Dataset was collated from surveys in the west side of Vavvaru Island, Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives. The data were collected as a series of triplicate 25 m x 2 m transecs parallel to shore, at three locations on the reef flat: near (70 m from the shore), mid (140 m from the shore) and far (210 m from the shore). All locations were at similar depths of 1 m. This took place during March 2015. Along each transect the number and size of all coralliths and total number of non-free living individuals were recorded, alongside with several environmental parameters (Water Temperature, Photosynthetically Available Radiation (PAR), Total Alkalinity, Dissolved Inorganic Carbon and Dissolved Oxygen). Abundance and size of coralliths was recorded through non-invasive techniques and the environmental parameters were obtained through multiple instruments: Fluorometer, Oxygen sensor, spectrophotometry, Titration and a PAR logger. The aim was to examine whether corals have the capacity to create their own stable habitat through 'free-living stabilisation'. The work was supported by an Independent Research Fellowship from NERC to Sebastian Hennige (NE/K009028/1; NE/K009028/2), an Independent Research Fellowship from the Marine Alliance for Science & Technology for Scotland to Heidi Burnett, an Independent Research Fellowship from the Royal Society of Edinburgh / Scottish Government (RSE 48701/1) and NERC (NE/H010025) to Nick Kamenos, a Gilchrist Fieldwork Award to Heidi Burnett, Sebastian Hennige and Nick Kamenos by the Gilchrist Educational Trust, administered by the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), and a Research Incentive Grant from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland to Heidi Burnett, Sebastian Hennige and Nick Kamenos (grant # 70013). Field sampling was under permission from the Maldives Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture ((OTHR) 30-D/lNDIV/2015).

These seabed and sea surface light data were collected in the Bay of Brest, Brittany, France, in 2011-2012. R.V. Albert Lucas and smaller vessels were used for deployment and recovery of the seabed light sensor instrumentation. Corresponding time series records of seabed and sea surface irradiance were collected. Water depth above, and water temperature at the position of the sensor were also recorded. The data were collected as part of a project studying the effect of tidal variations in water depth and clarity on the light that reaches the seabed (Roberts et al., 2014; Roberts, 2015). They were collected by Bangor University scientists (primarily E.M. Roberts), assisted by contacts at the Centre d'Etudes Techniques Maritimes et Fluviales (CETMEF, now Cerema) and the Institut Universitaire Europeen de al Mer (IUEM).

This dataset consists of observations from two autonomous underwater gliders deployed by the University of East Anglia, UK and Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. The two Seagliders, Humpback serial number SG579 and Orca serial number SG510, collected data to investigate physical-biological interactions in the water column. The gliders were deployed in the Gulf of Oman approximately 10 km from Muscat, at the 120 m isobath. Both gliders repeatedly surveyed a 76 km section across the shelf, continental slope and open ocean between 24°15’ N, 59° E and 23°39.5’ N, 58°39’ E. Humpback, SG579 obtained 1,424 vertical profiles over a 91 day period (4 March 2015 to 3 June 2015), repeating the section 24 times. Orca, SG510 obtained 1,646 vertical profiles over a 109 day period (9 December 2015 to 27 March 2016), repeating the section 28 times. The glider data were processed using the UEA Seaglider Toolbox and standard techniques were used for calibration of the data. The data are held at BODC as a series of netCDF, .eng and .log files alongside a .mat file containing all processed data.

Five ocean gliders were deployed during cruise SSD-024 as part of the Bay of Bengal Boundary Layer Experiment (BoBBLE), a collaborative project between India and the UK, funded jointly by Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India, and Natural Environmental Research Council, UK, through the “Drivers of Variability in the South Asian Monsoon” programme. The major objective of this project is to understand the east-west contrast in the upper layer characteristics of the southern Bay of Bengal and its interaction with the summer monsoon. The major observational objectives of SSD-024 were to profile the hydrography along 8°N in international waters and to carry out a 10-day time series at 8°N, 89°E. 14 scientists from India and 8 from the UK made up the scientific contingent of SSD-024. Five Seagliders were successfully deployed in the southern Bay of Bengal from ORV Sindhu Sadhana during the BoBBLE cruise. These autonomous underwater vehicles fly in a continuous repeating sawtooth pattern from the surface down to a maximum depth of 1000 m. They are all equipped with conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensors. Additional sensors include dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll fluorescence and backscatter, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and microstructure sensors. Three Seagliders (including one microstructure enabled glider) are from the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK glider facility. The remaining two Seagliders are from the Marine Autonomous Robotics Systems (MARS) national UK facility. All five Seagliders were deployed and piloted by UEA and associated personnel.

This dataset comprises 68 hydrographic data profiles, collected by a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensor package, during May - June 2005 along the Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT), a distance of almost 13,500 km, from the Falkland Islands to the UK. A complete list of all data parameters are described by the SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary (PDV) keywords assigned in this metadata record. The data were collected by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory as part of the Atlantic Meridional Transect (Phase2) programme.

This dataset comprises 89 hydrographic data profiles, collected by a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensor package, during October - November 2010 along the Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) from the UK to Punta Arenas, Chile. A complete list of all data parameters are described by the SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary (PDV) keywords assigned in this metadata record. The data were collected by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory as part of the Atlantic Meridional Transect (Phase 3) programme.

