EMODnet launches Atlas of European Marine Life

19 / 12 / 2018


Innovative data products by and for users
The Atlas of European Marine Life was being made possible through close collaboration between EMODnet Biology (the European Marine Observation and Data Network), LifeWatch Marine, MarineSpecies.org, MarineRegions.org and EurOBIS. The initial 14 data products represent a wide-range of demand-led data products, including:
  • abundance maps and trends for Atlantic Copepods, fish, birds, mammals, zooplankton and phytoplankton species
  • traits-based maps of macrobenthic and fish functional groups
  • an analysis of thermal niches occupied by marine species groups
  • maps showing the occurrence of marine invasive species in European waters
This gallery of products will continue to be added to, as new and novel analyses take place by EMODnet Biology partners and the wider community.

The available data and products are structured around the biological Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) facilitating global interoperability and contributing to the aims of UN Sustainable Development Goal 14, the relevant Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the activities focused around the UN Decade of Ocean Science (2021-2030).

Multiple use of open-source data
EMODnet, aims to centralise the abundance of marine observations in Europe and make them optimally accessible for use by government bodies, scientists and maritime companies, primarily so as to support sustainable economic growth and employment. Since the preparatory phase in 2009, the 22 partners of EMODnet Biology have collaborated to create an unparalleled repository of biological data, underpinned by the EurOBIS data infrastructure.

The collected biological data are since then freely accessible for a wide-range of stakeholders across Europe. In 2017 set out its third and final development phase with the aim of fully developing and making EMOdnet fully operational by 2020. The products available in the Atlas of European Marine Life are the result of two years of focussed activity within Phase 3 of EMODnet Biology.

Since 2013, the EMODnet Secretariat is administered by SeaScape and hosted at the InnovOcean site in Ostend by VLIZ with the support from the Flemish Government.