EMODnet Chemistry aims to provide access to marine chemistry data sets and derived data products concerning eutrophication, ocean acidification and contaminants. The chemicals chosen reflect importance to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This regional aggregated dataset contains all unrestricted EMODnet Chemistry data on contaminants (24 parameters), and covers the Mediterranean Sea with 4517 CDI records divided per matrices: 520 biota profiles, 560 water profiles, 3437 sediment (26 Vertical profiles and 3411 Time series). In the water dataset, the vertical profiles temporal range is from 1974-09-12 to 2015-09-14. In sediment dataset, vertical profiles temporal range is from 2010-08-02 to 2014-09-28 and time series temporal range is from 1981-06-27 to 2018-08-02. In biota time series temporal range is from 1979-03-29 to 2017-03-15. Data were aggregated and quality controlled by ‘Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Hellenic National Oceanographic Data Centre (HCMR/HNODC)’ from Greece.

Regional datasets concerning contaminants are automatically harvested. Parameter names in these datasets are based on P01, BODC Parameter Usage Vocabulary, which is available at: http://seadatanet.maris2.nl/bandit/browse_step.php . Each measurement value has a quality flag indicator. The resulting data collections for each Sea Basin are harmonised, and the collections are quality controlled by EMODnet Chemistry Regional Leaders using ODV Software and following a common methodology for all Sea Regions.

Harmonisation means that: (1) unit conversion is carried out to express contaminant concentrations with a limited set of measurement units (according to EU directives 2013/39/UE; Comm. Dec. EU 2017/848) and (2) merging of variables described by different “local names” ,but corresponding exactly to the same concepts in BODC P01 vocabulary.

The harmonised dataset can be downloaded as ODV spreadsheet (TXT file), which is composed of metadata header followed by tab separated values. This worksheet can be imported to ODV Software for visualisation (More information can be found at: https://www.seadatanet.org/Software/ODV ).

The same dataset is offered also as XLSX file in a long/vertical format, in which each P01 measurement is a record line. Additionally, there are a series of columns that split P01 terms in subcomponents (measure, substance, CAS number, matrix...).This transposed format is more adapted to worksheet applications users (e.g. LibreOffice Calc).

The 24 parameter names in this metadata record are based on P02, SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary, which is available at: http://seadatanet.maris2.nl/v_bodc_vocab_v2/vocab_relations.asp?lib=P02 .

Detailed documentation will be published soon.

The original datasets can be searched and downloaded from EMODnet Chemistry Download Service: https://emodnet-chemistry.maris.nl/search