This dataset comprises 100 hydrographic data profiles, collected by a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensor package, during October - November 2008 along the Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT), a distance of almost 13,500 km, from the UK to the Falkland Islands. A complete list of all data parameters are described by the SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary (PDV) keywords assigned in this metadata record. The data were collected by the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton as part of the Atlantic Meridional Transect (Phase 3) programme.

The Changing Arctic Ocean (CAO) oceanographic dataset comprises data collected in the Arctic Ocean, including the Barents Sea and Fram Strait, as part of the Changing Arctic Ocean programme. The data were collected over multiple research cruises starting in June 2017. The majority of these cruises were conducted during the Arctic summer on board the RRS James Clark Ross, with further winter cruises completed in collaboration with the Nansen Legacy project on board the RV Helmer Hanssen. Shipboard data collection included the deployment of conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) packages, ocean seagliders, mulitcorers, grabs, nets, trawls, and a shelf underwater camera system. The CAO programme aims to understand the changes in Arctic marine ecosystem in a quantifiable way, enabling computer models to help predict the consequences of these changes on, for example; surface ocean productivity; species distributions; food webs; and ecosystems, and the services they provide (ecosystem services). It was initially a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded programme comprising four projects: Arctic PRIZE (Arctic productivity in the seasonal ice zone), led by Finlo Cottier (Scottish Association for Marine Science - SAMS); ARISE (Can we detect changes in Arctic ecosystems?), led by Claire Mahaffey (University of Liverpool); ChAOS (The Changing Arctic Ocean Seafloor), led by Christian Maerz (University of Leeds) and DIAPOD (Mechanistic understanding of the role of diatoms in the success of the Arctic Calanus complex and implications for a warmer Arctic), led by David Pond (University of Stirling). Additional projects were added to the programme in July 2018 through funding provided by NERC and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The majority of data are held by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) but a proportion of the data, primarily biological, are stored at the British Antarctic Survey Polar Data Centre (polardatacentre@bas.ac.uk) and any BMBF funded data are held by Pangaea (https://www.pangaea.de/).

This cross-disciplinary project resulted in a diverse data catalogue. This includes meteorology (2-D wind speed and direction, total irradiance, Photosynthetically Active Radiation/PAR, air temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity); atmospheric composition (chemical analyses of aerosol particle composition) and biological, chemical and physical properties and processes in the photic zone (optical properties of the water column; chlorophyll concentration; photosynthetic pigment composition; primary production; bacterial production; phytoplankton and bacterial speciation; concentrations of biogenic trace compounds such as iodocarbons, methyl bromide, dimethyl sulphide/DMS and dimethyl sulphoniopropionate/DMSP; trace gas production; plankton community composition; nutrient concentration; concentrations of trace metals such as iron; salinity; temperature; Dissolved Organic Matter - particulate carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus; phytoplankton growth rates, grazing mortality and viral lysis; ammonium regeneration, nitrification and nitrogen fixation; gross production, net community production and dark community respiration; zooplankton ecology). The fieldwork included two dedicated research cruises in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean, spanning the period April - May 2004. Measurements of nutrient cycling and biological activity were monitored prior to and after deployment (IN stations) of patches fertilised with iron and phosphate relative to several (OUT stations) controls. Measurements were taken using a variety of instrumentation, including conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) profilers with attached auxiliary sensors and acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), while incubation chambers were used for shipboard experiments. Samples were collected with Niskin bottles attached to the CTD frame at different depths in the water column and samples analysed onboard or preserved for analysis back in the laboratory. The FeeP data set was intended to advance understanding of how the supply and mutual interactions between iron and phosphate control biological activity and fluxes in the subtropical North Atlantic. The study led by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) united marine scientists from institutions across the UK and international collaborators. It was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council. The data are held at the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) and have been incorporated into the National Oceanographic Database (NODB).

This dataset comprises measurements of primary productivity, nutrient, optics and water column structure data (including turbulence information) collected from the Celtic Sea and nearby shelf-edge during 25 July to 14 August 2003 and 15 July to 06 August 2005. Compatible, high-resolution vertical profiles of physical, chemical, and biological parameters were obtained. These were collected by deployments of a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensor package, a Fast Light Yo-yo (FLY) turbulence profiler and SeaSoar profiler sections, thus allowing quantification of vertical fluxes and primary production on tidal and internal wave time scales. During the CTD profiles, water samples were taken and analysed for nutrients, chlorophyll, primary productivity, sediment concentration, coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM), trace metal concentrations, dissolved oxygen and salinity. Optical profiles were also taken during 2005 using two radiometers; a Biospherical Instruments PRR-600 and a Satlantic MicroPro. In addition, acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) moorings were deployed around the Celtic Sea to measure current and temperature profiles. The main aim was to investigate the generation and dissipation of turbulence in the thermocline, and to quantify how the resulting mixing (supplying nutrients and controlling the light experienced by the algae) affects the growth of phytoplankton within the sub-surface chlorophyll maximum. The data were collected by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (now the National Oceanography Centre) and by Bangor University. Data management was provided by the British Oceanographic Data Centre.