The Institute of Oceanography (IO/NTU) today is the result of the inspiration, vision, and hard work of many people over the years. Since its inception in 1968 at the main campus of the National Taiwan University, the IO/NTU has endeavored to promote integrative and interdisciplinary research and education of marine sciences in Taiwan. It offers graduate education programs in four divisions: physical oceanography (PO), chemical oceanography (CO), marine geology and geophysics (MG&G), and marine biology and fisheries (MB&F). The PO division of the institute has been an active research force in studying oceanographic processes over a wide range of spatio-temporal scales, ranging from tens of meters in coastal/estuarine flows to hundreds of kilometers in ocean-basin-wide circulation, on a time scale varying from seconds in ocean waves to interannual variability of the western boundary current. Research in the CO division covers various topics of speciation and biogeochemical cycles of trace elements, air–sea exchange processes of CO2 and Hg, marine organic geochemistry, early diagenesis, environmental pollution, and analytical methods for the determination of hydrographic properties of seawater. The MG&G division plays a leading role in operating and developing sophisticated field observation techniques, including active seismic imaging, marine gravity and geomagnetic observation, high-resolution seafloor mapping, precise seafloor mapping, and marine heat flow measurement. Applications of these field observation techniques to marine resources exploration and submarine geohazards mitigation, as well as to fundamental researches of plate boundary interaction, seismotectonics, submarine sedimentary processes, and geochemical and geobiological studies together with frontier modeling approaches have been the main research focuses. The MB&F division deals with a broad spectrum of marine biological sciences, including marine biodiversity, marine ecosystem functions, marine ecology, evolution of marine organisms, and fisheries science and stock assessment. Subjects of marine biology studies range from microbes and invertebrates to vertebrates and from their population and communities to ecosystems. Topics in fishery studies include stock assessment and management of both pelagic and benthic fishes to attain sustainable exploitation of fishery resources.
Entrusted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, the IO/NTU maintains a research vessel, R/V Ocean Researcher I, the Marine Instrument Center, as well as the Ocean Data Bank. The vessel is equipped with advanced navigation equipment and research instruments, is coordinated by experienced administrators, and is further supported by the crew, marine technicians, and the Marine Instrument Center. The Marine Instrument Center is staffed with electronic and marine technicians, programmers, administrators, and scientists to provide professional advice and operation manuals, and provides service to oceanographic communities and government agencies. The Marine Instrument Center hence owns the technical ability to design and build marine instruments according to carried scientific targets. In June 2015, a newly developed air/sea-observing buoy system was successfully moored at a location 400 km southeast of southern Taiwan, where the depth of the ocean floor is 5500 m. This buoy, with the functionality for real-time transmission of meteorological and hydrographic data in the upper ocean, represents a landmark achievement of the Marine Instrument Center. The Ocean Data Bank is a multidisciplinary oceanic information system based on service-oriented architecture for the Western Pacific Ocean. The database has compiled oceanic data acquired from the surrounding seas of Taiwan and provides web browser service to let users search for multidisciplinary datasets. http://www.oc.ntu.edu.tw