G. Radach1), J. Gekeler1), G. Becker2), P. Bot3), P. Castaing4), F. Colijn5), P. Damm1), D. Danielssen6), L. Foyn6),
J. Gamble7), R. Laane3), J.P. Mommaerts8), D. Nehring9), K. Pegler10), W. van Raaphorst11), J. Wilson12)

1) Institut für Meereskunde, Univ. Hamburg, Troplowitzstraße 7, D-22529 Hamburg

2) Bundesanstalt für Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie, Berhard-Nocht-Straße 78, D-20359 Hamburg

3) National Institute for Coastal Marine Management, P.O. Box 20907, NL-The Hague

4) Universitè Bordeaux 1, Departement de Geologie et Oceanographie, U.R.A., C.N.R.S. 197, Avenue de Facultés, F-33405 Talence-Cedex

5) Forschungs- und Technologiezentrum Westküste, Hafentörn, D-25761 Büsum

6) Institute for Marine Research, P.O. Box 1870, N-5024 Bergen-Nordness

7) Sir Allister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, PML, Citadel Hill, GB-Plymouth PL1 2PB

8) Management Unit of the Mathematical Models of the North Sea, Gulledelle 100, B-1200 Brussels

9) Institut für Ostseeforschung, Seestraße 15, D-18191 Rostock-Warnemünde

10) Institut für Biogeochemie und Meereschemie, Bundesstraße 55, D-20146 Hamburg

11) Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P.O. Box 59, NL-1790 AB Den Burg, Texel

12) Environmental Science Unit, Trinity College, IE-Dublin 2
 
 

Abstract

In the NOWESP project historical data from the north-west European shelf were compiled and evaluated to estimate the variability and trends in water movements, concentrations of dissolved and particulate constituents, and the fluxes of the relevant substances across the shelf. As an integral part of the project, the NOWESP Research Data Base was created as a research tool to provide the data and data products which were needed for the analyses within the project. The tasks of the NOWESP Research Data Base group were the acquisition of the relevant data sets, with the intensive support of all partners, the organization of the data sets in the NOWESP Research Data Base, the merging of the specific data sets for ten main state variables used in NOWESP and the provision of data products for the analysis within NOWESP.

The data compiled during NOWESP represent a unique data set for the north-west European shelf. The data set is sufficiently comprehensive to allow for the definition of long time series at about 14 sites in eight areas. It further enables the derivation of mean annual cycles of horizontal distributions of nine main state variables. NOWESP thus provided very valuable data sets for estimating budgets and fluxes across the shelf and in addition important data sets for the forcing and validation of ecological shelf sea models. An overview about the NOWESP data set is given. The organization of the data base is decribed in some detail, and examples of the products obtained for NOWESP are displayed.