The data set contains a variety of physical, chemical and biological parameters. Hydrographic profiles provided temperature, salinity, fluorescence, dissolved oxygen and transmissance measurements, which were supplemented by time series of surface ocean and meteorological properties. Time series of current velocities, temperature and sea level were also collected. Biogeochemical and biological analyses of water samples provided nutrient, phytoplankton and zooplankton data, while production data were derived from incubation experiments. The data were collected at seven stations in the Celtic Sea with varying physical and biological characteristics. Fieldwork was undertaken between 15th and 29th May 2000, with each station being occupied for 24 hours. Data were collected via shipboard deployment of CTD profilers and undulators with accompanying auxiliary sensors, and discrete water sampling. Further data were obtained from three moorings including acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), temperature recorders and bottom pressure recorders that were also deployed and recovered during the study period. Measurements were collected during RRS Discovery cruise D246 as part of the multidisciplinary study of the interactions between physical processes and biological production in contrasting pelagic shelf waters. An additional goal of the study was to map the tidal front situated in the St George's Channel. The study was co-ordinated by Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the research involved 28 scientists and technicians from 14 separate institutions situated in five different countries. Data are managed by the British Oceanographic Data Centre.

The Marine Environment Monitoring and Assessment National database (MERMAN) is a national database which holds and provides access to data collected under the Clean Safe Seas Environmental Monitoring Programme (CSEMP) formerly the National Marine Monitoring Programme (NMMP). The data collected are the responsibility of the Competent Monitoring Authorities (CMAs) who collect the samples from stations in UK waters using water sampling techniques, trawls, nets or grabs. The CMAs then send the collected samples to accredited laboratories where they are analysed. A weighting is calculated, based on the quality of the analysis. The weighting score incorporates the laboratory accreditation, reference material, inter-laboratory comparisons, detection limits, uncertainties and standard deviations. Where data do not meet a threshold score they are given a status of ‘FAIL’ and although they are stored they are not made available to external users. The MERMAN contaminants, nutrients, biological and eutrophication effects in water data start in 1999. Data are submitted by the CMAs annually and an annual submission may include updates to legacy data to provide additional data or improve data/metadata. The data held in MERMAN fulfils the UK's mandatory monitoring requirements under the Oslo and Paris Convention (OSPAR) Joint Assessments and Monitoring Programme (JAMP). These data are used in support of European Commission (EC) directives and national assessments, such as Charting Progress 2 and are also supplied to the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODNET).

The data set comprises hydrographic and biogeochemical and biological measurements including temperature, salinity, currents, chlorophyll, dissolved organic and inorganic carbon and nitrogen, suspended matter concentrations, nutrients, plankton and fish. The results of primary production experiments are also included. The data were collected from the Bristol Channel, Severn Estuary, Celtic Sea and Plymouth Sound between 1971 and 1983. Measurements were taken over a series of more than 100 cruises, many with more than 50 stations. The most intensive sampling took place before 1975. The original data were collated and stored at Institute for Marine Environmental Research (IMER), which became Plymouth Marine Laboratory in 1988. As this is a large and important data set, which was previously held in an inaccessible format, it was selected for long-term archival at BODC as part of the NERC SEEDCORN programme. The data have been extracted, loaded into a relational database and are available on CD-ROM.

The dataset contains physical, biological and chemical oceanographic measurements, and meteorological data. Hydrographic measurements include temperature, salinity, attenuance and backscatter, pH and dissolved oxygen concentrations, while water samples were analysed for concentrations of carbon, nitrogen, hydrocarbons, nutrients and pigments. Samples were also collected for phytoplankton and zooplankton analyses, while results from production experiments are also included in the data set. These oceanographic data are supplemented by surface meteorological measurements. Measurements were taken at sites in the Bellinghausen Sea as part of a 2-ship Eulerian experiment between the 28th of October and the 17th of December 1992. The data were collected via (i) underway sampling (SeaSoar Undulating Oceanographic Recorder (UOR), lightfish, hull-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), meteorology and surface ocean parameters) of which there are 121179 records and (ii) discrete sampling (conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) and expendable bathythermograph (XBT) casts, bottle stations, net hauls, productivity incubations) of which there are over 1000 deployments and experiments. The study aimed to measure the magnitude and variability of carbon and nitrogen fluxes during early summer in the Southern Ocean, with particular emphasis on rates and processes in the marginal ice zone. The data were collected and supplied by UK participants in the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) are responsible for calibrating, processing, quality controlling and documenting the data and assembling the final data set. Underway data are stored as 1 minute interval time series for each cruise with all parameters merged on date/time. The data are fully quality controlled; checks were made for instrument malfunction, fouling, constancy, spikes, spurious values, calibration errors, baseline and salt-water corrections. The discrete data are stored in a relational database (Oracle RDBMS), chiefly as vertical profiles and are uniquely identified by a combination of deployment number and depth.

