Frank Edgar Muller-Karger

• Ph.D.
• University of South Florida

In June 2020, the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean Basin were affected by a series of African dust outbreaks unprecedented in size and intensity. These events, informally named “Godzilla”, coincided with CALIMA, a large field campaign, offering a rare opportunity to assess the impact of African dust on air quality in the Greater Caribbean Basin....

The proliferation of holopelagic Sargassum spp. (Sargassum) in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean is of concern for populations and coastal ecosystems in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and West Africa. Satellite detections have enabled rough assessments of the quantity of algae that drifts seasonally in the open ocean, with seasonal peaks of Sar...

The proliferation of pelagic Sargassum in the tropical Atlantic since 2011 is causing considerable health and economic concerns as large amounts of this brown alga arrive and accumulate in coastal ecosystems of western Africa and of the greater Caribbean Sea every year. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the recurrence of Sargassum bloom...

The Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) is a global community of practice and network that links individuals and groups in an effort to monitor and understand changes in marine biodiversity. MBON functions within the larger framework of the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Networks (GEO BON). These networks support mo...

Coastal wetlands are vulnerable to accelerated sea-level rise, yet knowledge about their extent and distribution is often limited. We developed a land cover classification of wetlands in the coastal plains of the southern United States along the Gulf of Mexico (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida) using 6161 very-high (2 m per pixel...

The presented pilot for the Synthesis Product for Ocean Time Series (SPOTS) includes data from 12 fixed ship-based time-series programs. The related stations represent unique open-ocean and coastal marine environments within the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Nordic Seas, and Caribbean Sea. The focus of the pilot has been placed...

An extreme Saharan dust storm (named Godzilla ) arrived to the Caribbean region in June 2020, deteriorating the air quality to hazardous levels and unhealthy conditions for sensitive groups of people. Our main objective was to characterize populations at risk for Saharan Dust by analyzing distribution and levels of dust events in Puerto Rico, and b...

Changes in the vertical structure of pH (total proton scale at 25 °C or pH T), total alkalinity, total CO 2 (TCO 2), and partial pressure of CO 2 (pCO 2) were examined at the CARIACO Ocean Time Series station (10º30'N, 64º40'W) from December 1995 to January 2017. Long-term trends were studied in the three water masses present in the Cariaco Basin:...

The measurements of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrogen (DON), and phosphorus (DOP) are used to characterize the dissolved organic matter (DOM) pool and are important components of biogeochemical cycling in the coastal ocean. Here, we present the first edition of a global database (CoastDOM v1; available at https://figshare.com/s/512289eb43c4f...

Omic BON is a thematic Biodiversity Observation Network under the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), focused on coordinating the observation of biomolecules in organisms and the environment. Our founding partners include representatives from national, regional, and global observing systems; standards organizatio...

The rate and extent of global biodiversity change is surpassing our ability to measure, monitor and forecast trends. We propose an interconnected worldwide system of observation networks — a global biodiversity observing system (GBiOS) — to coordinate monitoring worldwide and inform action to reach international biodiversity targets.

The presented pilot for the “Synthesis Product for Ocean Time-Series” (SPOTS) includes data from 12 fixed ship-based time-series programs. The related stations represent unique marine environments within the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Nordic Seas, and Caribbean Sea. The focus of the pilot has been placed on biogeochemical ess...

Fragmented systems for monitoring and assessing biodiversity and ecosystem services limit countries’ ability to track progress across multilateral environmental agreements, coordinate actions, and thus meet agreed upon global commitment. This paper initiates to address this gap through integrated data-to-decision workflows for more synergistic impl...

A global in situ data set for validation of ocean colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI) is presented. This version of the compilation, starting in 1997, now extends to 2021, which is important for the validation of the most recent satellite optical sensors such as Sentinel 3B OLCI and NOAA-20 VIIRS. The data s...

