This dataset contains data from a marine multibeam and geophysical survey which took place in June 2011 in the Ardmucknish Bay area on board the BGS survey vessel RV White Ribbon. The survey was carried out by the British Geological Survey (BGS) in collaboration with Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) and National Oceanography Centre (SAMS). QICS (Quantifying and monitoring potential ecosystem impacts of geological carbon storage) was a scientific research project funded by NERC. The purpose was to collect the data necessary to identify a potential directional drilling route from shore to a submerged gas release point. Sea floor bathymetry data were collected using an EM3002D. Sub bottom seismic profiling data were collected using a surface tow boomer. Technical details of the survey are contained in the BGS Report of Survey. Webpage www.bgs.ac.uk/QICS/. NERC Grant. NE/H013962/1.

This dataset contains data from a marine geophysical and multibeam survey which took place in April 2012 in the area of Ardmucknish Bay on board the RV White Ribbon. This was a follow up survey to the previous work carried out in this area in 2011 (2011/4). QICS (Quantifying and monitoring potential ecosystem impacts of geological carbon storage) was a scientific research project funded by NERC; its purpose was to improve the understanding of the sensitivities of the UK marine environment to a potential leak from a carbon capture storage (CCS) system. The aim of the survey was to assess any affect the drilling of the borehole had on the underlying sediments. Sea floor bathymetry data were collected using a Kongsberg EM3002D multibeam system. Sub bottom seismic profiling data were collected using an Applied Acoustics surface tow boomer (STB). Technical details of the survey are contained in the BGS Report of Survey. Webpage www.bgs.ac.uk/QICS/. NERC Grant NE/H013954/1.

QICS (Quantifying and monitoring environmental impacts of geological carbon storage) was a program funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), with support from the Scottish Government (May 2010 - December 2014) with two objectives. Firstly, to assess if any significant environmental impact would arise, if a leak from sub-sea, deep geological storage of carbon dioxide occurred. Secondly, to test and recommend tools and strategies for monitoring for (or assuring the absence of) leakage at the sea floor and in overlying waters. This data set provides a short overview of the novel experimental procedure - a world first leakage simulation in the natural environment and describes the experimental set up, sampling strategy including both temporal and spatial details. The data set consists of a pdf containing a text based project and experimental overview, a table outlining the temporal evolution of the experiment, including site selection, set up, baseline, impact and recovery phases and a diagram outlining the spatial sampling strategy. This data set contains an overview document collated by Plymouth Marine Laboratory. This provides the context for a number of specific related QICS datasets submitted to the UKCCS data archive, covering a range of geological, chemical and ecological information. QICS project website: www.bgs.ac.uk/qics/home.html. Blackford et al., 2014. Detection and impacts of leakage from sub-seafloor deep geological carbon dioxide storage. Nature Climate Change 4, 1011-1016. DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2381. Taylor et al., 2015. A novel sub-seabed CO2 release experiment informing monitoring and impact assessment for geological carbon storage. Int J Greenhouse Gas Control. DOI:10.1016/j.ijggc.2014.09.007.

This dataset contains data from a marine geophysical and multibeam survey took place in June 2012 in the area of Ardmucknish Bay on board the RV White Ribbon. This was a follow up survey to the previous work carried out in this area (2011/4 and 2012/5). QICS (Quantifying and monitoring potential ecosystem impacts of geological carbon storage) was a scientific research project funded by NERC; its purpose was to improve the understanding of the sensitivities of the UK marine environment to a potential leak from a carbon capture storage (CCS) system. Sea floor bathymetry data were collected using a Kongsberg EM3002D multibeam system. Sub bottom seismic profiling data were collected using an Applied Acoustics surface tow boomer (STB). Webpage www.bgs.ac.uk/QICS/. NERC grant NE/H013954/1.

The potential for leakage of CO2 from a storage reservoir into the overlying marine sediments and into the water column and the impacts on benthic ecosystems are major challenges associated with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in subseafloor reservoirs. A field-scale controlled CO2 release experiment was conducted in shallow, unconsolidated marine sediments. Changes were monitored of the chemical composition of the sediments and overlying water column before, during and up to 1 year after the 37-day long CO2 release from May 2012 to May 2013 in Ardmucknish Bay. Meiofaunal samples were collected and meiofauna higher taxa and the nematodes species (where possible) were identified by Plymouth Marine Laboratory. This dataset was collected under the program QICS (Quantifying and monitoring environmental impacts of geological carbon storage) which was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), with support from the Scottish Government. The results are contained in an Excel file. QICS project website: www.bgs.ac.uk/qics/home.html. This data is currently under embargo until publication of the dataset in research article (estimated end of 2015).

This dataset contains data from a marine geophysical survey which took place on 1st October 2014 in the area of Ardmucknish Bay on board the RV White Ribbon. The survey was carried out by the British Geological Survey (BGS). This was a follow up survey to the previous work carried out in this area (Surveys: 2011/4 and 2012/5, 2012/7) to monitor changes in the geometry of gas charged sediments. QICS (Quantifying and monitoring potential ecosystem impacts of geological carbon storage) was a scientific research project funded by NERC; its purpose was to improve the understanding of the sensitivities of the UK marine environment to a potential leak from a carbon capture storage (CCS) system. Sub bottom seismic profiling data were collected using an Applied Acoustics surface tow boomer (STB). Webpage www.bgs.ac.uk/QICS/.

