Understanding the dynamics of species interactions for food (prey-predator, competition for resources) and the functioning of trophic networks (dependence on trophic pathways, food chain flows, etc.) has become a thriving ecological research field in recent decades. This empirical knowledge is then used to develop population and ecosystem modelling approaches to support ecosystem-based management. The TrophicCS data set offers spatialized trophic information on a large spatial scale (the entire Celtic Sea continental shelf and upper slope) for a wide range of species. It combines ingested prey (gut content analysis) and a more integrated indicator of food sources (stable isotope analysis). A total of 1337 samples of large epifaunal invertebrates (bivalve mollusks and decapod crustaceans), zooplankton, fish and cephalopods, corresponding to 114 species, were collected and analyzed for stable isotope analysis of their carbon and nitrogen content. Sample size varied between taxa (from 1 to 52), with an average of 11.72 individuals sampled per species, and water depths ranged from 57 to 516 m. The gut contents of 1026 fish belonging to ten commercially important species: black anglerfish (Lophius budegassa), white anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius), blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou), cod (Gadus morhua), haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), hake (Merluccius merluccius), megrim (Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis), plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), sole (Solea solea) and whiting (Merlangius merlangus) were analyzed. The stomach content data set contains the occurrence of prey in stomach, identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible. To consider potential ontogenetic diet changes, a large size range was sampled. The TrophicCS data set was used to improve understanding of trophic relationships and ecosystem functioning in the Celtic Sea. When you use the data in your publication, we request that you cite this data paper. If you use the present data set (TrophicCS) for the majority of the data analyzed in your study, you may wish to consider inviting at least one author of the core team of this data paper to become a collaborator /coauthor of your paper.

French intertidal and subtidal Macroalgae taxa data are collected during monitoring surveys on the English Channel / Bay of Biscay coasts.  Protocols are implemented in the Water Framework Directive. Data are transmitted in a Seadatanet format (CDI + ODV) to EMODnet Biology european database. 131 ODV files have been generated from period 01/01/2006 to 31/12/2021.

In recent years, large datasets of in situ marine carbonate system parameters (partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2), total alkalinity, dissolved inorganic carbon and pH) have been collated. These carbonate system datasets have highly variable data density in both space and time, especially in the case of pCO2, which is routinely measured at high frequency using underway measuring systems. This variation in data density can create biases when the data are used, for example for algorithm assessment, favouring datasets or regions with high data density. A common way to overcome data density issues is to bin the data into cells of equal latitude and longitude extent. This leads to bins with spatial areas that are latitude and projection dependent (eg become smaller and more elongated as the poles are approached). Additionally, as bin boundaries are defined without reference to the spatial distribution of the data or to geographical features, data clusters may be divided sub-optimally (eg a bin covering a region with a strong gradient). To overcome these problems and to provide a tool for matching in situ data with satellite, model and climatological data, which often have very different spatiotemporal scales both from the in situ data and from each other, a methodology has been created to group in situ data into ‘regions of interest’, spatiotemporal cylinders consisting of circles on the Earth’s surface extending over a period of time. These regions of interest are optimally adjusted to contain as many in situ measurements as possible. All in situ measurements of the same parameter contained in a region of interest are collated, including estimated uncertainties and regional summary statistics. The same grouping is done for each of the other datasets, producing a dataset of matchups. About 35 million in situ datapoints were then matched with data from five satellite sources and five model and re-analysis datasets to produce a global matchup dataset of carbonate system data, consisting of 287,000 regions of interest spanning 54 years from 1957 to 2020. Each region of interest is 100 km in diameter and 10 days in duration. An example application, the reparameterisation of a global total alkalinity algorithm, is shown. This matchup dataset can be updated as and when in situ and other datasets are updated, and similar datasets at finer spatiotemporal scale can be constructed, for example to enable regional studies. This dataset was funded by ESA Satellite Oceanographic Datasets for Acidification (OceanSODA) project which aims at developing the use of satellite Earth Observation for studying and monitoring marine carbonate chemistry.

This dataset consists of metatranscriptomic sequencing reads corresponding to coastal micro-eukaryote communities sampled in Western Europe in 2018 and 2019.

