IOWAGA sea-states hindcast database generated by the wave model WAVEWATCH-III and forced by ECMWF winds on the Mediterranean grid over 2005-2017 period.

Wind analyses, estimated over the North Atlantic Ocean with a focus on some specific regions, are one the main ARCWIND (http://www.arcwind.eu/) project deliverables. They are estimated from various remotely sensed wind observations in combination with numerical model (WRF), with regular space (0.25deg in latitude and longitude), and time (00h:00, 06h:00, 12h:00, 18h:00 UTC), and based the method described in (Bentamy A., A. Mouche, A. Grouazel, A. Moujane, M. A. Ahmed. (2019): Using sentinel-1A SAR wind retrievals for enhancing scatterometer and radiometer regional wind analyses . International Journal Of Remote Sensing , 40(3), 1120-1147 . https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2018.1524174).

IOWAGA sea-states hindcast database generated by the wave model WAVEWATCH-III and forced by ECMWF winds on the North mediterranean grid over 2004-2017 period.

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.

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.

IOWAGA sea-states hindcast database generated by the wave model WAVEWATCH-III and forced by ECMWF winds on the North East Atlantic grid over 1990-2012 period.

IOWAGA sea-states hindcast database generated by the wave model WAVEWATCH-III and forced by ECMWF winds on the French coast of the Atlantic ocean unstructured grid over 2008-2018 period.