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Energy, Climate change, Environment

Chemistry

EMODnet Chemistry - Water body dissolved oxygen concentration

EMODnet Chemistry provides easy access to marine chemical data, standardised harmonized validated data collections and reliable data products, which are highly relevant to assessing ecosystem status according to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, for all European marine regions.
Numerous substances are considered; most of them are invisible to the naked eye and can only be detected and tracked using special sensors or by laboratory analysis. This evidence-based information is essential for understanding seawater chemistry and its natural and/or human-induced variations. It is also essential for identifying and taking action against spatio-temporal environmental changes that pose risks to marine ecosystems and human health.

Objectives

The first goal of EMODnet Chemistry is to collect and validate data on the state of the seas and oceans and make them freely available and interoperable. To this end, the partnership needs to manage the heterogeneity, complexity, quality and large volume of observational datasets on seawater quality, biota contamination, sediment quality and potential pollution.

Second, EMODnet Chemistry generates and publishes standardised, harmonised and quality-controlled data collections and reliable derived data products. These are all relevant for the implementation of European Union (EU) marine policies such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), Water Framework Directive, and Maritime Spatial Planning Directive. Specifically, EMODnet Chemistry contributes to Descriptors 5 (eutrophication), 8 (chemical pollution), 9 (contaminants in seafood) and 10 (marine litter) of the MSFD, as testified by a number of Use Cases.

EMODnet Chemistry focuses on four main themes:

Currently, six major European sea regions are covered: the Arctic Ocean (Norwegian Sea including Barents Sea), Baltic Sea, Northeast Atlantic Ocean (Celtic Sea, Iberian coast and Bay of Biscay, and Macaronesia), North Sea, Black Sea, and Mediterranean Sea.

For more information, users can see the relevant Documentation, including:

  • Guidelines that includes technical documents, such as specifications and user manuals, which explain in detail the EMODnet Chemistry activity;
  • Reports to EU that includes all documents, describing the EMODnet Chemistry work, which are periodically delivered to the EMODnet Secretariat and DG MARE;

Information can also be found in News, Events and Communication material, including a Promotional Video.

Key services

A range of services and functionalities are provided to users for i) identifying and requesting access to the chemistry datasets that are gathered by EMODnet Chemistry, and ii) viewing, analysing, and downloading chemistry data products that are generated by EMODnet Chemistry:

  1. Data Discovery and Access Service is the interface of SeaDataNet to search for, narrow down queries, and download selections of measurement data.

  2. Products Catalogue service provides functionality to search and browse metadata of chemistry data products and includes links to viewing and download.
  3. webODV Data Explorer and Extractor allows users to create subsets, perform scientific analyses, generate various graphs, and download datasets in various formats from the validated aggregated data collections of EMODnet Chemistry.

  4. Marine litter tools are also available to view the distribution of beaches contained in the EMODnet Chemistry beach litter database, to generate EMODnet data formats for beach and seafloor litter, and to verify correctness.
  5. Map Viewer service allows users to view, browse, and interrogate EMODnet Chemistry data and data products. Specifically, EMODnet Chemistry provides the following map layers as OGC services:
  • Interpolated maps for eutrophication status over time with animations;
  • Contaminants maps showing station locations and quality indicators;
  • Marine Litter maps showing locations, types, and volumes;
  • Availability maps for measurement datasets concerning different chemical substances and interactive links to the Data Discovery and Access service;
  • Maps showing eutrophication and contaminant concentrations based on locations from the validated aggregated data collections and with interactive links to the WebODV Data Explorer and Extractor tool
     

More details about the data products and derived map layers are provided in the following section.

Data & Products

EMODnet Chemistry draws on the extensive experience of a well-developed and ever-increasing network of 66 data centres in 32 countries, which collect and manage marine chemical data according to the FAIR principles (i.e. Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability).

In the last decade, the Partnership has gathered over 1 million measurement data from more than 500 different data originators, mainly monitoring authorities and research institutes but also NGOs and enterprises.

The measurement data, as delivered by the originators, cover 13 groups of chemical variables within all European sea regions.

CDI Data Discovery and Access Service
EMODnet Chemistry - CDI Data and Discovery Access Service (SeaDataNet service

In addition, EMODnet Chemistry regularly releases aggregated, standardised, and validated data, which are made available as regional and global data collections on eutrophication, contaminants, and marine litter.

