Task Team on the development a periodic Global HAB Status Report

IPHAB Task Team on the development of periodic Global HAB Status Report

Terms of Reference:

Advise the FAO and IOC secretariat/IODE Project Office and HAIS partners and define amendments required to update HAEDAT to facilitate proper data entry, extraction and quality control as well as improving recording criteria for HAB events such as ‘high biomass blooms’, ‘cyanobacteria events’, ‘ciguatera events’ and others raised by IOC regional groups. Identify areas for HAIS adjustments, geographical data gaps and website edits. Ensure standardization between HAIS and initiatives undertaken by TTs on Taxonomy and Biotoxins,
Advise and encourage regional groups and editors on data compilation, quality control and submission of HAB data to OBIS/HABMAP and HAEDAT and production of associated metadata documents,
Advise on and stimulate the use of HAIS data and data products, encourage the production of summary articles in Harmful Algae News and act proactively if GHSR/HAIS conclusions or data are misinterpreted or incorrectly referred to;
Develop a template, for FAO approval before the end of 2023, for a short and concise annual summary of HAEDAT with the view to submit such summaries annually to the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) and the Subcommittee on Fish Trade (COFI-FT) and starting in 2024 covering the year 2023,
Identify the focus of the second Global HAB Status Report, identify priority drivers and associated relevant global datasets. Engage with working groups, groups of experts within and outside IOC (including IOC IGMETS, IOC TrendsPO, ICES WGPME, the marine sites of the International network on Long Term Ecological Research (I-LTER), EMODNET-Biology, and ICES-IOC WGHABD, GOOS/EuroGOOS), and individual scientists to identify time series of phytoplankton data including information on HAB species,
Investigate with GlobalHAB possibilities of organizing initiatives (such as workshops, interactive data analysis, courses) on HAB time series analysis in the context of environmental variability,
Work with IOC FAO IPHAB Task Teams to develop UN Decade Action – HAB solutions, identify partners for co-design initiatives and funding opportunities;

Decides also that the Task Team is chaired by Eileen Bresnan (UK) and comprises A. Zingone (Italy), Bengt Karlson (Sweden), the Chair of the IPHAB Task Team on Biotoxins, the Chair of the IPHAB Task Team on Taxonomy, the Chair IODE GE-BICH, and may invite representatives of the GlobalHAB SSC, the regional IOC groups ANCA, FANSA, HANA and WESTPAC/HAB, the ICES-IOC WGHABD, the PICES HAB Section, WoRMS, IAEA, FAO and ISSHA. The Task Team is supplemented by international advisors and experts G. Hallegraeff (AU) and may be expanded as required to fulfill the terms of reference;

Invites the IODE Programme and OBIS technical staff to continue its active role in HAIS incl. HAEDAT through its Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS),

Notes that the task team will continue its work until otherwise decided by the Panel, and that it will work by correspondence and/or meet upon request by the joint IOC-FAO IPHAB Secretariat, and provide a progress report for the intersessional period to the Chairs of IPHAB and IODE prior to IPHAB-XVII and IODE-XXVII, XXVIII and XXIX.