The Scottish Coastal Observatory 1997-2013, parts 1-3

Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Vol 7 No 26

This report is comprised of three parts: Part 1- Executive Summary, Part 2 –Description of Scotland’s Coastal Monitoring Sites, Part 3 - Appendices. MSS has been monitoring the physics, chemistry and biology at multiple sites in Scotland’s Coastal Waters since 1997. Parameters measured include temperature, salinity, nutrients, carbonate chemistry, algal toxins and plankton. The data from this monitoring programme provided a thorough description of the seasonality of these parameters and the variation that can occur from year to year. It is also generating the baseline information to allow the Scottish Government to investigate the impacts of anthropogenic drivers such as climate change in coastal environments. Time series of data such as this are very rare and interest is this data set is growing at a national and international level. Requests to MSS to access the data to perform assessments, support project proposals and studentships are increasing. In order place this programme into the context of the global development of coastal observatories, it has been renamed the Scottish Coastal Observatory (SCObs). One of the first tasks of SCObs was to produce a basic description of the seasonality and variability of the main parameters collected; temperature, salinity, nutrients, carbonate chemistry, phytoplankton, chlorophyll, algal toxins and zooplankton. This description comprises a three part report: The Scottish Coastal Observatory 1997-2013 all available to download from the Scottish Government Website. An accompanying data set which contains all the monthly mean values for the 135 environmental parameters and 68 supporting parameters described in Part 2 has been given a doi number 10.7489/1761-1 and can be accessed remotely or by emailing Scobs@gov.scot.