The Level 4 merged microwave wind product is a complete set of hourly global 10-m wind maps on a 0.25x0.25 degree latitude-longitude grid, spanning 1 Jan 2010 through the end of 2020. The product combines background neutral equivalent wind fields from ERA5, daily surface current fields from CMEMS, and stress equivalent winds obtained from several microwave passive and active sensors to produce hourly surface current relative stress equivalent wind analyses. The satellite winds include those from recently launched L-band passive sensors capable of measuring extreme winds in tropical cyclones, with little or no degradation from precipitation. All satellite winds used in the analyses have been recalibrated using a large set of collocated satellite-SFMR wind data in storm-centric coordinates. To maximize the use of the satellite microwave data, winds within a 24-hour window centered on the analysis time have been incorporated into each analysis. To accomodate the large time window, satellite wind speeds are transformed into deviations from ERA5 background wind speeds interpolated to the measurement times, and then an optical flow-based morphing technique is applied to these wind speed increments to propagate them from measurement to analysis time. These morphed wind speed increments are then added to the background wind speed at the analysis time to yield a set of total wind speeds fields for each sensor at the analysis time. These individual sensor wind speed fields are then combined with the background 10-m wind direction to yield vorticity and divergence fields for the individual sensor winds. From these, merged vorticity and divergence fields are computed as a weighted average of the individual vorticity and divergence fields. The final vector wind field is then obtained directly from these merged vorticity and divergence fields. Note that one consequence of producing the analyses in terms of vorticity and divergence is that there are no discontinuities in the wind speed fields at the (morphed) swath edges. There are two important points to be noted: the background ERA5 wind speed fields have been rescaled to be globally consistent with the recalibrated AMSR2 wind speeds. This rescaling involves a large increase in the ERA5 background winds beyond about 17 m/s. For example, an ERA5 10 m wind speed of 30 m/s is transformed into a wind speed of 41 m/s, and a wind speed of 34 m/s is transformed into a wind speed of about 48 m/s. Besides the current version of the product is calibrated for use within tropical cyclones and is not appropriate for use elsewhere. This dataset was produced in the frame of ESA MAXSS project. The primary objective of the ESA Marine Atmosphere eXtreme Satellite Synergy (MAXSS) project is to provide guidance and innovative methodologies to maximize the synergetic use of available Earth Observation data (satellite, in situ) to improve understanding about the multi-scale dynamical characteristics of extreme air-sea interaction.

Reef-building species are recognized as having an important ecological role and as generally enhancing the diversity of benthic organisms in marine habitats.  However, although these ecosystem engineers have a facilitating role for some species, they may exclude or compete with others. The honeycomb worm Sabellaria alveolata (Linnaeus, 1767) is an important foundation species, commonly found from northwest Ireland to northern Mauritania (Curd et al., 2020), whose reef structures increase the physical complexity of the marine benthos, supporting high levels of biodiversity. Local patterns and regional differences in taxonomic and functional diversity were examined in honeycomb worm reefs from ten sites along the northeastern Atlantic to explore variation in diversity across biogeographic regions and the potential effects of environmental drivers. To characterize the functional diversity at each site, a biological trait analysis (BTA) was conducted (Statzner et al., 1994). Here we present the functional trait database used for the benthic macrofauna found to live in association with honeycomb worm reefs. Eight biological traits (divided into 32 modalities) were selected (Table 1), providing information linked to the ecological functions performed by the associated macrofauna. The selected traits provide information on: (i) resource use and availability (by the trophic group of species, e.g. Thrush et al. 2006); (ii) secondary production and the amount of energy and organic matter (OM) produced based on the life cycle of the organisms (including longevity, maximum size and mode of reproduction, e.g. (Cusson and Bourget, 2005; Thrush et al., 2006) and; (iii) the behavior of the species in general [i.e. how these species occupy the environment and contribute to biogeochemical fluxes through habitat, movement, and bioturbation activity at different bathymetric levels, e.g. (Solan et al., 2004; Thrush et al., 2006; Queirós et al., 2013). Species were scored for each trait modality based on their affinity using a fuzzy coding approach (Chevenet et al., 1994), where multiple modalities can be attributed to a species if appropriate, and allowed for the incorporation of intraspecific variability in trait expression. The information concerning polychaetes was derived primarily from Fauchald et al (1979) and Jumars et al (2015). Information on other taxonomic groups was obtained either from databases of biological traits (www.marlin.ac.uk/biotic) or publications (Naylor, 1972; King, 1974; Caine, 1977; Lincoln, 1979; Holdich and Jones, 1983; Smaldon et al., 1993; Ingle, 1996; San Martín, 2003; Southward, 2008; Gil, 2011; Leblanc et al., 2011; Rumbold et al., 2012; San Martín and Worsfold, 2015; Jones et al., 2018). Map indicating the locations of the 10 study sites in the UK, France and Portugal within the four biogeographic provinces defined by Dinter (2001). (All sites were sampled in 8 different stations, except for UK4 where 5 stations were sampled).

Wave impact is the primary cause of coastal structure failure. While wave impact is widely studied in controlled environments, in situ measurements of wave impact pressure are rare. The results of a campaign to measure wave impact pressure in situ are summarised here. Data were collected from 2016 to 2019 from anchored pressure gauges on the wall of the Artha breakwater in southwestern France. The acquisition frequency is 10 kHz and 10-minute bursts are recorded every hour. Two databases are published, one by burst and one by impact. The burst database summarises the main parameters describing the 10-minute record, while the impact database contains a list of parameters describing each impact.

