Aggregated and Validated Datasets for the European Seas: The Contribution of EMODnet Chemistry

Trace metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean sediments: Concentration ranges as a tool for quality control of large data collections

“…Data available through EMODnet Chemistry were managed according to standard protocols developed within the framework of the European SeaDataNet (SDN) marine data infrastructure, that has implemented consolidated communication standards and tools, common data and metadata models and common file formats (Giorgetti et al, 2020). Consequently, the whole dataset is homogeneous as measured parameters are coded with controlled vocabularies (BODC Parameter Usage Vocabulary terms, P01 vocabulary) and described with standard metadata (with information on cruises, spatial and temporal coordinates, data originators, observing systems, sampling protocols, data access conditions) required for describing geographic information and services (ISO 19115 metadata content standard).…”

“…Pb) but also include information on matrix characteristics and methodological aspects (Supplementary material S4). Consequently, the same substance can be coded by different P01 terms due to heterogeneous sampling and analytical protocols adopted by the different laboratories (Giorgetti et al, 2020). In this study, all data related to Pb, Cd, Cu, Hg, anthracene and benzo[a]pyrene were compared with the proposed concentration ranges, regardless of differences in sediment grain-size class or measurement protocols.…”

“…Large efforts are being conducted at European as well as at Mediterranean scale (e.g. EMODnet 1 , IMAP Info System 2 , INFO-RAC 3 ) to overcome data fragmentation among different laboratories, research institutions and environmental agencies, and to promote easy and open access to marine chemistry data needed to assess environmental status (Giorgetti et al, 2020;Vinci et al, 2017). Coherent data management and quality control become very relevant when environmental status is assessed at regional or sub-regional scale (e.g., for the Mediterranean or the Adriatic Sea), thus requiring the access to data from different sources (Lipizer et al, 2021b;Molina Jack et al, 2020).…”

“…Over the last decades, large efforts have been dedicated to implement and consolidate European data infrastructures (e.g. SeaDataNet 4 , EMODnet 5 , Giorgetti et al, 2020;Míguez et al, 2019) to overcome the fragmentation in data and information availability. However, quality of available data as well as data comparability, particularly in the case of marine contaminants, are still critical issues and procedures for data quality control need to be consolidated.…”

Improving data reliability to support marine pollution assessment according to MSFD Descriptor 8 in the European Seas: the contribution of EMODnet Chemistry

“…In terms of ocean data management, the adoption of the 'findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable' (FAIR) principles (Wilkinson et al, 2016) has led to considerable improvements in data infrastructures and data sharing (Tanhua et al, 2019). Although the use of common metadata sets, common data/ metadata formats, and standard vocabularies aims to guarantee interoperability (Vinci et al, 2017;Giorgetti et al, 2020), pollution data for the marine environment are often incomparable and unsuitable for regional/sub-regional assessments owing to the use of different sampling methods, pre-treatment, analytical techniques, and QA/QC procedures, and/or to limited information on QA/QC (Molina Jack et al, 2020). Lack of information or inadequate QA/ QC can also mean that data quality is compromised.…”