The distributions of many sea- and shorebird species span large geographic areas, making them ideal candidates as biomonitors of ecosystem perturbations and long-term environmental trends. The basic question examined in this study was: Does a major open-access data archive contain sufficient temporal- and spatial-scale data to support more detailed...

Seagrass meadows of West-Central Florida (USA), between 27°3′N – 28°12′N; 82°24′W – 82°50′W, are closely monitored by federal, state, and local groups for benthic composition, density, and areal cover (extent). Biennial aerial mapping, annual in situ surveys, and monthly water quality measurements inform management and conservation actions. Here we...

The ability of coastal nations to manage their coastal and marine environments is vital in the development and maintenance of national blue economies following the 2030 Agenda. Thus, capacity development (CD) is an important priority area to strengthen education and training for various stakeholders to help create an appropriately trained workforce...

The nesting characteristics (number of nests and eggs, time of year, nesting initiation, and nesting length) of leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) sea turtles of the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically in the Gulf of Paria in Venezuela), were examined in association with weekly precipitation averages and numb...

Measuring plankton and associated variables as part of ocean time-series stations has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of ocean biology and ecology and their ties to ocean biogeochemistry. It will open temporal scales (e.g., resolving diel cycles) not typically sampled as a function of depth. In this review we motivate the addition...

A global in-situ data set for validation of ocean-colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI) is presented. This version of the compilation, starting in 1997, now extends to 2021, which is important for the validation of the most recent satellite optical sensors such as Sentinel 3B OLCI and NOAA-20 VIIRS. The data s...

Biodiversity underlies ecosystem resilience, ecosystem function, sustainable economies, and human well‐being. Understanding how biodiversity sustains ecosystems under anthropogenic stressors and global environmental change will require new ways of deriving and applying biodiversity data. A major challenge is that biodiversity data and knowledge are...

Seven operational Thermal Infrared (TIR) spectrometers launched at sun-synchronous polar orbits supply huge amounts of information about Arctic methane (CH4) year-round, day and night. TIR data are unique for estimating methane emissions from a warming Arctic, both terrestrial and marine. This report is based on publicly available methane concentra...

Lots of standards exist for use with biological data but navigating them can be difficult for data managers who are new to them. The Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Biological Data Standards Cluster developed this primer for managers of biological data to provide a quick, easy resource for navigating a selection of the standards that exis...

Marine biodiversity is a fundamental characteristic of our planet that depends on and influences climate, water quality, and many ocean state variables. It is also at the core of ecosystem services that can make or break economic development in any region. Our purpose is to highlight the need for marine biological observations to inform science and...

Standardized methods for effectively and rapidly monitoring changes in the biodiversity of marine ecosystems are critical to assess status and trends in ways that are comparable between locations and over time. In intertidal and subtidal habitats, estimates of fractional cover and abundance of organisms are typically obtained with traditional quadr...

a b s t r a c t Long-term wave action, sea level rise, climate change, human activities, pollutants, sea surface temperature SST, are causative factors for deterioration and changes in natural ecosystems. The current study aims to assess environmental deterioration that disturbs turtles and their nesting grounds at Wadi El Gemal National Park (WGNP...

Assessing the current state of and predicting change in the ocean’s biological and ecosystem resources requires observations and research to safeguard these valuable public assets. The Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) partnered with the Global Ocean Observing System Biology and Ecosystems Panel and the Ocean Biodiversity Information S...

A new data layer provides Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) labels for global coastal segments at 1 km or shorter resolution. These characteristics are summarized for six US Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) sites and one MBON Pole to Pole of the Americas site in Argentina. The global coastlines CMECS classi...

Observations from the Reef Visual Census program in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) between 1999 and 2018 were used as a US Marine Biodiversity Observation Network case study to assess whether differences in biodiversity metrics (abundance, biomass, richness, Simpson diversity, and functional diversity) occurred across regions wi...

Acquiring marine biodiversity data is difficult, costly, and time-consuming, making it challenging to understand the distribution and abundance of life in the ocean. Historically, approaches to biodiversity sampling over large geographic scales have advocated for equivalent effort across multiple sites to minimize comparative bias. When effort cann...

