Natural Environment Research Council Designated Data Centres
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The CreamT project converted the prototype WireWall wave overtopping field measurement system into a ruggedised monitoring system between August 2020 and August 2023. The system was deployed for up to a year in two high-energy coastal environments along the Southwest coast, UK (Dawlish and Penzance). The system was designed to have a 3-month maintenance interval and was programmed to measure overtopping condition ±3hrs either side of predicted high tide. The wave-by-wave overtopping data were telemetered to the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) every 10 minutes. At the time of the project, the coastal structures at these sites comprised a vertical sea wall with small return lip or curve at the top. Both sea walls were fronted by a beach. During the project period the Dawlish beach levels exposed a concreate toe at the base of the wall. In Penzance, the beach covered the sea wall toe and was higher in the southwest monitoring location. The system was designed at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and had previously been validated in HR Wallingford’s flume facility and field tested with Sefton Council (https://www.channelcoast.org/northwest/). During CreamT, three different system configurations were deployed: full WireWall systems each with an array of six capacitance sensors; smaller WireWand systems with two capacitance sensors mounted on a single pole to detect overtopping at hazard hotspots; and a WaveWell using a single sensor on the face of the sea wall. Six datasets are available from the CreamT project. These contain delayed mode data from: 1) a WireWall deployed at the crest of the sea wall in Dawlish; 2) a WireWand deployed at the wall just seaward of the railway line in Dawlish; 3) a WireWand deployed at the fence just inland of the railway line in Dawlish; 4) a WaveWell deployed on the face of the sea wall in Dawlish; 5) a WireWall deployed at the crest of the sea wall in Penzance near Queen’s Hotel, and; 6) a WireWall deployed at the crest of the sea wall in Penzance near the Lidal store at Wherrytown. The datasets in Dawlish provide information about the inland distribution of overtopping, and the two datasets in Penzance provide information about the alongshore variability in overtopping hazard. These data can be used alongside the regional monitoring data available from the Southwest Regional Monitoring Programme to investigate the drivers of wave overtopping. All these data can be visualised in a hazard dashboard developed by the BODC and hosted on JASMIN, https://coastalhazards.app.noc.ac.uk/. This project was delivered by the National Oceanography Centre in collaboration with BODC and the University of Plymouth under NERC Grant References NE/V002538/1 and NE/V002589/1. Project partners were Network Rail, Southwest Regional Monitoring Programme, Environment Agency and Channel Coastal Observatory.
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This dataset comprises measurements of microbial uptake activities of betaine and choline, particulate phase osmolytes, amplicon sequencing of marker genese involved in Nitrogenous-osmolyte catabolism, and single cell genome data. Water samples were collected from at the L4 station of the Western Channel Observatory between April 27, 2015 to April 24, 2017 using Niskin bottles attached to a rosette sampler deployed from the RV Plymouth Quest. Nitrogenous osmolytes (glycine betaine, choline and trimethylamine N-oxide are essential components for most organisms in the marine environment. They enable cells to exist in a salty environment, but also have several other proposed uses. The aim of the project is to understand the seasonal cycle of glycine betaine, trimethylamine N-oxide and choline at Station L4. The water samples were analysed for the microbial assimilation and dissimilation activities using 14C labelled betaine and choline, respectively. The data will be incorporated to the European Regional Seas Ecosystem Model (ERSEM) coupled with the hydrodynamic model General Ocean Turbulent Model (GOTM) to simulate the N-osmolyte cycling at the L4 station. The data were collected under the project Biogeochemical cycling of N-osmolytes in the surface ocean funded by NERC Discovery Science grants NE/M002233/1 (parent), NE/M003361/1 (child), NE/M002934/1 (child). The grants were led by Dr Yin Chen, Dr Ruth Airs, and Dr Wei Huang respectively.
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This dataset provides yearly estimates of near-global (65N-65S) ocean heat content and thermosteric sea-level depth-integrated for the upper 700 meters of the ocean for 1970 - 2023. The yearly values are presented with three-year smoothing and one-sigma error estimates. The dataset builds upon and updates the methodology established in Domingues et al. (2008, Nature), incorporating temperature measurements from ocean observation systems and applying corrections for instrumental biases and sampling irregularities. To estimate ocean heat content for the upper 700 m and the associated thermosteric sea level, we used ocean temperature profiles from the ENACT/ENSEMBLES version 3 (EN3) data set (1970-2004), and Argo/Ifremer profiling floats (2000-2023, updated January 2024). Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) were used to model variability of the time-varying sea level and were calculated from 23 years (1993–2015) of satellite altimeter data sourced from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), (TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, Jason-2 and Jason-3).
