EMSO ERIC: Advancing Deep-Sea Science with Long-Term Ocean Observations

EMSO ERIC is a research infrastructure dedicated to providing high-quality, long-term observational data on the seafloor and water column to support scientific research and environmental monitoring in Europe’s surrounding seas. With an extensive network of long-term monitoring stations, EMSO captures crucial deep-sea data, offering insights into ocean dynamics that are essential for understanding climate impacts and marine ecosystem health.

EMSO ERIC’s data collection spans to approximately 130 different environmental parameters, with long-term time series serving as key indicators of deep-ocean variability. These observations provide a robust foundation for identifying trends and anomalies in deep-sea conditions, facilitating a deeper understanding of the processes that drive changes in marine environments. Access to this comprehensive data is streamlined through ERDDAP technology, which integrates harmonized metadata, ensuring access via a single entry point in line with FAIR data principles. This work highlights EMSO ERIC’s data capabilities by presenting a selection of its extensive data (such as temperature and salinity), illustrating its potential to support critical research and informed decisions for sustainable ocean management strategies.

This overview of EMSO ERIC’s data emphasizes the infrastructure’s capacity to support and enhance deep-sea research by offering a consolidated view of diverse observations across its regional sites. By making this data accessible to scientists and stakeholders, EMSO ERIC not only contributes to advancing ocean science but also promotes informed decision-making around sustainable ocean management. EMSO’s commitment to open, long-term ocean monitoring establishes it as a valuable resource for addressing pressing environmental challenges and supporting continued scientific exploration of the deep sea.