Species and habitats are the subjects of legislation that mandates reporting of information on ecosystem conditions. Improvements in sensors, sampling platforms, information systems, and collaborations among experts and information users now enables more effective and up-to-date information to meet regional and national needs. Specifically, advance...

Life in the sea provides immense benefits to humans, from the food we eat to the air we breathe to the climate we live in. And because of human activities, the once seemingly vast and inexhaustible seas are changing—increasingly threatened by global-scale impacts, such as warming and acidification, as well as those that are more localized, like ove...

The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) for studying the ecology and variability of life in the sea is reviewed here in the context of US interagency Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) projects. Much of the information in this paper comes from samples collected within US National Marine Sanctuaries. The field of eDNA is relatively new but g...

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (Ocean Decade) challenges marine science to better inform and stimulate social and economic development while conserving marine ecosystems. To achieve these objectives, we must make our diverse methodologies more comparable and interoperable, expanding global participation and foster capaci...

Marine Life 2030 is a program to establish the globally coordinated system to deliver actionable, transdisciplinary knowledge of ocean life to those who need it, promoting human well-being, sustainable development, and ocean conservation (Figure 1). The diversity of marine habitats and species is fundamental for human survival. Biodiversity provide...

Air‐sea interactions are critical to large-scale weather and climate predictions because of the ocean's ability to absorb excess atmospheric heat and carbon and regulate exchanges of momentum, water vapor, and other greenhouse gases. These exchanges are controlled by molecular, turbulent, and wave-driven processes in the atmospheric and oceanic bou...

The particles in the sea have an organic or inorganic origin, and sediment towards deep waters and the bottom; factor that maintains life in the dark ocean and process that sequesters C from the hydrosphere and atmosphere. In the Cariaco Basin site with high biological productivity and deep anoxic waters, an array of sediment traps was maintained f...

Understanding biodiversity over continental scales is a challenge but is required to plan for its management, including conservation and sustainable development. The Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON), a thematic component of The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), is collaborating with the Global Oce...

Autonomous platforms already make observations over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, measuring salinity, temperature, nitrate, pressure, oxygen, biomass, and many other parameters. However, the observations are not comprehensive. Future autonomous systems need to be more affordable, more modular, more capable and easier to operate. Crea...

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Starting in 2011, coastal areas of the Caribbean Sea and tropical Atlantic Ocean began to experience extraordinary yearly accumulations of pelagic Sargassum brown alga. Historical reports place large quantities of Sargassum only in the North Atlantic (mostly in the Gulf of Mexico and the Sargasso Sea). Accumulations of Sargassum in the tropical Atl...

Seven operative thermal infrared (TIR) spectrometers launched at sun-synchronous polar orbits supply huge amounts of information about Arctic methane (CH 4) year-round, day and night. TIR data are unique for estimating CH 4 emissions from a warming Arctic, both terrestrial and marine. This report is based on publicly available CH 4 concentrations r...

Knowledge on the status and trends in marine biodiversity, and associated drivers of biodiversity change across the Americas is sparse and geographically uneven. International cooperation is needed to fill observational gaps at these geographic scales and provide information to satisfy policy targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development a...

AIRS v6 and IASI NUCAPS v1 indicate a significant methane anomaly over the Arctic Ocean in a period between November and April. This coincides with a period of good mixing of the water column. The amplitude of CH4 seasonal cycle over Barents and Kara seas is growing with years. This may evidence a growing methane flux from the seabed.

Coral reefs are exceptionally biodiverse and human dependence on their ecosystem services is high. Reefs experience significant direct and indirect anthropogenic pressures, and provide a sensitive indicator of coastal ocean health, climate change, and ocean acidification, with associated implications for society. Monitoring coral reef status and tr...

Various studies have shown Arctic methane emission from the seabed around Svalbard and elsewhere. However, the flux from Arctic seas to the atmosphere is still counted as negligible in reverse modeling simulations. TIR sonders AIRS and IASI clearly indicate non-negligible marine methane emissions in late autumn and winter. Yurganov et al. (2016) pr...