The Mediterranean Sea is generally described as an oligotrophic area where primary productivity is limited to a few coastal environments with nutrient-enriched fluvial input. However, several studies have revealed that the hydrology of the western Mediterranean has major seasonal productive patterns linked either to significant riverine input or to seasonal upwelling cells. This study aims to: i) discuss organic microfossils (i.e. pollen and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages, as well as other non-pollen palynomorphs) from two different productive areas of the western Mediterranean Sea, and ii) examine the importance of the interconnections between marine and continental influences responsible for modern palynomorph distributions. Based on 25 samples from the Gulf of Lion (GoL) and Algerian Margin, this study key findings are: i) that GoL marine productivity is driven by the combination of discharges from the Rhône River and seasonal upwelling mechanisms, ii) that the strong productive pattern of the northern African coast is driven by water density front mixings and related upwellings. These two patterns are discussed in the light of major links that provide a better understanding of the signatures of marine and continental bio-indicators. The dinocyst Lingulodinium machaerophorum can be considered as a tracer of Rhône River plume influence in the GoL. Brigantedinium taxa are shown to be upwelling-sensitive in both studied areas. Typical differences in vegetation across the north–south climate gradient in the western Mediterranean Basin are highlighted by the larger ratio of Euro-Siberian to Mediterranean pollen taxa in the northern sector. Synoptic maps also illustrate the complex interactions of environmental drivers determining the distributions of continental and marine palynomorphs in the western Mediterranean Sea.

Phenotypic plasticity, the ability of a single genotype to produce multiple phenotypes, is important for survival when species are faced with novel conditions. Theory predicts that range-edge populations will have greater phenotypic plasticity than core populations, but empirical examples from the wild are rare. The honeycomb worm, Sabellaria alveolata (L.), constructs the largest biogenic reefs in Europe, which support high biodiversity and numerous ecological functions. In order to assess the presence, causes and consequences of intraspecific variation in developmental plasticity and thermal adaptation in the honeycomb worm, we carried out common-garden experiments using the larvae of individuals sampled from along a latitudinal gradient covering the entire range of the species. We exposed larvae to three temperature treatments and measured phenotypic traits throughout development. We found phenotypic plasticity in larval growth rate but local adaptation in terms of larval period. The northern and southern range-edge populations of S. alveolata showed phenotypic plasticity for growth rate: growth rate increased as temperature treatment increased. In contrast, the core range populations showed no evidence of phenotypic plasticity. We present a rare case of range-edge plasticity at both the northern and southern range limit of species, likely caused by evolution of phenotypic plasticity during range expansion and its maintenance in highly heterogeneous environments. This dataset presents the raw image data collected for larval stages of Sabellaria alveolata from 5 populations across Europe and Northern Africa, exposed to 15, 20 and 25 C. Included are also opercular crown measurements used to estimate de size classes of individuals present in each population.  All measurements made with the images collected are presented in an Excel spreadsheet, also available here.

Particularly suited to the purpose of measuring the sensitivity of benthic communities to trawling, a trawl disturbance indicator (de Juan and Demestre, 2012, de Juan et al. 2009) was proposed based on benthic species biological traits to evaluate the sensibility of mega- and epifaunal community to fishing pressure known to have a physical impact on the seafloor (such as dredging and bottom trawling). The selected biological traits were chosen as they determine vulnerability to trawling: mobility, fragility, position on substrata, average size and feeding mode that can easily be related to the fragility, recoverability and vulnerability ecological concepts. The five categories retained are functional traits that were selected based on the knowledge of the response of benthic taxa to trawling disturbance (de Juan et al., 2009). They reflect respectively the possibility to avoid direct gear impact, to benefit from trawling for feeding, to escape gear, to get caught by the net and to resist trawling/dredging action, each of these characteristics being either advantageous or sensitive to trawling. To expand this approach to that proposed by Certain et al. (2015), the protection status of certain species was also indicated. To enable quantitative analysis, a score was assigned to each category: from low sensitivity (0) to high sensitivity (3). Biological traits of species have been defined, from the BIOTIC database (MARLIN, 2014) and from information given by Garcia (2010), Le Pape et al. (2007) and Brind’Amour et al. (2009). For missing traits, additional information from literature has been considered. The protection status of each taxa was also scored: Atlantic species listed in OSPAR List of Threatened and/or Declining Species and Habitats (https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/bdc/species-habitats/list-of-threatened-declining-species-habitats) and Mediterranean species listed in Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (FAO, 2018 and Oceana, 2017) were scored 3 and other species were scored 1. The scores of 1085 taxa commonly found in bottom trawl by-catch in the southern North Sea, English Channel and north-western Mediterranean were described.