The data set aims to contribute to a better biological characterization of European marine ecosystems. As such it represents probabilities of EUNIS (EUropean Nature Information System) habitat presence at Level 3 for marine habitats including information on sea ice coverage (this corresponds to EUNIS level 2 for terrestrial habitats).

The map combines spatially explicit data on marine bathymetry and sea-bed with non-spatially referenced habitat information of the EUNIS classification. The objective of the data set produced by EEA and its Topic Centre ETC/ULS is to improve the biological description of marine based ecosystem types and their spatial distribution.

The work supports Target 2 Action 5 of the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, established to achieve the Aichi targets of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). It further addresses the MAES process (Mapping and Assessing of Ecosystems and their Services). The data set represents 2 classes of the MAES classification level 3, namely “Marine inlets and transitional waters” and “Marine”.

The dataset comprises the following information:

• Sea region (1 – Arctic, 2 – Atlantic, 3 – Baltic, 4 – Mediterranean, 5 – Black Sea)

• Sea zone (1 – Littoral, 2 – Infralittoral, 3 – Circalittoral, 4 – Offshore circalittoral, 5 – Upper bathyal, 6 – Lower bathyal, 7 – Abyssal,8 - Coastal Lagoons, 9 - Coastal Lagoons)

• Substrate (0 – undetermined substrate, 1 – rock and biogenic, 3 – coarse sediment, 4 – mixed sediment, 5 – sand, 6 – mud)

• Sea ice coverage (0 – no sea ice presence, 1 – seasonal sea ice presence, 2 – perennial sea ice presence)