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The dataset comprises chlorophyll-a concentrations from water samples taken during RRS James Clark Ross cruise JR304, from 15/11/2014 - 17/12/2014. The cruise sailed from Punta Arenas, Chile, returning to Stanley, Falkland Islands. Samples were taken during transit to Signy Island (South Orkneys), and then up through the Scotia Sea to BAS survey sites P2 and P3 as well as near South Georgia and in the Western Core Box survey area to the north of the island of South Georgia. 112 samples were collected from the ship’s uncontaminated underway supply, with an intake at approximately 6 m depth, every two hours during transit periods. 103 samples were collected, using a rosette sampler, from the upper 1000m during CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth probe) deployments. Each 300ml sample was filtered through a 0.8μm pore size, 25mm diameter, MPF300 filter, rinsed with milliQ water, placed in an eppendorf tube and stored at -20°C for later analysis. Samples were extracted in 90 % acetone for 22-24 hours at 4°C and measured on a Trilogy Turner Designs 7200 lab fluorometer calibrated with a pure chlorophyll-a standard (Sigma, UK) and set up following the method of Welschmeyer (1994). Data have not been adjusted for blanks. The data set was from the annual Western Core Box Cruise run by British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Data were collected to support the PhD of Anna Belcher and provide seasonal context for the cruise in terms of the primary production in the surface ocean. Chlorophyll samples were taken by Jenny Thomas (BAS), Gabi Stowasser (BAS), Sophie Fielding(BAS), Vicky Peck (BAS), Jess Gardner (University of East Anglia and BAS), Cecilia Liszka (BAS), Manon Duret (National Oceanography Centre, NOC), Anna Belcher (NOC), Anna Mikis (Cardiff University) , Marianne Wootton (Sir Alistair Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science), Sebastien Floter (GEOMAR Kiel). Chlorophyll samples were analysed aboard the R.R.S. James Clark Ross by Manon Duret and Anna Belcher from NOC.
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A collection of raw water temperature-depth-time profiles were recorded from a selection of dive computers, underwater cameras and baseline Castaway microCTD devices. Data were collected at Oban recompression chamber (owned and managed by Tritonia Scientific), as well as during sea dives local to 56.42 N, 5.47W, over a two-week period between 08/01/2020 and 07/02/2020. A number of different devices and models were tested during the study. Chamber dives were undertaken to test and compare device response time (29 devices over 11 dives) and accuracy (6 replicate dives). This was followed by local sea dives to further compare device accuracy. During each pair of sea dives (6 total), half of the devices were mounted on a frame with the remainder worn by two divers. For the subsequent dives in each pair, each device was switched to the alternate mounting position. Dive profiles were exported from individual dive computers into Subsurface open source software, then exported in ssrf (XML) format for each week of data collection. Profiles from all dive computers were combined for analysis. Castaway microCTDs and Paralenz Dive Camera+ profiles were exported as individual CSV files per dive. Data were collected as part of Celia Marlowe’s PhD project at the University of East Anglia, which aimed to assess the precision, accuracy and uncertainty in water temperature profiles collected from devices commonly carried by Scuba divers. The PhD project is part of the Next Generation Unmanned Systems Science (NEXUSS) Centre for Doctoral Training, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) (NE/N012070/1), and is additionally supported by Cefas Seedcorn (DP901D). The diving and chamber tests were supported through a NERC National Facility for Scientific Diving grant (NFSD/17/02).
