European Marine Observation and Data Network | EMODnet

EMODnet Biology has recently released a new document on the EMODnet Biology data flow for Phase IV, that recognises the strong ongoing collaboration with LifeWatch and EurOBIS and EMODnet Biology’s contribution of data management, data product generation and data services to international networks such as OBIS and GBIF.

EMODnet Biology also released an Inventory of possible historical data resources within the consortium as a result of an internal survey for historical datasets that can potentially be used for digitisation through citizen science efforts.

The last EMODnet Biology data harvest of 2021 was finalised in late October and resulted in the addition of 39 new datasets and one update. In total, 100K+ occurrence records were added, raising the number of datasets with online data to 1181. All procedures undertaken by data providers and the data management team were aimed at improving the FAIRness of the (meta)data and allow for these data to be reused for multiple purposes.

This brings the EMODnet Biology occurrence records to 26.5 Million, with 84% of those passing Quality Control checks, originating from 1181 datasets.

EMODnet Chemistry co-organised the latest UN Ocean Decade Laboratory: A Clean Ocean workshop “One Integrated Marine Debris Observing system for a Clean Ocean” on 17-19 November 2021. And work continues at EU level to further consolidate EMODnet Chemistry's role in providing quality-controlled data to tackle high priority issues relating to marine litter pollution in Europe and beyond. In particular, the recently updated EMODnet Chemistry pan-European beach litter database builds upon previous versions and will be used to revise the EU beach litter baselines.

EMODnet Seabed Habitats joined the Scientific Conference on Climate Change in the Caspian Sea Region (27-28 October) to present the challenges of delivery of EMODnet Seabed Habitats broad-scale seabed habitat map (EUSeaMap) in the Caspian Sea.

Phase IV of the EMODnet Seabed Habitats project commenced in September 2021, and will run for 2 years through to 2023. The project aims to build on the existing data products hosted on the EMODnet Seabed Habitats Map Viewer and expand geographical coverage of the project to the Caspian Sea and selected EU territories in the Caribbean.

On 18 November, the EMODnet Secretariat was invited to present at the EC Blue Economy Conference, taking place back-to-back with Sealogy® 2021 in Ferrara, Italy.

The EMODnet presentation took place in the Closing Plenary Session on “Blue knowledge, skills and innovation for a sustainable blue economy” and highlighted the many win-win collaborations that EMODnet already has with the Blue Economy.