Although the world has felt very different for lots of us during 2020, the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) and the MEDIN Data Archive Centres have continued working hard throughout lockdown to continue to provide access to UK marine data. The MEDIN core team are available as usual via email to answer any questions you may have. 

The Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) are delighted to present a new animation focused on marine data management. The cartoon follows two marine scientists from different organisations as one seeks to make use of data the other has collected, after seeing the data in a journal. The video complements the famous panda video which many of you will have seen in MEDIN workshops, which amusingly highlights similar issues experienced by medical researchers. The new animation is bespoke to MEDIN and highlights the importance of using marine data standards and archiving data for long-term accessibility with accredited Data Archive Centres (DACs), as well as demonstrating some common pitfalls.

The video is available on youtube and MEDIN encourage you to watch and share the animation to help raise awareness of the benefits of using the standards, tools and workshops that MEDIN provide for free. Special thanks must go to colleagues at the British Oceanographic Data Centre for becoming Alex and Beth! 

Click on the image below to see the full animation.

The Association for Geographic Information (AGI) are showcasing the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) as a case study of the use of UK GEMINI for marine data. Full report available here.

The Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) is a collaborative and open partnership aiming to improve the management of and access to the UK’s valuable marine data and information resources. MEDIN has a web portal, which is fundamental to the commitment MEDIN has to making data accessible. The portal currently provides access to over 220 TB of marine data, originating from more than 400 organisations and includes data collected for a range of scientific, policy, conservation and commercial uses. 

MEDIN built the portal to operate against its own geospatial discovery metadata profile, which ensures all relevant information about a marine dataset is readily available to allow a potential user to make an informed decision about whether it is pertinent. MEDIN maintains this profile, titled the “MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard”, and provides tools to allow users to create the metadata that populates the MEDIN portal.

The MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard was developed against UK GEMINI (hereafter referred to as GEMINI). This geospatial discovery metadata profile, owned by the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) is UK-focussed but complies with European and international standards. This was why it was considered the most suitable basis for MEDIN. While the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard was developed against GEMINI, it is not a duplicate of the GEMINI profile. MEDIN has adjusted the GEMINI profile to make it marine-specific, while continuing to adhere to the rules of GEMINI.

Cefas has recently been granted Associated Data Unit (ADU) status within the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission's (IOC of UNESCO) marine data programme, the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE).

The formal IODE announcement was made at the end of June.
 
IODE promotes the exchange of international marine data and its members are at the forefront of leading data quality, exchange and re-use. Cooperating with IODE and other ADU members will strengthen Cefas’ international work on marine data exchange, enhance knowledge and improve the flows of Cefas data into global databases such as OBIS (biodiversity) and the World Ocean Database (ocean observing and monitoring).  Membership will support enhanced data integration, discoverability, and reuse by those utilising traditional as well as Artificial Intelligence methods.

Initial IODE members were National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODCs) such as the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) in the UK, but to reflect the changing face of international marine data and to acknowledge the active cooperation of organisations like Cefas, IODE established a membership of Associated Data Units (ADU). Cefas now joins 29 other marine organisations worldwide with this status, including Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) and the Marine Biological Association (MBA). 

For further information please contact data.manager@cefas.co.uk

This year, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales have worked together to curate over 12,000 marine invertebrate specimens collected from coastal and offshore waters around Wales by NRW and it’s predecessors. The specimens are made up of invertebrate species that were collected over the past decade during monitoring surveys, mainly from within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

Previously, the specimens were not stored to last long-term and were at risk of becoming damaged. Thanks to this partnership the specimens are now stored and maintained by the museum in a way that will last well into the future. The specimens will be stored in high quality vials and catalogued with a reference of where and when the species were found.

These references will be used to verify the identification of species collected in the future and update species names for past records. This will support our analysis and help keep track of changing marine habitats and invertebrate communities.

Teresa Darbyshire, senior marine curator at Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales, said:

“Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales marine invertebrate collections provide a detailed view of Welsh marine diversity not just by species but often across time and changing habitats and enable us to compare species from Wales with those from elsewhere around the UK and the wider world. Acquiring these monitoring collections will strengthen our representation of Welsh species and we are very pleased to collaborate with Natural Resources Wales to ensure that these specimens are accessible and safeguarded for the future. Should new species be discovered or names change then having these specimens will mean that the original identifications can be verified quickly and easily.”

Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales undertook and managed the project whilst NRW provided support and funding for the work.

The collection was completed in March 2020 and will provide a valuable and readily available resource to the scientific community in Wales and beyond. Natural Resources Wales and the museum encourage users of the collection to make their verified records available as electronic data through Data Archive Centres and the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN).

Our evaluation found that it was possible to compare 57% of post-construction monitoring data to the pre-construction phase, with 46% of studies concluding that no change in fish ecology had taken place and a further 46% deeming that wind farm construction had a positive effect on fish ecology. We noted that, in 46% of studies, the most abundant species didn’t change between pre- and post-construction phases and the most frequently occurring species within wind farms were Whiting, Dab and Thornback Rays.

The evaluation highlighted differences in the collection and presentation of survey data, highlighting that succinct data tables ultimately make data extraction more efficient. Due to seasonal differences (amongst other factors) having the potential to influence species composition, consistencies in survey frequency and timing are needed to enable complete comparisons from pre-construction to post-construction.

We continue to analyse these initial insights and are analysing other types of survey data including benthic, birds and marine mammals. Read more about this in The Crown Estate’s 2019 Offshore Wind Operational Report.

Zoe Pearson, Marine Ecologist, ABPmer

As global energy consumption increases and climate change makes headlines across the world, developing new technologies to harness energy from our oceans to generate electricity is now more important than ever.

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), established in 2003 and based in Orkney, Scotland, is the first and only centre of its kind in the world to provide developers of both wave and tidal energy converters with purpose-built, accredited open-sea testing facilities. 

EMEC, at the forefront of tidal and wave technology development, take data very seriously and realise the operational benefits that come from getting the best out of their investment in Geographic Information System (GIS) and employing a whole business approach to data management.

EMEC recently embarked on a project with marine data experts OceanWise to further improve GIS and data management capabilities. Throughout the project, OceanWise delivered training programmes in data management, QGIS and supported EMEC to convert their existing diverse datasets into a geospatial database. They also linked QGIS to existing data systems and implemented metadata management across the business.