CO2 was injected into shallow unconsolidated marine sediments in Ardmucknish Bay, Oban. 2D seismic reflection data were collected pre-release (15/05/2012), syn-release (17/05/2012, 18/05/2012, 19/052012, 29/05/2012, 30/05/2012, 20/06/2012) and after release stages (23/04/2014 and 24/04/2014) of CO2 help to better understand the spatial and temporal evolution of free gas anomalies within the overburden. The impact of CO2 on sediment acoustic properties, namely seismic reflectivity and attenuation, was also investigated. This dataset was collected by the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) under the program QICS (Quantifying and monitoring environmental impacts of geological carbon storage) which was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), with support from the Scottish Government. The dataset includes segy files, a presentation which summarises the main results and a map showing the spatial extent of the seismic data collected after gas release. QICS project website: http://www.bgs.ac.uk/qics/home.html. Cevatoglu et al., 2015. Gas migration pathways, controlling mechanisms and changes in sediment acoustic properties observed in a controlled sub-seabed CO2 release experiment. Int J Greenhouse Gas Control. DOI:10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.03.005. The post-release data is currently restricted. NERC grant NE/H013873/1

CO2 was injected into shallow unconsolidated marine sediments in Ardmucknish Bay, Oban. 2D seismic reflection data were collected pre-release (15/05/2012), syn-release (17/05/2012, 18/05/2012, 19/052012, 29/05/2012, 30/05/2012, 20/06/2012) and after release stages (23/04/2014 and 24/04/2014) of CO2 help to better understand the spatial and temporal evolution of free gas anomalies within the overburden. The impact of CO2 on sediment acoustic properties, namely seismic reflectivity and attenuation, was also investigated. This dataset was collected by the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) under the program QICS (Quantifying and monitoring environmental impacts of geological carbon storage) which was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), with support from the Scottish Government. The dataset includes segy files, a presentation which summarises the main results and a map showing the spatial extent of the seismic data collected after gas release. QICS project website: http://www.bgs.ac.uk/qics/home.html. Cevatoglu et al., 2015. Gas migration pathways, controlling mechanisms and changes in sediment acoustic properties observed in a controlled sub-seabed CO2 release experiment. Int J Greenhouse Gas Control. DOI:10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.03.005. NERC grant NE/H013873/1

The QICS project (Quantifying and Monitoring Potential Ecosystem Impacts of Geological Carbons Storage) was established to improve our understanding of the potential impacts of CO2 release on the environment and to develop tools and best practice for monitoring sub-seabed CCS reservoirs. To monitor the potential impact of a CO2 leak to surficial benthic megafauna, cages of bivalves (the common mussel Mytilus edulis Linnaeus, 1758 and the king scallop Pecten maximus (Linnaeus, 1758)) were deployed at the gas release site and at a reference site in the QICS experiment - both within Ardmucknish Bay, Oban, Scotland. Replicate individuals were sampled at six time points over a 125-day period, which spanned both the 37-day injection and recovery phases of the experiment, in order to establish impacts to molecular physiology. Samples of bivalves were also simultaneously sampled from a reference site within the bay in order to contrast changes in physiology induced by the gas release with naturally variability in the physiological performance of both species. There was no evidence of gene regulation of either selected carbonic anhydrases (CAx genes) or the alpha subunit of sodium potassium ATPAses (ATP1A genes) in individual bivalves collected from the CO2 gas release site, in either species. In the common mussel Mytilus edulis there was only evidence for changes with time in the expression of genes coding for different classes of carbonic anhydrase. It was concluded that the effects of the plume of elevated pCO2 on ion-regulatory gene transcription were negligible in both species. Pratt et al. 2015. No evidence for impacts to the molecular ecophysiology of ion or CO2 regulation in tissues of selected surface-dwelling bivalves in the vicinity of a sub-seabed CO2 release. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control. DOI:10.1016/j.ijggc.2014.10.001. QICS project website: www.bgs.ac.uk/qics/home.html.

PROJECT DETAILS ONLY - NO DATA. Tuberculosis (TB) is a reemerging infection that was also common in the past in Britain. Poverty, drug resistance, the HIV, and migration are key factors in its occurrence today. The disease can be caused by any one of five related bacteria known as the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. In Britain the two most likely candidates are Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis. M. bovis can infect many different animals, including cows, and humans were often infected by drinking milk, which is why it is pasteurised in Britain. Today, most TB infections occur in the lungs, because it is transmitted via coughing, but other parts of the body can also be infected, especially if the disease is caught by eating or drinking infected foods. If left untreated the infection can cause damage to different bones in the body, most commonly the spine, ribs, hips and knees. Archaeologists have used this information to study TB in the past, but visual examination of skeletons does not reveal which bacterium has caused the infection, nor which strain of either species is present. We would like to be able identify species and strains because this would enable us to trace the origin of TB in Britain. We think TB came to Britain from the Mediterranean region but to confirm this idea we would have to compare the particular strain present in early British skeletons with that in bones from southern Europe. Similarly, we believe that there were changes in the frequencies of different strains of Mycobacterium over time, and these changes were possibly influenced by factors such as immigration, changes in population density, and changes in the environment. There are also interesting questions about the evolution of TB in the New World after contact with Europeans. All of these questions could be addressed if we could identify the particular strains of Mycobacterium in skeletons from different places and different time periods. Until recently, this was impossible, but now there are techniques for studying the small amounts of 'ancient' DNA that are preserved in some archaeological skeletons. We will therefore extract ancient DNA from a variety of skeletons that show the bone changes associated with TB, and use DNA sequencing to determine which Mycobacterium strain is present in each case. The proposed project will carry out this work with skeletons from Britain and Europe. Our Project Partners in Arizona State University are doing similar work with bones from North America, and by comparing our two sets of results we will be able to study the impact that Contact had on TB in the New World.