This dataset comprises characteristics of three-spined stickleback fish including length, weight, sex, condition factor (K-factor), cortisol and glucose concentration, RNA:DNA ratio and ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase activity normalised to liver homogenate protein concentration. These data were collected by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology from three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.) captured in the River Ray (south west England) at sites downstream of an urban waste water treatment works (Rodborne WWTW) prior to (2005-2007), and following (2008), remediation of the WWTW effluent with granular activated carbon (GAC) tertiary treatment. During the same period fish were also sampled from neighbouring reference rivers (R. Ock, Childrey Brook). Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/3322cccd-95fe-4cc9-baf8-48cddd03433d

This dataset consists of metal concentrations (aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, titanium and zinc) measured from soils sampled across Great Britain in 2007. The Countryside Survey is a unique study or 'audit' of the natural resources of the UK's countryside. The sample sites are chosen from a stratified random sample, based on a 15 by 15 km grid of GB. Surveys have been carried out in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1998 and 2007 by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, with repeated visits to the majority of squares. The countryside is sampled and surveyed using rigorous scientific methods, allowing us to compare new results with those from previous surveys. In this way we can detect the gradual and subtle changes that occur in the UK's countryside over time. In addition to soil data, habitat areas, vegetation species data, linear habitat data, and freshwater habitat data are also gathered by Countryside Survey Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/826b0829-7ab5-4e22-822f-ee3a137896a9

The overall aim of the UK Surface Ocean / Lower Atmosphere Study (UK SOLAS) is to advance understanding of environmentally significant interactions between the atmosphere and ocean, focusing on material exchanges that involve ocean productivity, atmospheric composition and climate. The knowledge obtained will improve the predictability of climate change and give insights into the distribution and fate of persistent pollutants. The dataset contains biological and chemical measurements such as: major nutrients and trace metal concentrations in aerosol and rain samples, chemical analyses of inorganic micro-nutrients, dissolved and particulate trace metal and carbon analyses, dissolved nitrogen and organic phosphate, biological measurements including phytoplankton pigments, bacteria, picoplankton and larger phytoplankton abundance.

The Airborne Research & Survey Facility (ARSF, formerly Airborne Remote Sensing Facility) is managed by NERC Scientific Services and Programme Management. It provides the UK environmental science community, and other potential users, with the means to obtain remotely-sensed data in support of research, survey and monitoring programmes. The ARSF is a unique service providing environmental researchers, engineers and surveyors with synoptic analogue and digital imagery of high spatial and spectral resolution.The NEODC holds the entire archive of Airborne Thematic Mapper (ATM) and Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) data acquired by the NERC ARSF. High-resolution scanned digital versions of the entire collection of analogue photographs are now also available as well as selected LiDAR-derived elevation and terrain models for selected sites flown using the sensor.

The global radiosonde data contains meteorological values measured at intervals of approximately 2 seconds. The data are reported up to twice daily (at 0000 and 1200 UTC). The data is collected by worldwide observation stations and transmitted within TEMP and PILOT messages. The dataset contains measurements of pressure, temperature, and wind speed and direction.

Data from the Centre National de Recherches Meteorologiques CNRM-CM3 simulations

Data from "The impact of climate change on the North Atlantic and European storm-track and blocking" project was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) RAPID Climate Change Research Programme project (Round 2 - NE/C509115/1 - Duration 14 Mar 2005 - 13 Mar 2008) led by Prof Sir Brian Hoskins of Imperial College London, Grantham Institute for Climate Change, with co-investigators also at the University of Reading. This dataset collection contains Unified Model climate pressure outputs from model run xcpub. Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) was a £20 million, six-year (2001-2007) programme for the Natural Environment Research Council. The programme aimed to improve the ability to quantify the probability and magnitude of future rapid change in climate, with a main (but not exclusive) focus on the role of the Atlantic Ocean's Thermohaline Circulation.

"To what extent was the Little Ice Age a result of a change in the thermohaline circulation?" project. This was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) RAPID Climate Change Research Programme project (Joint International Round - NE/C509507/1 - Duration 1 Aug 2005 - 31 Jul 2008) led by Dr Tim Osborn of the University of East Anglia, with co-investigators at the University of East Anglia and Royal Netherlands Meteorology Institute. The dataset contains radiative forcing model output from the HadCM3 model.

MarQUEST was led by Prof Andrew Watson (UEA), with 15 co-investigators at UEA/BAS, the Universities of Southampton, Essex, and Reading, and from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory. This dataset contains chemical species measurements for 1998-2007 calculated from SeaWiFS/SeaStar Level 3 products. QUEST scientists cooperated in comparing various models, and examining more fundamental (physiological) approaches to understanding the planktonic ecoystem. MarQUEST also developed a module to simulate coastal ecosystems, usable in global ocean biogeochemical simulations. Finally, the project team generated an accurate physical simulation of the North Atlantic guided by data assimilation, into which ecosystem simulations can be embedded. This allows the variation in air-sea fluxes of gases (CO2, oxygen and dimethyl sulphide) from ocean to atmosphere to be quantified for the contemporary period.

"Improving our ability to predict rapid changes in the El Nino Southern Oscillation climatic phenomenon" project, which was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) RAPID Climate Change Research Programme project (Round 1 - NER/T/S/2002/00443 - Duration 1 Jan 2004 - 30 Sep 2007) led by Prof Alexander Tudhope of the University of Edinburgh, with co-investigators at the Scottish Universities Environment Research Centre, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and the University of Reading. This dataset collection contains meteorology and ocean model outputs from FAMOUS model. The objective was to use a combination of palaeoclimate reconstruction from annually-banded corals and the fully coupled HadCM3 atmosphere-ocean general circulation model to develop an understanding of the controls on variability in the strength and frequency of ENSO, and to improve our ability to predict the likelihood of future rapid changes in this important element of the climate system. To achieve this, we targeted three periods:0-2.5 ka: Representative of near-modern climate forcing; revealing the internal variability in the system.6-9 ka: a period of weak or absent ENSO, and different orbital forcing; a test of the model's ability to capture externally-forced change in ENSO.200-2100 AD: by using the palaeo periods to test and optimise model parameterisation, produce a new, improved, prediction of ENSO variability in a warming world. Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) was a £20 million, six-year (2001-2007) programme for the Natural Environment Research Council. The programme aimed to improve the ability to quantify the probability and magnitude of future rapid change in climate, with a main (but not exclusive) focus on the role of the Atlantic Ocean's Thermohaline Circulation.