Research

In the framework of the MoU signed between EMODnet Chemistry and the In Situ Thematic Assembly Centre (INSTAC) of Copernicus Marine Service, the version 2018 of the six EMODnet regional quality controlled and aggregated datasets for eutrophication and acidification were integrated in the INSTAC BioGeoChemical products.

The request by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport was to chart the actual distribution of four reef-building species (Sabellaria, Modiolus, Lanice, Ostrea) in the Dutch EEZ, and to estimate the probability for restoring populations of these species in the same area.

With over 300,000 water column profiles, in both coastal and deep sea areas, the National Oceanographic Data Centre at OGS manages the most comprehensive marine data storage in Italy. The multidisciplinary  archive includes data since 1909 up to now. It ranges  from physics to chemistry, from biology and geology to meteorology. Data are mainly collected by Italian institutions within the Mediterranean Sea basin, but also by other countries within neighbouring sea basins. Near real-time data are consistently integrated into the historical archive.

One of the main goals of OceanGliders, as part of GOOS, is to monitor and promote the activity of the glider observing network. The goal is not to provide data, but to document and give guidance on how to share someone’s glider activity, in order to raise their visibility and the visibility of gliders as whole, as concerns long-term sustained observing for societal benefit.

CSCS carries out glider missions all over the world. Gliders are small autonomous underwater vehicles that use changes in displacement to change buoyancy, and internal mass movements to attain pitch and roll movements. Coordinated by an on-board flight computer, this slow but very efficient profiling device collects data as it descends and ascends, sending the results and receiving commands every few hours when at the surface for many months at a time. 

The Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) has developed a first version of a web application with the “Total Sea Level” variable from EMODnet Physics. This solution presents a demonstrator of end-user application and decisional support dashboard systems to support public authorities in their daily management activities.

Outcomes: Researchers were able to model the suitable habitat for European hake, Merluccius merluccius, in their first year of life (0-group) in the Mediterranean Sea.  The results show that hake nurseries require stable bottom temperatures, low bottom currents and a frequent occurrence of productive fronts in low chlorophyll-a areas in order to support successful recruitment, with conditions occurring recurrently in outer shelf and shelf break areas.  This prediction explains the role of unfavourable environmental conditions on low recruitment in past years.

Outcomes:Based on the study of morphological species diversity and distribution, authors were able to re-defined the circalittoral zone in the Azores islands.  

How EMODnet Seabed Habitats helped the user: EMODnet provided the best data source to represent marine benthic habitats in the Azores.  

Who used it:

ISPA – Instituto Universitãrio

When was it used: 2019

Outcomes:Authors used an Ecological Niche Model to identify previously overlooked areas of the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic, as areas containing soft coral habitats. The model could then be used for future surveys to target areas predicting presence of coral habitats and identify new priority conservation areas.

How EMODnet Seabed Habitats helped the user: EUSeaMap provided information on the distribution of rocky bottomed habitats across the study area.

Outcomes:. Authors were able to identify that differences in diet of grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) reflect regional differences in physical habitat features.

How EMODnet Seabed Habitats helped the user: Sediment and depth data were derived utilising output of the EUSeaMap 2016.  

Who used it:

UCC – University College Cork 

When was it used: Published January 2019