The dataset comprises physical, biogeochemical and biological measurements from the Southern Ocean. The data were collected in the Bransfield and Gerlache Straits and Bellingshausen Sea between 1995 and 1996. Hydrographic casts provided profiles of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, transmittance, chlorophyll and photosynthetically active radiation, while water samples were analysed for bacteria, zooplankton and a biogeochemical parameters such as nutrient concentrations. Sediment cores were also analysed for nutrients, while drifting traps provided sedimentation flux measurements and shipboard experiments yielded production data. The majority of measurements were collected during two consecutive cruises of the BIO Hesperides between early December 1995 and early February 1996. The hydrographic profiles were collected using a CTD and the data were stored as approximately 300 individual ASCII files per cruise, with data stored at 1dbar resolution. Several hundred discrete measurements (water samples and sediment cores) were collected in total. An array of moorings deployed for one year in the Western Bransfield Strait Basin provided sediment trap samples for biological and biogeochemical analysis. The FRUELA project was part of the Spanish contribution to the study of biogeochemical carbon fluxes in the Southern Ocean. Three major zones, with contrasting physico-chemical and biological characteristics were considered: Bellingshausen, including the Northwest Bellingshausen Sea and comprising the southern boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (SbyACC); Bransfield, including the Western Bransfield Strait and the northeastern part of the Gerlache Strait; and Gerlache, including the rest of the Gerlache Strait. The research involved a number of Spanish institutions and was coordinated by the University of Oviedo and the Institute of Marine Sciences (CSIC). The data are held by the British Oceanographic Data Centre.

The Ocean Surface Mixing, Ocean Sub-mesoscale Interaction Study (OSMOSIS) data set contains a variety of oceanographic measurements including a year long time series of the properties of the ocean surface boundary layer and its controlling 3D physical processes. The core observations include measurements of temperature, salinity, nutrients, currents and shear harvested from a suite of instrumentation including CTDs, ocean gliders, drifter buoys and moored sensors. OSMOSIS data were collected during three cruises. The first cruise undertook preliminary exploratory work in the Clyde Sea (September 2011) to hone techniques and strategies. The following cruises carried out mooring deployments and recovery in the vicinity of the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) observatory (in late Summer 2012 and 2013 respectively). Additional opportunist ship time being factored in to support the ambitious glider operations associated with OSMOSIS. This multiple year study will combine traditional observational techniques, such as moorings and CTDs, with the latest autonomous sampling technologies (including ocean gliders), capable of delivering near real-time scientific measurements through the water column. The OSMOSIS data set will contain high-resolution vertical measurements, which will shed light on the complex turbulent processes that drive the deepening of the OSBL and similarly the sub-mesoscale processes promoting OSBL re-stratification. Continuous mooring and glider measurements over a complete annual cycle will also provide invaluable insight into how the OSBL evolves over time. The NERC OSMOSIS Consortium brings together scientists from various UK research centres including the University of Southampton School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Reading, Bangor and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC).

The programme involved two major fieldwork activities: a deep ocean research cruise and a programme of freshwater studies. The marine component of the dataset generated a total of 430 distinct variables, quantifying the meteorology, hydrography, chemistry, biogeochemistry, and the microbial plankton (bacteria, phytoplankton and microzooplankton) biomass, taxonomic composition along the 5500 km cruise track in the Indian Ocean during August-September 2001. Measurements were mainly made on water samples collected either from the sea surface while the ship was underway or from a range of depths during conductivity-temperatue-depth (CTD) and water sampling stations at each of 11 sites occupied in the Indian Ocean. The maximum depth sampled at open ocean sites ranged from 300 to 3000 m. Short sections of 300 m deep CTD and fluorescence profiles were also obtained using a moving vessel profiler (MVP). The freshwater component of the dataset generated variables from Priest Pot in the Lake District and from a range of other freshwater sites around the UK. It contains underpinning weekly time-series measurements characterising the physical, chemical and biological condition of the water column at the Priest Pot sampling site between 2002-2004, together with data from studies focused on the seasonal and spatial dynamics of viruses, bacteria and picophytoplankton, trace metal distribution and the ubiquity of microbial protists. The database also contains 376 gene sequences from genetic material extracted from environmental samples. The programme was a 5-year Thematic Programme funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the purpose of the study was to improve understanding of aquatic microbial biodiversity, with the emphasis on community interactions, ecosystem function (e.g. biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nutrients, and the potential for biotechnological exploitation. The programme involved scientists from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, the National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Cardiff School of Biosciences, University of Cardiff School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Warwick School of Biological Sciences, University of Newcastle School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Bristol School of Biological Sciences, University of Oxford Department of Zoology, University of Liverpool School of Biological Sciences, University of Stirling School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, the Marine Biological Association of the UK, Lancaster University Department of Environmental Science and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) Lancaster and Dorset.

