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The increasing science and society requests for ocean monitoring from global to regional and local scales, the need for integration and convergence into a globally consistent ocean observing system as well as the need for improvement of access to information are now internationally recognized goals to progress toward the sustainable management of a healthy ocean. To respond to these challenges at regional level, the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB) is developing a comprehensive set of ocean indicators in the Mediterranean Sea and around the Balearic Islands, key environments that are strongly affected by climate change and human pressure. This new SOCIB value-added product addresses the sub-regional ocean variability from daily (events) to interannual/decadal (climate) scales. A user-friendly interface has been implemented to monitor, visualize and communicate ocean information that is relevant for a wide range of sectors, applications and regional end-users. These sub-regional indicators allowed us to detect specific events in real time. Remarkable events and features identified include marine heat waves, atmospheric storm, extreme river discharge, mesoscale eddy, deep convection among others, all of them being oceanic phenomena that directly impact the ocean circulation and marine ecosystems. The long-term variations, in response to climate change, are also addressed highlighting and quantifying trends in physical and biogeochemical components of the ocean as well as sub-regional differences. At both (sub-) regional, national and international levels, a society-aligned science will have stronger impact on policy decision-makings and will support society to implement specific actions to address worldwide environmental challenges. ; Part of this work was supported by the JERICO-S3 and EuroSea projects. These projects have received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement Nos. 871153 and 862626, respectively.

Trabajo presentado en la EGU General Assemby 2014, celebrada del 27 de abril al 2 de mayo de 2014 en Viena (Austria) ; Maritime transport plays an important role in the world trade and economics development. In Europe the "motorways on the sea" concept has been an important issue since the launch of the EU Transport white paper (EC 2001). An enclosed sea such as the Mediterranean is particularly vulnerable to ship-associated pressures due to a high-volume of shipping routes, long history of use, and sensitive shallow and deep-sea habitats. Negative impacts associated to maritime traffic include biodiversity loss, introduction of alien species, pollution, marine litter and underwater noise among others. The monitoring and characterization of the spatio-temporal patterns of marine traffic constitutes an important element for the effective management and assessment of environmental impacts of this activity. Monitoring of real-time ship locations can be achieved through the Automated Identification System (AIS). The AIS is a VHF transmitter that broadcast the ship position, as well as additional information (eg. timestamp, speed, heading, boat type). All ocean-going commercial traffic >300 gross tons, or carrying more than 165 passengers, as well as tug/tows, are required to carry AIS transmitters (IALA 2004). In addition, the rest of the ships are able to carry on these transmitters on a voluntary basis. In this work we present the development of an information system designed to store, manage, analyze and visualize historical AIS data based on open-source components. We analyse such data to assess and map multiple anthropogenic pressures. For example, segmented regression on speed distribution is carried out to identify and map fishing activity, whereas neighbourhood statistics and GIS methods are used to generate underwater noise maps. We will illustrate these products within the context of risk assessment on marine ecosystems at the Western Mediterranean Sea. The information provided in this study can be incorporated into Decision Support Systems (DSS) for supporting the implementation of European and national policies for the assessment of environmental impacts and the interactions among human activities as well ; Peer reviewed

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unparalleled global impacts on human mobility. In the ocean, ship-based activities are thought to have been impacted due to severe restrictions on human movements and changes in consumption. Here, we quantify and map global change in marine traffic during the first half of 2020. There were decreases in 70.2% of Exclusive Economic Zones but changes varied spatially and temporally in alignment with confinement measures. Global declines peaked in April, with a reduction in traffic occupancy of 1.4% and decreases found across 54.8% of the sampling units. Passenger vessels presented more marked and longer lasting decreases. A regional assessment in the Western Mediterranean Sea gave further insights regarding the pace of recovery and long-term changes. Our approach provides guidance for large-scale monitoring of the progress and potential effects of COVID-19 on vessel traffic that may subsequently influence the blue economy and ocean health. ; D.M. and J.T. acknowledge support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement no. 794938, EuroSea grant agreement no. 862626 and JERICO-S3 grant agreement no. 871153). B.J.G. is supported by NERC Grant NE/V009354/1. K.M. is supported by the Waterloo Foundation, and the Darwin Initiative (Project 26-014) through funding from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) in the UK. ; Peer reviewed

