Tijdens de expedities van de e-learning projecten Expeditie Zeeleeuw en Planeet Zee worden gedurende 4 dagen stalen genomen in het Belgisch deel van de Noordzee. Er worden zowel bodemstalen (Van Veen) als visstalen (sleep met boomkor of plankennet) verzameld, die aan boord worden verwerkt door leerlingen van het middelbaar onderwijs.

In the framework of the Lifewatch marine observatory a number of fixed stations in the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS) are visited on a monthly or seasonal basis using RV Simon Stevin. A grid of nine stations covers the coastal zone and are sampled monthly. Eight additional stations, located further at sea, are sampled on a seasonal basis. Samples are taken using a 55µm mesh size Apstein net and fixed in Lugol's iodine solution. In the lab, the samples are processed using a VS-4 FlowCAM model at 4X magnification, size range imaged is 55-300µm. The identification of the image data is done with the use of a classifier and followed by a manual validation step. Since May 2017, this dataset provides micro- and phytoplankton observations, mainly covering diatoms, dinoflagellates and cilliates, for the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS).

Phytoplankton data collected in the framework of Jerico-NEXT JRAP 1. Data were collected using different methods and sensors (fluoroprobe, flow cytometer, phytopam, FRRF).

Data collected by the Joint Research Activity Project on phytoplankton biodiversity (JRAP1)

As part of the Belgian LifeWatch observatory, a permanent Cetacean passive acoustic network is established in the Belgian Part of the North Sea. The sensor network uses C-PODs (Chelonia Limited) to register the presence of harbour porpoise (<i>Phocoena phocoena</i>) in the neighbourhood. Click trains of harbour porpoises are detected and classified using the CPOD software and high and moderate quality click trains are selected. The dataset is published yearly aggregated per hour. In related datasets, described below, aggregated data per minute is available.

<p>Cruise 21-870 is part of the regular LifeWatch campaigns covering the Belgian Economic Exclusive Zone within the scope of the Flemish contribution to LifeWatch.eu. The dataset covers the two day cruise held from 23 to 25 November 2021 and includes all navigation, meteorological and surface hydrography parameters.</p><p>The data were not calibrated against independent measures but was quality controlled for the presence of outliers, anomalous and impossible values. Data are made available at a 1minute resolution, following the international conventions agreed for this type of data.</p>

SeaWatch-B dataset voor de periode juni 2014 tem juni 2018.

The European Ocean Biodiversity Information System (EurOBIS) is a distributed system that allows you to search multiple datasets simultaneously for biogeographic information on marine organisms.

<p>The Thornton measuring buoy is part of the oceanographic component of ICOS Belgium (The Integrated Carbon Observation System), it carries sensors for both LifeWatch and ICOS. Management is organized as part of ICOS, an established and landmark European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) delivering high quality observations of greenhouse gases in all environmental domains.&nbsp;</p><p>The buoy collects data at approximately 30 minutes frequency and is regularly maintained and calibrated by VLIZ. This dataset includes the 2018 CTD data. Sensors were calibrated pre and post deployment and the analysis of the data alongside the calibrations suggest that no data corrections were needed.&nbsp;</p>

The IMERS database was set up at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in response to the growing need of a general repository that could store the data resulting from sampling campaigns in a uniform way. The database has been designed for storing measurement data based on sampling of water, sediment, suspended matter and biota. The measurement data, the so-called readings, are stored together with a maximum of information on the actual sampling event that lay at the basis of the measurement.