Landslides and gravitational features mapped within French metropolitan EEZ at 1 : 250 000 in the framework of work-package 6 (Geological Events and Probabilities) of the european project EMODNet Geology. These datasets were delivered during the phase 2 of the project.

Sediment average grain size in the European North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean waters was generated from Euseamap 2023 sediment categories. This rough granulometry estimate may be used for habitat models at meso- and large scale.

Raw seismic reflexion data collected on board of the French oceanographic fleet managed by IFREMER and archived at SISMER.

Process-driven seafloor habitat sensitivity (PDS) has been defined from the method developed by Kostylev and Hannah (2007), which takes into account physical disturbances and food availability as structuring factors for benthic communities. It is a conceptual model, relating species’ life history traits to environmental properties. Physical environment maps have been converted into a map of benthic habitat types, each supporting species communities with specific sensitivity to human pressures. It is based on two axes of selected environmental forces. The "Disturbance" (Dist) axis reflects the magnitude of change (destruction) of habitats (i.e. the stability through time of habitats), only due to natural processes influencing the seabed and which are responsible for the selection of life history traits. The "Scope for Growth" (SfG) axis takes into account environmental stresses inducing a physiological cost to organisms and limiting their growth and reproduction potential. This axis estimates the remaining energy available for growth and reproduction of a species (the energy spent on adapting itself to the environment being already taken into account). It can be related to the metabolic theory of the ecology. The process-driven sensitivity (PDS) can be seen as a risk map that combines the two previous axes and reflects the main ecological characteristics of the benthic habitats regarding natural processes. Areas with low disturbance are areas with a naturally low reworking of the sediment, allowing the establishment of a rich sessile epifauna community, with K-strategy species. Areas with low SfG means that the environmental factors, even though there are not limiting, are in lower values, i.e. that it imposes a cost for species to live. In areas combining low disturbance and low SfG, big suspension-feeder species with long life and slow growth can often be found: these species are more vulnerable in case of added disturbance.

Sediment substrate maps at different scales, of the French metropolitan EEZ produced in the work-package 3 the European project EMODNet Geology (phase IV). Available scales : - 1 : 1 000 000 - 1 : 250 000 - 1 : 100 000 - 1 : 50 000 - 1 : 20 000 - 1 : 15 000 - 1 : 10 000 - 1 : 5 000 Bibliographic references : - Coltman, N., Gilliland, P. & van Heteren, S. 2007. What can I do with my map? In: MESH Guide to Habitat Mapping, MESH Project, 2007, JNCC, Peterborough. Available online at: (http://www.searchmesh.net/default.aspx?page=1900) - Foster-Smith, R., Connor, D. & Davies, J. 2007. What is habitat mapping? In: MESH Guide to Habitat Mapping, MESH Project, 2007, JNCC, Peterborough. Available online at: (http://www.searchmesh.net/default.aspx?page=1900) - Väänänen, T. (ed), Hyvönen, E., Jakonen, M., Kupila, J., Lerrsi, J., Leskinen, J., Liwata, P., Nevalainen, R., Putkinen, S., Virkki, H. 2007. Maaperän yleiskartan tulkinta- ja kartoitusprosessi. Maaperän yleiskartoitus –hankkeen sisäinen raportti. 17 p.

Process-driven seafloor habitat sensitivity (PDS) has been defined from the method developed by Kostylev and Hannah (2007), which takes into account physical disturbances and food availability as structuring factors for benthic communities. It is a conceptual model, relating species’ life history traits to environmental properties. Physical environment maps have been converted into a map of benthic habitat types, each supporting species communities with specific sensitivity to human pressures. It is based on two axes of selected environmental forces. The "Disturbance" (Dist) axis reflects the magnitude of change (destruction) of habitats (i.e. the stability through time of habitats), only due to natural processes influencing the seabed and which are responsible for the selection of life history traits. The "Scope for Growth" (SfG) axis takes into account environmental stresses inducing a physiological cost to organisms and limiting their growth and reproduction potential. This axis estimates the remaining energy available for growth and reproduction of a species (the energy spent on adapting itself to the environment being already taken into account). It can be related to the metabolic theory of the ecology. The process-driven sensitivity (PDS) can be seen as a risk map that combines the two previous axes and reflects the main ecological characteristics of the benthic habitats regarding natural processes. Areas with low disturbance are areas with a naturally low reworking of the sediment, allowing the establishment of a rich sessile epifauna community, with K-strategy species. Areas with low SfG means that the environmental factors, even though there are not limiting, are in lower values, i.e. that it imposes a cost for species to live. In areas combining low disturbance and low SfG, big suspension-feeder species with long life and slow growth can often be found: these species are more vulnerable in case of added disturbance.

Geomorphological analysis of the continental slope of the Mediterranean sea, based on a 100 m Data Terrain Model (DTM). This DTM is a synthesis of data acquired during several surveys. Bibliographic references :

Raw singlebeam echosounder data from the French civil Research vessels, archived at SISMER (IFREMER)

Sediment average grain size in the Mediterranean was generated from sediment categories. This rough granulometry estimate may be used for habitat models at meso- and large scale.

Sediment average grain size in French Mediterranean waters was generated from sediment categories. This rough granulometry estimate may be used for habitat models at meso- and large scale.