Phyto plankton Abundance: Identify the 3 most abundant phytoplankton species in the North Atlantic and calculate a timeseries of their abundance within the basin.

The challenge attempts to collect discards data for the North Atlantic sea basin (i.e. north of the equator, excluding Caribe, Baltic, North Sea and Artic) and to compute: mass and number of discards by species and year, including fish, mammals, reptiles and seabirds. Data are presented in an Excel's spreadsheet.

The impact of fishing on benthic habitats has previously been investigated however; a conclusive classification of potentially sensitive habitats per gear type does not exist. Currently only qualitative estimates of fishery impact using Broad-scale habitat maps are possible. Here a sensitivity matrix using both fishing pressure (fishing Intensity) and habitat sensitivity is employed to define habitat disturbance categories. The predominant fishing activities associated with physical abrasion of the seafloor area are from bottom contacting towed fishing gear. The swept area of the aforementioned gear in contact with the seabed is generally considered a function of gear width, vessel speed and fishing effort (ICES. 2015). The varying characteristics of fishing gear, their interaction with the sea floor and species being targeted; provide scope for differing interactions with subsurface (infaunal) and surface (epifaunal) dwelling communities. An evaluation of the abrasion pressure and habitat sensitivity split into surface and subsurface pressure allows greater insight to the ecological effects. Fishing intensity was calculated annually and based on the area of sea floor being swept (or swept area ratio SAR) by gear type. Calculations are based on SAR’s of gear types per area, per year. Fishing pressure ranks and habitat sensitivity ranks obtained from WGSFD working group (01 WGSFD - Report of the Working Group on Spatial Fisheries Data 2015) can be incorporated within a GIS environment to existing ICES fisheries data to provide habitat disturbance maps (fishing pressure maps+ habitat sensitivity maps) ICES. 2015. Report of the Working Group on Spatial Fisheries Data (WGSFD), 8–12 June 2015, ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen, Denmark. ICES CM 2015/SSGEPI:18. 150 pp.

This product is a map of the uncertainty of available digital bathymetry measurements for the North Atlantic Ocean. This is done for a spatial resolution feasible for this large area (25km x 25km). It is designed to assess the quality of the bathymetry readings with a view to supporting assessments of future need. The product is formulated through a number of characteristics of the data including age of measurement and slope.

Temporal series (annual mean values) with error of estimation and Long Term Average (LTA) with error of estimation of total nitrogen load for each river mouth where in situ data is available. Different sources can be mixed if any.

Annual resolution time-series of the annual averaged basin average-SST. Calculate the annual average SST on a 1degree grid and then find the area weighted average.

We took inspiration from a “Matrix of marine activities” (appropriate for each IUCN management category) extracted from IUCN paper, to achieve the first objective by computing 1 product comprising the following 12 components: Product ATLANTIC_CH02_Product_1 / MPA Atlantic network classified in IUCN classification • Traditional fishing area • Sustainable fishing area (industrial) • Leisure fishing area • Leisure activity area (diving, surfing, tourist beaches) • Shipping area (shipping trajectory, aids navigation) • Scientific activity area • Renewable energy generation facility area (ocean energy facilities, wind farms) • Aquaculture area (finfish production, shellfish production) • Shipping infrastructure area (harbours, dredging area...) • Waste discharge area • Mining area (aggregate extraction, hydrocarbon extraction) • Habitation area (urban area) Each geographic information required for the components was compiled into a layer in grid format. These grids were intersected with the MPAs layer to assign each MPA a IUCN category according to the conditional matrix illustrated below : If the MPA area contains : Habitation area (urban area) The IUCN category is :V If the MPA area contains : Mining area (aggregate extraction, hydrocarbon extraction) The IUCN category is V If the MPA area contains : Waste discharge area The IUCN category is : V If the MPA area contains : Shipping infrastructure area (harbours, dredging area...) The IUCN category is IV If the MPA area contains : Aquaculture area (finfish production, shellfish production) The IUCN category is IV If the MPA area contains : Renewable energy generation facility area (ocean energy facilities, wind farms) The IUCN category is IV If the MPA area contains : Leisure fishing area The IUCN category is IV If the MPA area contains : Sustainable fishing area (industrial) The IUCN category is IV If the MPA area contains : Shipping area (shipping trajectory, aids navigation) The IUCN category is II If the MPA area contains : Leisure activity area (diving, surfing, tourist beaches) The IUCN category is Ib If the MPA area contains : Traditional fishing area The IUCN category is Ib If the MPA area contains : Scientific activity area The IUCN category is Ia

Annual time series of salmon escapement (2009-2014): • Time series of atlantic salmon escapement • Location and Long Term Average (LTA) of atlantic salmon escapement per Management Unit, that could be a river, basin district, a region or a whole country.

Temporal series (annual mean values) and Long Term Average (LTA) of sediment load for each river mouth where in situ data is available. Different sources can be mixed if any.

Maps of seasonal p90 (percentile 90) of Chla on the North Atlantic basin for the past ten years (2005-2014) using the Global Copernicus chla level 4 (L4) products (resolution of 4 km). Method as Gohin Francis, Saulquin Bertrand, Bryere Philippe (2010) Atlas de la Température, de la concentration en Chlorophylle et de la Turbidité de surface du plateau continental français et de ses abords de l’Ouest européen. Ifremer. http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00057/16840/