SIBER SPIS sept 2011.pdf - IMBER

SIBER
Science Plan and Implementation Strategy
Co m m u n i c a t i o n
Given the international nature of SIBER, communication is fundamental to its success. In
order to facilitate communication a SIBER website has been established through IMBER (see
http://www.imber.info/SIBER.html). The development of a more comprehensive website is
under development through IOGOOS. These sites will be used to coordinate and publicize
the activities of SIBER and associated programs, provide the latest news and information on
projects and progress, and provide a forum for communicating SIBER science to the widest
possible audience.
SIBER will contribute articles to international newsletters, such as those of IOGOOS and
IMBER. SIBER has already developed the format for a newsletter that will, in due course, be
distributed electronically on a semi-annual basis. A series of workshops focusing on SIBER’s
six science themes is planned and these will be important for the development, implementation
and integration of the program. Reports from the workshops will be published.
To develop and maintain communication with the wider IO research community, SIBER science
meetings and sessions will be organized. These may be linked to, for example, IOGOOS,
IMBER, AGU and EGU conferences and meetings, as well as separate SIBER meetings when
the program becomes more established. The first SIBER Open Science Conference was held
in Goa, India in October 2006. The second will be held in 2015 at NIO in conjunction with
the 50th anniversary celebration of the International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE), which
is especially noteworthy as the need for a regional facility to support IIOE activities was the
motivation for establishing NIO in Goa (Fig. 26).
SIBER science results will be published in scientific journals and reports. However, SIBER will
endeavor to ensure that the main results will also be accessible to a wider audience, including
policy makers, managers and the public. Input will therefore be required to produce summary
fact sheets or brochures.
Tr a i n i n g a n d e d u c a t i o n
SIBER will help to stimulate research capacity in the international community and especially
among developing IO rim nations by promoting training courses to develop multidisciplinary
science skills, workshops, summer schools and a program of personnel exchange.
SIBER will promote public outreach and provide the opportunity to experience IO science
through school activities, the internet, special events and exhibitions. The biogeochemical
and ecological dynamics of the IO are unique and highly variable due to the influence of
the monsoon winds. This variability impacts some of the most populous regions in the world.
SIBER will provide a platform from which to address issues such as climate change: not only
how it will impact the monsoon winds, coral reefs, the IO coastal zone and human populations,
but also wider impacts on a global scale.
SIBER will ensure that its activities reach as wide an audience as possible and have the
greatest possible impact.
SIBER p r o g r a m o u t p u t s a n d l e g a c y
As this document has outlined, the IO is changing rapidly as a result of anthropogenicallydriven
effects. These changes could have profound consequences for populations, species,
biodiversity and ecosystem structure and function. They affect biogeochemical cycles and
influence the development of management strategies for fisheries. These anthropogenicallydriven
changes are already impacting human populations in the coastal zones of the IO and
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