Layer does not contain time values

Topographical wave exposure indices allow objective assessment of the degree of wave action at coastal sites. We present a grid-based method for rapidly calculating indices at fine spatial resolutions along whole coastlines, and evaluate the power of candidate indices in predicting composition of rocky shore communities. The method has 3 stages: (1) a grid is created from a vector-based digital coastline using geographical information systems (GIS) software; (2) for every coastal cell, wave fetch is determined as the distance to the nearest land cell in 16 angular sectors, using coarse-, medium- and fine-resolution searches of the surrounding cells up to a distance of 200 km; (3) wind energy (average wind speed and proportional occurrence) in each sector is calculated for nearby coastal sites. We calculated the average fetch in each sector (F) and the sum of products of fetch and wind energy (W). A total of 57 species were surveyed at 185 sites in west Scotland for determination of trends with wave indices. Average wave fetch with a 200 m scale grid explained >50% of the variation in the first principal component of the species-sites abundance matrix, with shore extent explaining another 10%. Incorporating wind data in the indices had a negligible effect on predictive power. Species diversity explained 61% of the variance in the second principal component and declined from low to high pelagic primary productivity. Separating direct physical effects from biological effects, such as food supply or grazing could potentially help us better understand the processes structuring biological communities on rocky shores.

For more information see https://www.sams.ac.uk/people/researchers/burrows-professor-michael/

This layer presents a 30-year (1971-2000) temperature climatology for near-bed regions of the NW European shelf seas, with a resolution of 1/6 longitude by 1/10 latitude. The data have been extracted from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) data centre and supplemented by additional records from the World Ocean Data Centre (WODC). From the original data, which are irregularly distributed in space and time, the mean monthly temperature and salinity are calculated, as well as the climatic mean annual cycle. The climatology presented here is an improvement upon all existing climatologies presented in the literature for the NW European shelf; covering a wider area on a finer scale and including the surface and near-bed distribution of both temperature and salinity. Comparison of our data with existing climatologies shows good agreement, with differences occurring where our climatology is an improvement. This climatology, which will prove to be valuable to many users in the marine community will be regularly updated and made available to all users via the ICES data centre.

The Kingfisher Information Service - Offshore Renewable & Cable Awareness project (KIS-ORCA) is a joint initiative between the European Subsea Cables Association (ESCA), Renewable UK and the Kingfisher Information Service of Seafish. KIS-ORCA commenced on 01 January 2012 and supersedes the successful KIS-CA project. KIS-ORCA now includes subsea cables (power and telecommunications) surrounding the UK and, for the first time, UK offshore renewable energy structures, in the form of constructed offshore wind farms.

This layer shows routes of seabed cables for telecommunications and is as zoom restricted. See http://www.kis-orca.eu/ for further details.

Marine Scotland is a Directorate of the Scottish Government and is responsible for the integrated management of Scotland's seas. This dataset shows the location of Marine Scotland laboratories, field stations, fishery offices, and policy teams throughout Scotland. Also includes home ports for marine protection vessels (MPVs) and home base for Marine Scotland aircraft. Building polygons were also added to Open Street Map to be visible on the National Marine Plan Interactive (NMPi) basemap.