title: Meeting report: Ocean 'omics science, technology and cyberinfrastructure: current challenges and future requirements (August 20-23, 2013).
abstract: The National Science Foundation's EarthCube End User Workshop was held at USC Wrigley Marine Science Center on Catalina Island, California in August 2013. The workshop was designed to explore and characterize the needs and tools available to the community that is focusing on microbial and physical oceanography research with a particular emphasis on 'omic research. The assembled researchers outlined the existing concerns regarding the vast data resources that are being generated, and how we will deal with these resources as their volume and diversity increases. Particular attention was focused on the tools for handling and analyzing the existing data, on the need for the construction and curation of diverse federated databases, as well as development of shared, interoperable, "big-data capable" analytical tools. The key outputs from this workshop include (i) critical scientific challenges and cyber infrastructure constraints, (ii) the current and future ocean 'omics science grand challenges and questions, and (iii) data management, analytical and associated and cyber-infrastructure capabilities required to meet critical current and future scientific challenges. The main thrust of the meeting and the outcome of this report is a definition of the 'omics tools, technologies and infrastructures that facilitate continued advance in ocean science biology, marine biogeochemistry, and biological oceanography.
authors.affiliation: Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA & Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Jack A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Dick
authors.affiliation: Depts of Cell and Molecular Biology and Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, RI 02881.
authors.forename: Bethany
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heidelberg
authors.affiliation: Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, CA.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole, MA.
authors.forename: Katherine R M
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Mackey
authors.affiliation: Center for Microbial Oceanography, Research and Education (C-MORE), University of Hawaii, Manoa, Honolulu, HI.
authors.forename: Edward F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: DeLong