Marine Environment Monitoring and Assessment National database (MERMAN) Contaminants and biological effects in sediment -1989 onwards
Data set information
| Query EDMED |
| General | |
| Data holding centre | British Oceanographic Data Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom  |
| Project | Clean and Safe Seas Evidence Group(CSSEG); National Marine Monitoring Program(NMMP) |
| Time period | Ongoing monitoring |
| Ongoing | Yes |
| Geographical area | UK waters |
| Observations | |
| Parameters | Quality control flags; Chlorophyll pigment concentrations in sediment; Sediment grain size parameters; Metal concentrations in sediment pore waters; Concentration of aliphatic hydrocarbons in sediment samples; Concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediment samples; Metadata parameters; Concentration of polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) in sediment samples; Chlorophyll pigment concentrations in water bodies; Concentration of organic matter in sediments; Nitrogen concentrations in sediment |
| Description | |
| Summary | The Marine Environment Monitoring and Assessment National database (MERMAN) is a national database which holds and provides access to data collected under the Clean Safe Seas Environmental Monitoring Programme (CSEMP) formerly the National Marine Monitoring Programme (NMMP). The data collected are the responsibility of the Competent Monitoring Authorities (CMAs) who collect the samples from stations in UK waters using water sampling techniques, trawls, nets or grabs. The CMAs then send the collected samples to accredited laboratories where they are analysed. A weighting is calculated, based on the quality of the analysis. The weighting score incorporates the laboratory accreditation, reference material, inter-laboratory comparisons, detection limits, uncertainties and standard deviations. Where data do not meet a threshold score they are given a status of ‘FAIL’ and although they are stored they are not made available to external users. The MERMAN contaminants and biological effects in sediment data start in 1987 with greater use of the database occurring from 1997 onwards. Data are submitted by the CMAs annually and an annual submission may include updates to legacy data to provide additional data or improve data/metadata. The data held in MERMAN fulfils the UK's mandatory monitoring requirements under the Oslo and Paris Convention (OSPAR) Joint Assessments and Monitoring Programme (JAMP). These data are used in support of European Commission (EC) directives and national assessments, such as Charting Progress 2 and are also supplied to the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODNET). |
| Originators | Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Environment Agency Head Office Marine Scotland Science Natural Resources Wales Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Stirling Office |
| Data web site | http://www.ices.dk/marine-data/data-portals/Pages/DOME.aspx |
| Availability | |
| Organisation | British Oceanographic Data Centre |
| Availability | Licence |
| Contact | James Ayliffe (MERMAN Data Manager) |
| Address | British Oceanographic Data Centre |
| merman@bodc.ac.uk | |
| Administration | |
| Collating centre | British Oceanographic Data Centre |
| Local identifier | 1048MERMAN_CS |
| Global identifier | 6542 |
| Last revised | 2021-04-21 |