The data set comprises hydrographic, biogeochemical and biological data, including measurements of temperature, salinity and attenuance, plus concentrations of parameters such as nutrients, pigments, urea, hydrocarbons, sedimentation flux, sulphur and dissolved carbon. Analyses of bacterial, zooplankton and phytoplankton communities were also undertaken. The oceanographic data were supplemented by measurements of surface meteorological parameters. Data were collected across three repeated sections: one along the Gulf of Oman; a section at 67deg East from 8 to 14.5deg North; and a major section from 8deg North, 67 deg East to the coast of Oman. Other one-off sections were also traversed in the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman areas. Measurements were collected during two cruises: one between 27 August and the 4 October 1994 and the other between the 16 November and the 19 December 1994. Sections were covered by underway surface ocean measurements (one minute sampling of multiple parameters providing some 5 million measurements) complemented by a total of 21 CTD/water-bottle stations, 14 of which were repeated. ARABESQUE was organised by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory of NERC's Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences and involved the University of Wales, Bangor; Queen's University of Belfast; University of East Anglia; University of Edinburgh; University of Newcastle; the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada; the Max Planck Institute for Limnology, Germany and the Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. Data management support for the project was provided by the British Oceanographic Data Centre. All data collected as part of the project were lodged with BODC who had responsibility for assembling, calibrating, quality controlling and fully documenting the data. BODC checked for instrument spikes or malfunction, values beyond the calibration range, unreasonable ratios of chemical constituents and unreasonable deviations from climatological means. Data were assembled into a relational database, complete with supporting documentation and a user manual. The full data set has been published by BODC on CD-ROM complete with user interface.

The dataset comprises a diverse set of physical, chemical and biological data including: bacteria, carbon, chlorophyll, dissolved gases, light levels, nutrients, phytoplankton, productivity, respiration, salinity, temperature, trace elements and zooplankton. Measurements were gathered from the North Atlantic and Norwegian fjord waters between 1971 and 1998. The data arise from three sources: biological and hydrographic data collected between 1971 and 1975 at Ocean Weather Ship (OWS) India in the North Atlantic; conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) casts, water samples, net samples and meteorological data from the four week Bergen Mesocosm experiment at Espegrend Marine Biological Field Station (Norway) in 1995; and the six week RRS Discovery cruise 221 to the North East Atlantic in 1996, where physical, chemical and biological data were collected. The data were collected using a variety of methods including: more than 500 CTD and SeaSoar profiles; nearly 1000 water bottle samples; over 600 net hauls; over 450 Secchi disk deployments; nearly 4000 multisizer samples; 23 production experiments; four drifting buoy tracks and 40 days of weather observations. The PRIME programme aimed to lay the basis for mathematical models to describe the role of plankton in biogeochemical fluxes within the oceans which have implications for climate regulation. The project was hosted by the School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor. Data management was undertaken by the British Oceanographic Data Centre and over 95% of the data collected are now assembled on a CD-ROM. The data are accompanied by an extensive users' guide (covering sampling protocol documentation), the structures used to store the data, and the data interrogation tools.

The dataset comprises physical, biogeochemical and biological measurements of water column properties. Hydrographic profiles of water temperature, salinity, fluorescence, turbidity, attenuance, dissolved oxygen and photosynthetically active radiation were collected, and were supplemented by measurements of surface ocean (temperature, salinity, fluorescence, attenuance) and meteorological (air pressure, air temperature, humidity, wind, irradiance) properties, as well as bathymetry. A comprehensive water sampling program provided biogeochemical data including measurements of dimethyl sulphide (DMS), dimethylsulphionopropionate (DMSP), nutrients, halocarbons, methylamines, pigments, radiogeochemistry and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Biological data were also collected, including samples of viruses, bacteria, phytoplankton, micro- and mesozooplankton. Currents throughout the water column were measured both at fixed locations and across the study area, while Lagrangian experiments provided further current data. The datqa were collected in the northern North Sea between 5th June 1999 and 1st July 1999 during RRS Discovery cruise D241. Hydrographic profiles were collected using a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) package with attached auxiliary sensors, an undulating oceanographic recorder (UOR), a vessel-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), moored ADCP and temperature sensors, and a suite of standard underway hydrographic and meteorological sensors. Water samples for biogeochemical and biological analyses were collected from both the underway system and CTD bottles, while nets were deployed to collect zooplankton samples. Plankton samples were supplemented by respiration experiments conducted during the cruise. The Lagrangian current data were gathered from four drifters and a tracer experiment where the distribution of sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) released from the ship was monitored via water samples collected from the CTD and the underway system. A survey of the region was carried out in order to locate an Emiliania huxleyi bloom suitable for the study and the chosen bloom was labelled with the SF6 tracer. The biogeochemical process study followed the patch as it drifted in a SE direction and was eventually subducted under Norweigian coastal water on 26 June. The study aimed to investigate DMS biogeochemistry within a coccolithophore bloom. The research was organised by NERC's Plymouth Marine Laboratory and involved the University of East Anglia, Scottish Association for Marine Science, Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Defence Research Agency, and Southampton Oceanography Centre. Data management support for the project is provided by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC). The dataset is available on CD-ROM and can be requested from BODC.