The cross-disciplinary themes will result in a diverse data catalogue. The ship collected data will be in the form of sea surface meteorology (2-D wind speed and direction, total irradiance, Photosynthetically Active Radiation/PAR, air temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity); atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2); biological, chemical and physical properties and processes in the marine photic zone (carbonate chemistry - pCO2, total alkalinity, pH, DIC; dissolved gases - oxygen; nutrient concentrations, ammonium regeneration, nitrification, nitrogen fixation, zooplankon ecology, chlorophyll concentration, photosynthetic pigment composition, bacterial production, phytoplankton and bacterial speciation, concentrations of biogenic trace compounds such as dimethyl sulphide/DMS and dimthylsulphoniopropionate/DMSP, salinity, temperature, zooplankon ecology) and bioassays of these same parameters under different future IPCC CO2 and temperature scenarios. The long-term (18 month) laboratory based mesocosm experiments will include data on individual organism response (growth, immune response, reproductive fitness) under different future IPCC CO2 and temperature scenarios in rocky intertidal, soft sediment and calcareous biogenic habitats, as well as the effects on commercially important species of fish and shellfish. The analysis of sediment cores will provide greater resolution of the paleo record during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Data will be used to aid the parameterisation of coastal and continental shelf seas (Northern Europe and the Arctic) model runs as well as larger scale global models. The shipboard fieldwork will take place around the UK, in the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean. The mesocosms will look at temperate marine species common to UK shelf seas. Sediment cores have been collected from Tanzania. The models will look from the coastal seas of Northern Europe to the whole globe. Data to be generated will include data collected at sea, short-term (2-3 day) ship-board bioassays, from long-term (18 month) laboratory based mesocosm experiments and reconstructed paleo records from sediment cores. The 5 year UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme is the UK’s response to growing concerns over ocean acidification. Aims: 1 - to reduce uncertainties in predictions of carbonate chemistry changes and their effects on marine biogeochemistry, ecosystems and other components of the Earth System; 2 - to understand the responses to ocean acidification, and other climate change related stressors, by marine organisms, biodiversity and ecosystems and to improve understanding of their resistance or susceptibility to acidification; 3 - to provide data and effective advice to policy makers and managers of marine bioresources on the potential size and timescale of risks, to allow for development of appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies. The study unites over 100 marine scientists from 27 institutions across the UK. It is jointly funded by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

The Christchurch Harbour Macronutrients Project is one of four consortium projects funded by the NERC through the Macronutrient Cycles Programme. The overall goal of the Macronutrients Programme is to quantify the scales (magnitude and spatial/temporal variation) of Nitrogen and Phosphorus fluxes and the nature of transformations through the catchment under a changing climate and a perturbed Carbon cycle. ‘The catchment’ is defined as covering exchanges between the atmospheric, terrestrial and aqueous environments, with the limit of the aqueous environment being marked by the seaward estuarine margin. The aim of the consortium research project is to better understand the behaviour of macronutrients over a range of temporal and spatial scales including the effect of storm events in the Hampshire Avon and Stour rivers and Christchurch Harbour estuary in Dorset. Data collection spans from October 2012 to January 2017. The Christchurch Harbour Macronutrients Project intensively monitored the river inputs and exchange of nutrients at the estuary mouth as well as looking at sediment re-suspension and the role of phytoplankton in macronutrient cycling within the estuary. By using a number of state of the art continuous monitoring techniques and modelling approaches, the scientists produced an accurate assessment of the impact of nutrients entering the estuary during short term storm increased flows in the two rivers. Previously, most water quality monitoring in rivers and estuaries has taken place at fixed times that are spaced too far apart to capture storms when they occur. This is the first project in the UK to intensively monitor water quality in estuaries using sensors and weather prediction technology to anticipate a storm. The Project PI is Duncan Purdie (Ocean and Earth Sciences, NOC).

The dataset contains hydrographic and biogeochemical data, including continuous underway measurements of surface temperature, salinity, nutrients, chlorophyll and attenuance, irradiance and bathymetric depth. Underway dissolved oxygen and/or trace metal measurements were also collected on occasion. Hydrographic profiles of temperature, salinity, transmittance, fluorescence, dissolved oxygen (data often of poor quality) and scalar irradiance were undertaken, and associated water samples were routinely analysed for suspended particulate material (SPM), chlorophyll, nutrients and particulate organic carbon/particulate organic nitrogen (POC/PON). In addition, dissolved and particulate trace metals, production, contaminants, dissolved organic carbon/total dissolved nitrogen (DOC/TDN) were determined in some cases. Benthic measurements were also collected, including benthic flux determinations (microcosm experiments), sediment characterisation, pore water chemistry measurements and the quantification of the benthic macrofauna. The coastal oceanographic data set was collected along the east coast of England between Great Yarmouth and Berwick upon Tweed. Data were collected between December 1992 and July 1995 during a series of 17 RRS Challenger cruise legs. Most cruises covered two survey grids: one from Great Yarmouth to the Humber designed around the distribution of the sandbanks and a second simple zig-zag grid from the Humber to Berwick on Tweed. A large number of anchor stations, usually over one or two tidal cycles, were worked in the vicinity of the Humber mouth or the Holderness coast. Each cruise leg returned underway data and conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) data and water bottle rosette samples from grid nodes. A Lasentech in-situ particle sizer was used to obtain grain size distributions at spot depths for each CTD station on many of the cruise legs. Box and multicorer samples were collected on approximately one third of the cruise legs. The River-Atmosphere-Coast Study (RACS) was the component of the Land Ocean Interaction Study (LOIS) programme looking at processes from the river catchment into the coastal sea. Investigators include representatives of Plymouth University, Southampton University, Liverpool University, University of East Anglia, Newcastle University, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and the University of Wales, Bangor. All data sets collected during the RACS Challenger cruises are held by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC). All underway and CTD data have been fully calibrated and quality controlled by BODC. The water sample and benthic data sets have been quality controlled by the data originators and submitted to BODC. The data are held in the BODC project database and have been published as part of a fully documented CD-ROM product.