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Our Global Estuary
António M. Baptista
Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)
Megan Davis*
Florida Atlantic University, Harbor Branch
Oceanographic Institute (HBOI)
Courtesy: GOOS
Our Global Estuary
Blue Planet Symposium,
Cairns, Australia, May 27-29, 2015
Presented at:
Rationale
2013 Workshop
Moving forward
OGE and the
Blue Planet

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Our Global Estuary
Enormous filter –
most fertile ecosystems on earth
Distinctive nurseries and migration
corridors
Buffer zones –
stabilize shorelines & protect coastal
areas
Rationale

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Our Global Estuary
Rationale - Major Estuaries of the World

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Our Global Estuary
Rationale – a “beyond my estuary” perspective
Is the global buffering capacity of estuaries approaching a critical threshold?
Selman
et al. 2008
WHOI 2007
Halpern
et al. 2008

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Our Global Estuary
Rationale – dramatic future changes ?
The ten most populated river basins are expected to increase their share of the world’s GDP
from 10% in 2010 to 25% in 2050 ( > US + Germany + Japan)
Exploring the links between water
and economic growth.
HSBC Report, 2012
Indus, Pakistan

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Our Global Estuary
Rationale – are we prepared?
The 21st century has seen a drastic evolution in tools and
strategies
• to study contemporary conditions and predict changes in
individual estuaries
• to translate observations, understanding and predictions
into demonstrable societal benefit,
• as demonstrated through the Columbia River estuary
collaboratory
Can we now translate knowledge and infrastructure for
individual estuaries into understanding and action for
estuaries worldwide as a global resource?

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Our Global Estuary
Example – the Columbia River collaboratory
http://www.stccmop.org/saturn
Science: CMOP & beyond

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Our Global Estuary
Example – a high-end observation network
Endurance stations
• Interdisciplinary (01-08)
– Profiler (01)
– “Lab” stations (03, 04)
• Physical
Pioneer array
• AUVs
• Glider
• Kayak
• Bottom node
Grays Bay
SATURN-09
Single level CT
Interdisciplnary
ADP
Data counts
Physical data
Biogeochemical data
1996
2008

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Our Global Estuary
2013 U.S. National Workshop
Sponsored by:
STEERING COMMITTEE
António Baptista (Co-Chair)
Oregon Health & Science University
Megan Davis (Co-Chair) and Dennis Hanisak
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Margaret Leinen (Co-Chair)
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Edward Buskey
University of Texas at Austin
Kenneth Johnson
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Vembu Subramanian
Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing
Regional Association
Robert Tudor
Delaware River Basin Commission
Doug Wilson
Caribbean Wind, LLC
www.ourglobalestuary.org

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Our Global Estuary
2013 Workshop: starting vision and process
Our Global Estuary …
… will be a broad-scope research, [training], and
societal initiative to understand [and encourage
best practices in] estuaries both as individual
ecosystems and as a critical element of the global
ecosystem
[…]
… leverage and foster a collaborative network of
estuarine observation and prediction systems
across the world, systematically generating and
openly sharing information from sensors and
models
[…]
… will [avoid] redundancies and [forge]
partnerships when strategic and synergistic
• 50 invited participants,
mostly across the U.S.
• Expertise: estuarine and
coastal observatory
science, technology, data
management, and
models; fisheries,
biogeochemistry, and
oceanography; resource
management and policy;
socio-economics;
environmental law; tribal
culture; and education.

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Our Global Estuary
2013 Workshop outcomes: Consensus points
• Estuaries are important individually, essential as a collective
• Estuaries are undergoing increasing stresses, smart local
action on the collective of estuaries is needed for global
sustainability
• We must develop the ability to quickly and effectively
transfer lessons learned across estuaries
• Estuarine classification systems and observation & prediction
systems are key to knowledge transfer, capacity building and
stakeholder engagement
Sense of direction moving forward …

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Our Global Estuary
Moving forward …
Oct 2013 Feb 2016
• Build anchoring international partnership
• Create funding basis
• HBOI and CMOP seed
• NSF PIRE: Our Virtual Global Estuary
• Country-specific efforts
• Outreach
• Briefings: AGU 2014, POGO 2015, Blue Planet 2015, CERF2015, …
• Plan 1st international workshop
…
Annual
International Workshops
1st Workshop
Florida, US
1st International Workshop,
Chennai, India

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Our Global Estuary
Our Virtual Global Estuary
Target Outcomes
• Understanding of the
global significance and
susceptibility of
estuaries
• Quantification of the
buffering capacity and
safe operating space
of estuaries
• Conceptual &
modeling framework
to study estuaries
worldwide
• Worldwide capacity-
building in estuarine
science
• Submitted May’15 to the US NSF
• $1M/y for 5y (US) + international cost share
• Builds an in silico global estuary, leveraging &
improving existing observations
• Tiered evolution: 6 Tier 1 estuaries (below),
unlimited Tier 2 and Tier 3 estuaries
• Initial partners: 12 institutions from 5 countries
• Strong Education & Indigenous components

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Our Global Estuary
1st International Workshop
Hosted by the National Institute of Ocean Technology, in
Chennai, India in February 2016, with the support of the
Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences. Goals:
International
• Assess OGE status
• Define OGE priorities
• Refine OGE structure
and affiliations
• Broaden partnership
Host country
• Explore national strategy for
estuarine research in India
OGE Steering Committee
OGE anchor
projects
• OVGE
• …
OGE national
Committees
• US
• …
Blue Planet POGO …
Umbrella Affiliations
Structure

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Our Global Estuary
OGE and the Blue Planet
We are excited by the inclusion of Our Global Estuary within
the umbrella of Blue Planet …
ChloroGIN
Antares
SAFARI
GEOHAB
GACS
IQOE
Mangrove monitoring
Coral Reef monitoring
• GCRMN, I-CREOS
Estuary monitoring
• Our Global Estuary
http://oceansandsociety.org/aboutbp/structure.html
C2

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Our Global Estuary
OGE and the Blue Planet
… and we are looking forward to adding the power of an
evolving global network of estuarine observations,
knowledge and predictions to multi-scale collaborative efforts
towards a sustainable ocean
Tier 1 estuaries

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Our Global Estuary
For additional information, please contact
OGE Steering committee
António M. Baptista (Chair) baptista@ohsu.edu
US Steering committee
Megan Davis (co-Chair) MDavi105@fau.edu
Margaret Leinen (co-Chair) mleinen@ucsd.edu
www.ourglobalestuary.org