Seven operational Thermal Infrared (TIR) spectrometers launched at sun-synchronous polar orbits supply huge amounts of information about Arctic methane (CH4) year-round, day and night. TIR data are unique for estimating methane emissions from a warming Arctic, both terrestrial and marine. This report is based on publicly available methane concentra...

We live on a blue planet, and Earth’s waters benefit many sectors of society. The future of our blue planet is increasingly reliant on the services delivered by marine, coastal and inland waters and on the advancement of effective, evidence-based decisions on sustainable development. ‘Oceans and Society: Blue Planet’ is an initiative of the Group o...

A global compilation of in situ data is useful to evaluate the quality of ocean-colour satellite data records. Here we describe the data compiled for the validation of the ocean-colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI). The data were acquired from several sources (including, inter alia, MOBY, BOUSSOLE, AERONET-OC...

The oceans play a key role in global issues such as climate change, food security, and human health. Given their vast dimensions and internal complexity, efficient monitoring and predicting of the planet's ocean must be a collaborative effort of both regional and global scale. A first and foremost requirement for such collaborative ocean observing...

Emission of methane from sea to air requires at least two conditions: 1) there should be a source of methane in the sea, and 2) the seawater column should be well mixed. In a case of thermal stability (no mixing) most of oceanic methane will be consumed by bacteria. Satellite spectrometers measuring outgoing long-wave radiation (thermal IR) are ca...

Seven operational Thermal Infrared (TIR) spectrometers launched at sun-synchronous polar orbits supply huge amounts of information about Arctic methane (CH 4) year-round, day and night. The TIR data are unique for estimating CH 4 emissions in a warming Arctic, both terrestrial and marine. This report is based on publicly available CH 4 concentratio...

A quantification of carbon fluxes in the coastal ocean and across its boundaries with the atmosphere, land, and the open ocean is important for assessing the current state and projecting future trends in ocean carbon uptake and coastal ocean acidification, but this is currently a missing component of global carbon budgeting. This synthesis reviews...

A global compilation of in situ data is useful to evaluate the quality of ocean-colour satellite data records. Here we describe the data compiled for the validation of the ocean-colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI). The data were acquired from several sources (including, inter alia, MOBY, BOUSSOLE, AERONET-OC...

Marine ecosystems have numerous benefits for human societies around the world and many policy initiatives now seek to maintain the health of these ecosystems. To enable wise decisions, up to date and accurate information on marine species and the state of the environment they live in is required. Moreover, this information needs to be openly access...

1. Satellite data provide evidence of significant (~ 40% of the Arctic flux from land annually) methane flux from the Arctic seas in winter. 2.Intensification of seawater mixing due to cooling surface combined with stormy weather after November may explain seasonality in emissions. 3.Methane hydrates seem the most likely explanation of the emission...

A new 30-m spatial resolution global shoreline vector (GSV) was developed from annual composites of 2014 Landsat satellite imagery. The semi-automated classification of the imagery was accomplished by manual selection of training points representing water and non-water classes along the entire global coastline. Polygon topology was applied to the G...

Sustained global ocean observations are needed to recognise, understand, and manage changes in marine biodiversity, resources and habitats, and to implement wise conservation and sustainable development strategies. To meet this need, the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), a network of observing systems distributed around the world and coordinate...

A quantification of carbon fluxes in the coastal ocean and across its boundaries, specifically the air-sea, land-to-coastal-ocean and coastal-to-open-ocean interfaces, is important for assessing the current state and projecting future trends in ocean carbon uptake and coastal ocean acidification, but is currently a missing component of global carbo...

Measurements of the status and trends of key indicators for the ocean and marine life are required to inform policy and management in the context of growing human uses of marine resources, coastal development, and climate change. Two synergistic efforts identify specific priority variables for monitoring: Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) through th...

