Plankton monitoring and analysis in the oceans: capacity building requirements and initiatives in Latin-America

Abstract

Both scientific and technical capacities are key issues for achievingthe objectives of understanding the functioning of the oceans,conserving their health and resources, and predicting the impacts ofclimate change. Many international programmes related to ocean studiesand monitoring, as well as those concerning global climate change,include `capacity building' as a fundamental process in order to achievethese objectives. Capacity building (CB) in the context of oceanmonitoring and research describes the actions concerning thedevelopment, fostering and support of infrastructure, resources andrelationships for ocean science and related systems and services atindividual, organizational, inter-organizational, regional and systemlevels. The purpose of this document is to define the CB componentswhich are essential for the accomplishment of the objectives oflarge-scale scientific programmes and initiatives dealing withmonitoring and analysis of planktonic communities in the oceans. Thesecomponents include: a) training of students, technicians, andscientists, b) availability of platforms and instrumentation fortime-series sampling and sample analyses, and c) access to informationsystems and networking for the exchange of data and information. Howthese components could be included in specific CB actions or have beenpartially accomplished in the Latin-American region are here discussed.