This is a compilation of OSPAR habitat point data for the northeast Atlantic submitted by OSPAR contracting parties. The compilation is coordinated by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee, working with a representative from each of the OSPAR coastal contracting parties. This public dataset does not contain records relating to sensitive species (e.g. Ostrea edulis) in specific areas, or where data are restricted from public release by the owner's use limitations. This version (v2020) was published in July 2021.

The development of the ecosystem approach and models for the management of ocean marine resources requires easy access to standard validated datasets of historical catch data for the main exploited species. They are used to measure the impact of biomass removal by fisheries and to evaluate the models skills, while the use of standard dataset facilitates models inter-comparison. North Atlantic albacore tuna is exploited all year round by longline and in summer and autumn by surface fisheries and fishery statistics compiled by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Catch and effort with geographical coordinates at monthly spatial resolution of 1° or 5° squares were extracted for this species with a careful definition of fisheries and data screening. In total, thirteen fisheries were defined for the period 1956-2010, with fishing gears longline, troll, mid-water trawl and bait fishing. However, the spatialized catch effort data available in ICCAT database represent a fraction of the entire total catch. Length frequencies of catch were also extracted according to the definition of fisheries above for the period 1956-2010 with a quarterly temporal resolution and spatial resolutions varying from 1°x 1° to 10°x 20°. The resolution used to measure the fish also varies with size-bins of 1, 2 or 5 cm (Fork Length). The screening of data allowed detecting inconsistencies with a relatively large number of samples larger than 150 cm while all studies on the growth of albacore suggest that fish rarely grow up over 130 cm. Therefore, a threshold value of 130 cm has been arbitrarily fixed and all length frequency data above this value removed from the original data set.

Please note that the contact information included in the report is superseded by the contact information that can be found in the Responsible Parties field of this metadata.This report is a collation of documents and outputs from a variety of plankton monitoring activities conducted on the west, south and east coasts of South Africa and in various parts of the Southern Ocean (during annual relief voyages to South Africa’s Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research bases) over the past financial year 2017/18. It includes pertinent (plankton-related only) sections of scientific Cruise Reports, CPR tow summaries, contributions to the State of the Oceans and Coasts around South Africa 2017 Report Card, contributions (as oral and poster presentations) to scientific conferences, symposia and workshops, and book chapters and scientific papers submitted to peer reviewed journals in various stages of the publication process.It should be noted that in most cases, the samples of plankton (including bacterio- and phytoplankton and micro-, meso- and macro-zooplankton) collected during the cruises listed remain to a large extent to be analysed so that at best only preliminary data can be presented here. For more details, readers are advised to consult the plankton-related contributions to the State of the Oceans and Coasts around South Africa 2017 Report Card (see Section 5), the relevant Books of Abstracts of the plankton-related presentations made at various conferences and symposia listed in Section 6, and the published scientific literature listed in Section 7 of this and subsequent Annual Plankton Reports.

Particulate Organic Matter data (stable isotope) for the Integrated Ecosystem Programme: Southern Benguela (IEP:SB): May 2017.IEP:SB focuses on the biologically productive, cold waters of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem, which are inherently variable on short time-scales and responsive to changing weather patterms. The research aims to provide relevant, reliable and improved assessment of the ecosystem, in support of its effective management, preservation and conservation, so that South Africans can benefit from a healthy and well-functioning ocean environment. The overarching objective is to enhance understanding in process studies by assessing the importance, timing and magnitude of mechanisms and processes that influence the Southern Benguela ecosystem structure and functioning, including the climate variability.

Excel file containing CPR data from Standard Areas B4,C3,C4,D3,D4,D5,E4,F4 for the plankton Calanus finmarchicus and helgolandicus, total traverse (small) copepods, total large copepods, Phytoplankton Colour Index and Cnidaria (presence denoted by a 1, absence by a zero). All taxa are from 1980, except Cnidaria which are from 2011. Dataset is in the format of sample level data, with each row being a discrete sample, with a sample being 3m3 filtered seawater, and 10nm of tow. For each row, a sample has the following information, starting at column a: Standard area of sample, sample id, latitude (decimal degrees) of sample mid point, longitude (decimal degrees) of sample midpoint, sample midpoint date and local time, year of sample, month of sample, then plankton abundance values (or PCI index or cnidaria presence/absence). All taxa have been looked for during the period this dataset spans, so zero values represent true absence.

Seasonal mean total cumulative upwelling in the Agulhas Bank (33.3-37.5°S;18.5-27°E) shelf region during austral summer, autumn, winter, and spring.

This dataset containing traits of marine fish is based on fish taxa observed during international scientific bottom-trawl surveys regularly conducted in the Northeast Atlantic, Northwest Atlantic and the Northeast Pacific. These scientific surveys target primarily demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish species, but pelagic species are also regularly recorded. The overarching aim of this dataset was to collect information on ecological traits for as many fish taxa as possible and to find area-specific trait values to account for intraspecific variation in traits, especially for widely distributed species. We collected traits for species, genera and families. The majority of trait values were sourced from FishBase (Froese and Pauly, 2019), and have been supplemented with values from the primary literature.

NOAA High-resolution Blended Analysis of Daily SST and Ice. Data is from Sep 1981 and is on a 1/4 deg global grid.

Output of the 2019 EUSeaMap broad-scale predictive model, produced by EMODnet Seabed Habitats and aggregated into the Benthic Broad Habitat Types of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (as defined in the Commission Decision 17 May 2017). The extent of the mapped area includes the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Baltic Sea, and areas of the North Eastern Atlantic extending from the Canary Islands in the south to the Barents Sea in the north. The map was produced using a "top-down" modelling approach using classified habitat descriptors to determine a final output habitat. Habitat descriptors differ per region but include: - Biological zone - Energy class - Oxygen regime - Salinity regime - Seabed substrate - Riverine input Habitat descriptors (excepting Substrate) are calculated using underlying physical data and thresholds derived from statistical analyses or expert judgement on known conditions.

The principal component (PC)-based indices of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are the time series of the leading Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) of SLP anomalies over the Atlantic sector, 20°-80°N, 90°W-40°E. These indices are used to measure the NAO throughout the year, tracking the seasonal movements of the Icelandic low and Azores high. These movements are illustrated in the Figures on this page. Positive values of the NAO index are typically associated with stronger-than-average westerlies over the middle latitudes, more intense weather systems over the North Atlantic and wetter/milder weather over western Europe.