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This dataset includes two cruises of data collected to investigate Arctic hydrate dissociation as a consequence of climate change and to determine vulnerable methane reservoir and gas escape mechanisms. Work during both JR269A and JR269B was focused on two separate geographical areas. The first of these was west of Prins Karls Forland, in water depths of between 150 and 1200 m. At its landward end, this survey area crosses a region at water depths up to 400 m where a dense concentration of methane escape bubble plumes occur. The second survey area straddles the summit of the Vestnesa Ridge, in water depths of 1180 to 1400 m, and is also the site of methane escape bubble plumes within the water column and of fluid escape chimneys and pockmarks previously imaged at and beneath the sea bed. This area lies approximately 100 km west of the mouth of Kongsfjorden. Data collection took place between August 2011 and July 2012. The research expedition used a deep-towed, very high resolution seismic system to image the small-scale structures that convey gas to the seabed and to detect the presence of gas in the sediments. This was done in conjunction with an electromagnetic exploration system that uses a deep-towed transmitter and receivers on the seabed to derive the variations in electrical resistivity in the sediments beneath the seabed. The observations carried out on the two cruises included; underway, meteorological observations and echo sounder data, multichannel seismic reflection profiling data, wide angle seismic survey data, and ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) data, ocean bottom electro-magnetometer data and controlled source electromagnetic surveys (CSEM). The overall objectives of the project were to determine the spatial distribution of gas and hydrate accumulations beneath the sea bed; to investigate and understand gas transport and escape mechanisms, their spatial distribution, and the controls on these; and to quantify gas and hydrate saturation values in situ within the pore spaces of the shallow sediment reservoirs. The research is focused on specific areas where significant accumulations of methane hydrate and active methane venting through the sea floor were observed and documented during the earlier JR211 cruise in 2008. This is a NERC funded project hosted by University of Southampton. The data held at BODC include multichannel seismic reflection, TOPAS sub-bottom profiler and 2D seismic reflection data in SEG-Y format. No further data are expected.
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A set of underwater noise observations which provide information on noise levels over an 21 year period potentially setting a base line for future environmental monitoring. The data were collected for military operations by RAF Nimrod aircraft using air-deployed sonobuoys. They consist of averaged noise levels, measured in db, at a range of frequencies and depths throughout the UK Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
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The dataset contains 3D wide-angle seismic data from 18 ocean bottom nodes (OBXs) collected during RRS James Cook cruise JC254 in November 2023. The data were acquired at the 1330 Oceanic Core Complex and the Semenov Hydrothermal Field region of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 13°30'N, and were shot in six sequences (SEM4A to SEM4F), along 15 profiles in total. Two GI-guns were used as seismic sources, each with a total volume of 355 cubic inches (250 cu. inch generator, 105 cu. inch injector chamber. The data were recorded at a sampling rate of 2000 Hz, with a shot interval of 20 s at a ship speed of 4 knots, resulting in shot interval of ~30 m, with no stop during profile turns. The data are provided in raw SEGY format, cut into four components (three geophone channels and one hydrophone channel). This dataset was collected to derive a seismic velocity structure of the 13°30'N Oceanic Core Complex (OCC). The aim was to investigate the crustal or mantle lithologies in the 13°30'N OCC and to understand the interplay between tectonic faulting, magmatism, alteration and hydrothermal circulation at the ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal systems along slow-spreading ridges. The data were collected as part of a NERC-funded strategic research project called 'Ultramafic-hosted mineral Resource Assessment (ULTRA)', grant reference NE/S004068/1. The data were processed and interpreted as part of a PhD studentship hosted by the University of Southampton, awarded to Szu-Ying Lai, and funded by Equinor A.S, Norway.
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A set of historical tide gauge sea level records from Santander (Northern Spain) have been recovered from logbooks stored at the Spanish National Geographical Institute (IGN). Sea level measurements have been digitised, quality-controlled and merged into a consistent sea level time series. Vertical references among instruments benchmarks have been derived from high precision vertical levelling surveys. The observations were recorded as daily averages and are from three different instruments in two locations in Santander (Spain). The historical sea level record in Santander consists of a daily time series spanning the period 1876-1924 and it is further connected to the modern tide gauge station nearby, ensuring datum continuity up to the present. The data from Santander comes from a floating gauge and then syphon gauges. This scarcity of long-term sea-level observations, as well as their uneven geographical distribution is a major challenge for climate studies that address, for example, the quantification of mean sea-level rise at centennial time scales, the accurate assessment of sea-level acceleration or the long-term changes in sea-level extremes that are vital for coastal risk assessments. This dataset represents an additional effort of sea-level data archaeology and aims at preserving the historical scientific heritage that has been up to now stored in old archives in non-electronic format. The research was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. A further two series were rescued from Alicante under the same initiative.
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Historical sea level data for the Thames region. These data were originally screened as part of an Environment Agency project on extreme sea level in the Thames estuary. Coryton: 1966-1970, 1973-1974 North Woolwich: 1950, 1955-1963, 1965-1967, 1969-1970, 1973-1974 Southend: 1981-1983 Tilbury: 1931-1945, 1960-1961, 1967, 1970, 1984 Tower Pier: 1928-1942, 1944-1945, 1947-1951, 1954-1955, 1958, 1960-1966, 1973
NERC Data Catalogue Service