There is evidence that the winter Arctic sea and summer Arctic land are releasing methane into the atmosphere. Methane concentration in the Arctic lower and upper troposphere was retrieved by NOAA between 2010 and 2017 from IASI data, a thermal IR spectrometer orbiting the Earth on the European MetOp-A satellite. A significant increase in the metha...

Supplement material for "Methane Variation Over Terrestrial And Marine Arctic Areas (2010 – 2017): IASI Satellite Data" by Yurganov et al.

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) led to the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The accident resulted in oil slicks that covered between 10,000 and upward of 40;000 km2 of the Gulf between April and July 2010. Quantifying the actual spatial extent of oil over such synoptic scales on an operational basis an...

The southern Caribbean Sea experiences strong coastal upwelling between December and April due to the seasonal strengthening of the trade winds. A second upwelling was recently detected in the southeastern Caribbean during June–August, when local coastal wind intensities weaken. Using synoptic satellite measurements and in situ data, this mid-year...

Modelling dengue fever in endemic areas is important to mitigate and improve vector-borne disease control to reduce outbreaks. This study applied artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict dengue fever outbreak occurrences in San Juan, Puerto Rico (USA), and in several coastal municipalities of the state of Yucatan, Mexico, based on specific thre...

The Cariaco Basin, located on the continental margin of the south-eastern Caribbean Sea, has been a site of extensive oceanographic research since the early 1950s. Here we examined the seasonal and spatial variability in satellite wind, sea surface temperature (SST), surface chlorophyll (CHL), and primary production (PP) within the Cariaco Basin (1...

Time series data sets, which contain measurements repeated over a span of decades, yield important insights into our oceans’ vital signs.

The blowout of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) drilling rig in 2010 released an unprecedented amount of oil at depth (1,500 m) into the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Sedimentary geochemical data from an extensive area (∼194,000 km2) was used to characterize the amount, chemical signature, distribution, and extent of the DWH oil deposited on the seafloor in 201...

A study was conducted to characterize the variability of dissolved inorganic carbon concentration and speciation in surface waters (upper 100m) of the southern Caribbean Sea in the Cariaco Basin, located off Venezuela. The spatial distribution of total CO2 (TCO2), partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2), and the saturation state with respect to aragonite (Ω...

The Sardinella aurita fishery off northeastern Venezuela, region of seasonal wind-driven coastal-upwelling, accounts for 90% of the Caribbean Sea small pelagic catch. This law-protected artisanal fishery takes place up to ~10 km offshore. The spatial distribution, number of schools, and biomass of S. aurita were studied using eight hydro-acoustic s...

Abstract. The Cariaco Basin is a semi-enclosed basin of tectonic origin composed of two ~ 1400 m deep sub-basins, aligned in an east-west direction. In the eastern sub-basin, the CARIACO Ocean Time-Series project has been taking biogeochemical and ecological measurements on a regular basis since 1995. However, relatively little is known about the w...

The carbon regeneration in the water column of the Cariaco Basin (Venezuela) was investigated using a regression model of total alkalinity (TA) and the concentration of total inorganic carbon (TCO2). Primary productivity (PP) was determined from the inorganic carbon fraction assimilated by phytoplankton and the variation of the 22 and 23ºC isotherm...

We organized environmental observations (Sea Surface Temperature, chlorophyll concentration, and primary productivity) and biological diversity indices based on reconstructed fisheries landings obtained from the Sea Around Us project to address two objectives. One was to understand whether adjacent Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) of the Americas may...

Climate change is likely to drive complex shifts in the distribution and ecology of marine species. Projections of future changes may vary, however, depending on the biological impact model used. In this study, we compared a correlative species distribution model and a simple mechanistic oxygen balance model for Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynn...

A compiled set of in situ data is important to evaluate the quality of ocean-colour satellite-data records. Here we describe the data compiled for the validation of the ocean-colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI). The data were acquired from several sources (MOBY, BOUSSOLE, AERONET-OC, SeaBASS, NOMAD, MERMAID,...