COMARGIS (COMARGE Information System) is the database for the members of the COMARGE network. The system has benefit from the experience acquired with the BIOCEAN database created for Ifremer deep sea biologically oriented cruises. It allows archiving all information relevant to a cruise, the operations at sea (i.e. the metadata) and the data resulting from these operations including both biological data and physico-chemical data.The full implementation of COMARGIS will include three components:

• The Oracle relational database.
• A data formatting software and data upload capability developed on the basis of Ifremer’s cruise logbook, called "Alamer".
• A web-based interface for data search, mapping and download.

The two first components are fully operational for data archiving since June 2007. COMARGIS is now ready to host data from all partners of COMARGE. COMARGIS will also soon be a data provider for OBIS.

In order to upload metadata and data in COMARGIS, several standardized spreadsheets are needed:

1. Cruise_dive_mooring.xls: To provide information on the ship, submersible, ROV, moorings, participants, dates.

2. OperationSAM.xls: To list information on sampling operations during a cruise like equipment used, latitude, longitude, depth, date, location, substrate,.... These information are referred as to the METADATA. Sampling for fauna, for water chemistry and for sediment geochemistry are treated separately in the database. Operations relative to these three kinds of sampling purposes must be listed in three different files.

3. OperationMES.xls: To list metadata on peculiar operations that are intended to produce either a single measure of an environmental parameter (e.g. a temperature probe) or a continuous measure of an environmental parameter saved in a file (e.g. a current meter).

4. Data_Biology.xls: To list information on a biological sample like taxa, number, weight,… referred as to the DATA. One file must be filled for each biological operation (e.g. one file per core).

5. Data_wat&sed.xls: To list information on a water or sediment sample like the parameter measured, the method used, the observed value,… referred as to the DATA. One file must be filled for each sampling operation (e.g. one file per core).

Instructions on how to fill these spreadsheets are given in the user guide (pdf, 75 ko).

Need help? Please do not hesitate to contact Lénaïck Menot (lenaick.menot@ifremer.fr)