EMODnet Chemistry's data collections of Contaminants, Eutrophication and Marine Litter
EMODnet Chemistry - Contaminants data collections in the Arctic
Contaminants data collections in the Arctic - DOI: 10.6092/bz0y-na72
EMODnet Chemistry - Contaminants data collections in the Atlantic
Contaminants data collections in the Atlantic - DOI: 10.6092/byac-h177
EMODnet Chemistry - Contaminants data collections in the Baltic
Contaminants data collections in the Baltic - DOI: 10.6092/28y3-th08
EMODnet Chemistry - Contaminants data collections in the Black Sea
Contaminants data collections in the Black Sea - DOI: 10.6092/jbge-hy83
EMODnet Chemistry - Contaminants data collections in the Mediterranean Sea
Contaminants data collections in the Mediterranean Sea - DOI: 10.6092/vyvd-0g91
EMODnet Chemistry - Contaminants data collections in the North Sea
Contaminants data collections in the North Sea - DOI: 10.6092/42t8-zy38
EMODnet Chemistry - Eutrophication data collections in the Arctic
Eutrophication data collections in the Arctic - DOI: 10.6092/xe56-z804
EMODnet Chemistry - Eutrophication data collections in the Atlantic
Eutrophication data collections in the Atlantic - DOI: 10.6092/hmh8-x461
EMODnet Chemistry - Eutrophication data collections in the Baltic
Eutrophication data collections in the Baltic - DOI: 10.6092/w67j-4p80
EMODnet Chemistry - Eutrophication data collections in the Black Sea
Eutrophication data collections in the Black Sea - DOI: 10.6092/e9jp-ra41
EMODnet Chemistry - Eutrophication data collections in the Mediterranean Sea
Eutrophication data collections in the Mediterranean Sea - DOI: 10.6092/ep6n-tp63
EMODnet Chemistry - Eutrophication data collections in the North Sea
Eutrophication data collections in the North Sea - DOI: 10.6092/64h8-3q06
EMODnet Chemistry - Marine litter data collections of Beach Litter
Marine litter data collections of Beach Litter - DOI: 10.6092/kva0-xe59
EMODnet Chemistry - Marine litter data collections of Micro Litter
Marine litter data collections of Micro Litter - DOI: 10.13120/q6t1-2r39
EMODnet Chemistry - Marine litter data collections of Seafloor Litter
Marine litter data collections of Seafloor Litter - DOI: 10.13120/wgyh-sc94
 

Lastly, data collections are input to generate further data products.

Users are requested to acknowledge EMODnet and its data providers when using data or products based on its services.

Eutrophication

For Eutrophication, gridded climatologies are generated. They are spatially interpolated maps that display the depth variability of five variables over time:

  • Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentration;
  • Phosphate concentration;
  • Silicate concentration;
  • Chlorophyll-a concentration;
  • Dissolved oxygen concentration.

The tools used are the 2-dimensional version of DIVA (Data Interpolating Variational Analysis) and its implemented version DIVAnd, which is the generalisation in n dimensions of the method (longitude, latitude, depth, time, etc.). All maps can be customised selecting both depth and time ranges. An animation of the temporal evolution of the parameters is also available. They are available to download as NetCDF, PNG, PDF, EPS, SVG, WebM (animation), MP4 (animation), and KML. The maps can be also visualised by using OGC WMS and OPeNDAP web services. Three main types of climatologies with different spatio-temporal resolutions can be downloaded:

  • All European seas;
  • By sea region;
  • Coastal areas.

Contaminants

For contaminants, two types of maps are produced:

  1. One displaying the spatial distribution of sampling stations for different matrices (seawater, biota, and sediment);
  2. One that contributes to the evaluation of data quality and adequacy for environmental quality assessment according to the MSFD and the Directive on Environmental Quality Standards (EQSD).

The maps are available for ten selected substances: anthracene, benzo[A]pyrene, fluoranthene, hexachlorobenzene, naphthalene, DDT, lead, mercury, cadmium, and tributyltin.

Marine litter

For marine litter, maps display the spatial distribution, composition, and abundance of beach and seafloor litter. Products for beach litter are divided in two macro categories, depending on the origin of data: official monitoring (data considered for official evaluation and analysis with respect to the MSFD) and other sources (data from monitoring, cleaning and research activities). For abundance and density maps, an animation of the change over time is also available.

Background

EMODnet Chemistry is managed by a Consortium of partners, subcontractors and advisors. It is a network of marine research and monitoring institutes,  oceanographic data management experts, and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. The Consortium is also supported by the expertise of  the Regional Sea Conventions: OSPAR, HELCOM, BSC, and UNEP/MAP.

EMODnet Chemistry is largely based upon the SeaDataNet network of 110 National Oceanographic Data Centres: an operationally robust pan-European infrastructure for ocean and marine data management. Moreover, EMODnet Chemistry relies on and has adapted the following consolidated SeaDataNet services and standards.

Data gathering is conducted in direct communication with the data originators to ensure the best sets of measurement data and related metadata, and to prevent duplicates. Data originators are responsible for performing the first data quality control step and flagging with data quality information.

As a further step, a Quality Control (QC) loop is implemented to harmonise, standardise, and validate data and metadata at the European scale for marine litter data and at the regional scale for eutrophication, ocean acidification, and contaminant data.

The guidelines provide details of the up-to-date methods and technologies that are used to generate the data products for eutrophication, ocean acidification, contaminants and marine litter.

This approach is regularly tuned in collaboration with experts on implementation of the MSFD, including the Regional Sea Conventions (RSCs), European Environment Agency (EEA), European Commission's Directorate General for the Environment (DG ENV), and European Commission's Joint Research Centre (EC JRC).

History

EMODnet Chemistry was launched in 2009 and is based on a step-by-step approach. In 2021, participants signed up to the fifth phase, which runs until 2023.

The illustration below shows the duration and gives a short description of the 5 phases.

EMODnet Chemistry's timeline in five phases
EMODnet Chemistry - Phases
  • The pilot phase, from June 2009 to June 2012, was aimed at testing the project feasibility in limited geographical areas on a restricted number of parameters.
  • The second phase, from August 2013 to August 2016, was aimed at expanding spatial coverage and range of chemical parameters.
  • The third phase, from March 2017 to March 2019, was aimed at extending the data focus, including Marine Litter data and data products, and the spatial coverage.
  • The fourth phase, from October 2019 to October 2021, was aimed at gathering and managing new marine litter types and increasing engagements and cooperations.
  • The fifth phase, from October 2021 to October 2023, is being led by the same core group of the Consortium steering the initiative since the beginning.

Detailed technical information on the various phases can be consulted from this document.