Sea bed sediment maps for the 4 marine sub-regions prepared as part of the initial evaluation of the MSFD (Marine Strategy Framework Directive).

ROCCH, the French Chemical Contaminant Monitoring Network,  regularly provides a new official dataset for assessing the chemical quality status of French coastal waters. Concentrations of trace metal elements and organic compounds were measured in samples of marine surface sediments collected in the English Channel and Bay of Biscay, during 3 campaigns over a period of 6 years. Samples of fine sediment material, from 200 to 250 monitoring stations, were freeze-dried and sieved prior to analysis. The Results were submitted to the international database of ICES (for the OSPAR Convention).

Good Environmental Status assessment (GES) for descriptor 8 (contaminants, D8) of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is reached when concentrations of contaminants are at levels not giving rise to pollution effects. It is described by 4 criteria among which the first one focus on the concentration of the contaminants in the environment (criteria 1 of the D8, D8C1). The environmental status for D8 in France includes assessment of contaminant concentrations in sediment, bivalves, fish, birds, mammals to cover the French marine area the continental shelf from the coast line). The 8 tables below present the assessment of the chemical contamination in sediment and bivalves on the coastal area of the 4 French marine subregions for D8 as part of the 2024 GES assessment. These tables report the status and temporal trends of each station x matrice x substance triplet in each of the 4 French marine subregions. Explanation on how to read the cells is given in the “read file”. The environmental assessment for D8 in France can be found in Mauffret al., 2023 (DOI:10.13155/97214). It includes 17 national indicator assessments, 4 OSPAR indicators and integrated assessment in selected assessment units at the level of the criteria 1 and 2. 

This product displays the stations present in EMODnet validated dataset where lead levels have been measured in sediment. EMODnet Chemistry has included the gathering of contaminants data since the beginning of the project in 2009. For the maps for EMODnet Chemistry Phase III, it was requested to plot data per matrix (water,sediment, biota), per biological entity and per chemical substance. The series of relevant map products have been developed according to the criteria D8C1 of the MSFD Directive, specifically focusing on the requirements under the new Commission Decision 2017/848 (17th May 2017). The Commission Decision points to relevant threshold values that are specified in the WFD, as well as relating how these contaminants should be expressed (units and matrix etc.) through the related Directives i.e. Priority substances for Water. EU EQS Directive does not fix any threshold values in sediments. On the contrary Regional Sea Conventions provide some of them, and these values have been taken into account for the development of the visualization products. To produce the maps the following process has been followed: 1. Data collection through SeaDataNet standards (CDI+ODV) 2. Harvesting, harmonization, validation and P01 code decomposition of data 3. SQL query on data sets from point 2 4. Production of map with each point representing at least one record that match the criteria The harmonization of all the data has been the most challenging task considering the heterogeneity of the data sources, sampling protocols. Preliminary processing were necessary to harmonize all the data : • For water: contaminants in the dissolved phase; • For sediment: data on total sediment (regardless of size class) or size class < 2000 μm • For biota: contaminant data will focus on molluscs, on fish (only in the muscle), and on crustaceans • Exclusion of data values equal to 0

This product displays for Fluoranthene, median values since 2012 that have been measured per matrix and are present in EMODnet regional contaminants aggregated datasets, v2024. The median values ranges are derived from the following percentiles: 0-25%, 25-75%, 75-90%, >90%. Only "good data" are used, namely data with Quality Flag=1, 2, 6, Q (SeaDataNet Quality Flag schema). For water, only surface values are used (0-15 m), for sediment and biota data at all depths are used.

This product displays for Nickel, positions with values counts that have been measured per matrix for each year and are present in EMODnet regional contaminants aggregated datasets, v2022. The product displays positions for every available year.

This product displays for Anthracene, positions with values counts that have been measured per matrix and are present in EMODnet regional contaminants aggregated datasets, v2022. The product displays positions for all available years.

This product displays for Anthracene, positions with values counts that have been measured per matrix for each year and are present in EMODnet regional contaminants aggregated datasets, v2024. The product displays positions for every available year.

EMODnet Chemistry aims to provide access to marine chemistry data sets and derived data products concerning eutrophication, ocean acidification and contaminants. The chemicals chosen reflect importance to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This regional aggregated dataset contains all unrestricted EMODnet Chemistry data on contaminants; temperature, salinity and additional sampling parameters are included when available. The spatial coverage is the North East Atlantic Ocean with 2438 CDI records divided per matrices: 126 in biota (as time series), 1704 in water (as vertical profiles) and 608 in sediment (497 Vertical profiles and 111 Time series). For water data, vertical profiles temporal range is from 1974-11-22 to 2013-08-15. For sediment data, vertical profiles temporal range is from 1966-01-01 to 2007-06-30 and time series temporal range is from 1999-06-05 to 2014-10-21. For biota data, time series temporal range is from 1979-02-28 to 2019-03-07. Data were aggregated and quality controlled by ‘IFREMER / IDM / SISMER - Scientific Information Systems for the SEA’ from France. Regional datasets concerning contaminants are automatically harvested. Parameter names in these datasets are based on P01, BODC Parameter Usage Vocabulary, which is available at: https://vocab.seadatanet.org/p01-facet-search. Each measurement value has a quality flag indicator. The resulting data collections for each Sea Basin are harmonised, and the collections are quality controlled by EMODnet Chemistry Regional Leaders using ODV Software and following a common methodology for all Sea Regions. Harmonisation means that: (1) unit conversion is carried out to express contaminant concentrations with a limited set of measurement units (according to EU directives 2013/39/UE; Comm. Dec. EU 2017/848) and (2) merging of variables described by different “local names” ,but corresponding exactly to the same concepts in BODC P01 vocabulary. Detailed documentation is available at: https://doi.org/10.6092/8b52e8d7-dc92-4305-9337-7634a5cae3f4 Explore and extract data at: https://emodnet-chemistry.webodv.awi.de/contaminants%3EAtlantic The harmonised dataset can also be downloaded as ODV spreadsheet (TXT file), which is composed of metadata header followed by tab separated values. This worksheet can be imported to ODV Software for visualisation (More information can be found at: https://www.seadatanet.org/Software/ODV ). The same dataset is offered also as TXT file in a long/vertical format, in which each P01 measurement is a record line. Additionally, there are a series of columns that split P01 terms in subcomponents (measure, substance, CAS number, matrix...).This transposed format is more adapted to worksheet applications users (e.g. LibreOffice Calc). The original datasets can be searched and downloaded from EMODnet Chemistry Chemistry CDI Data and Discovery Access Service: https://emodnet-chemistry.maris.nl/search

This product displays for DDT, DDE, and DDD, median values since 2012 that have been measured per matrix and are present in EMODnet regional contaminants aggregated datasets, v2024. The median values ranges are derived from the following percentiles: 0-25%, 25-75%, 75-90%, >90%. Only "good data" are used, namely data with Quality Flag=1, 2, 6, Q (SeaDataNet Quality Flag schema). For water, only surface values are used (0-15 m), for sediment and biota data at all depths are used.