9 páginas, 2 tablas, 5 figuras. ; ICZM relies heavily on the definition of major multidisciplinary characteristics/elements of the coastal area of interest. Usually, only terrestrial boundaries are considered, which tend to respond to a specific sectoral problem and can be determined by administrative limits. In this study, we propose a method for establishing a decision-making tool to inform boundarydelimitation for ICZM initiatives that is proactive and widely applicable as opposed to reactive and problem specific. This method integrates environmental, economic and societal characteristics of the marine and terrestrial boundaries of the coastalzone, starting at the boundary of the jurisdictional zone of influence (shoreline units), increasing in detail through the definition of their influential areas from jurisdictional, environmental or socio-economic perspectives (functional areas) and, within them, specifying the finest scale at which relevant indicator data may be obtained (analysis units). ; This work has been carried out within the framework of the "IntegratedCoastalZoneManagement Project (UGIZC)", funded by the Conselleria de Economía, Hisenda e Innovació from the Government of the Balearic Islands. Partial support from Grups Competitius Award (Government of the Balearic Islands) is also gratefully acknowledged. ; Peer reviewed

Marine animals are increasingly instrumented with environmental sensors that provide large volumes of oceanographic data. Here, we conduct an innovative and comprehensive global analysis to determine the potential contribution of animal-borne instruments (ABI) into ocean observing systems (OOSs) and provide a foundation to establish future integrated ocean monitoring programmes. We analyse the current gaps of the long-term Argo observing system (>1.5 million profiles) and assess its spatial overlap with the distribution of marine animals across eight major species groups (tuna and billfishes, sharks and rays, marine turtles, pinnipeds, cetaceans, sirenians, flying seabirds and penguins). We combine distribution ranges of 183 species and satellite tracking observations from >3,000 animals. Our analyses identify potential areas where ABI could complement OOS. Specifically, ABI have the potential to fill gaps in marginal seas, upwelling areas, the upper 10 m of the water column, shelf regions and polewards of 60° latitude. Our approach provides the global baseline required to plan the integration of ABI into global and regional OOS while integrating conservation and ocean monitoring priorities. ; We gratefully acknowledge funding by the BBVA Foundation ('Ayudas Fundación BBVA a Equipos de Investigación Científica 2016') and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement no 794938. D.M. acknowledges support from the Spanish Government (grant 'Juan de la Cierva‐Formación' FJCI‐2014‐20064, grant 'José Castillejo' CAS17/00193).

Funding: BBVA Foundation ("Ayudas Fundación BBVA a Equipos de Investigación Científica 2016") and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 794938; Spanish Government (grant "Juan de la Cierva-Formación" FJCI-2014-20064, grant "José Castillejo" CAS17/00193) (D.M.). ; Marine animals are increasingly instrumented with environmental sensors that provide large volumes of oceanographic data. Here, we conduct an innovative and comprehensive global analysis to determine the potential contribution of animal‐borne instruments (ABI) into ocean observing systems (OOSs) and provide a foundation to establish future integrated ocean monitoring programmes. We analyse the current gaps of the long‐term Argo observing system (>1.5 million profiles) and assess its spatial overlap with the distribution of marine animals across eight major species groups (tuna and billfishes, sharks and rays, marine turtles, pinnipeds, cetaceans, sirenians, flying seabirds and penguins). We combine distribution ranges of 183 species and satellite tracking observations from >3,000 animals. Our analyses identify potential areas where ABI could complement OOS. Specifically, ABI have the potential to fill gaps in marginal seas, upwelling areas, the upper 10 m of the water column, shelf regions and polewards of 60° latitude. Our approach provides the global baseline required to plan the integration of ABI into global and regional OOS while integrating conservation and ocean monitoring priorities. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

DIVAnd (Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis, in n-dimensions) is a tool to interpolate observations on a regular grid using the variational inverse method. We have extended DIVAnd to include additional dynamic constraints relevant to surface currents, including imposing a zero normal velocity at the coastline, imposing a low horizontal divergence of the surface currents, temporal coherence and simplified dynamics based on the Coriolis force, and the possibility of including a surface pressure gradient. The impact of these constraints is evaluated by cross-validation using the HF (high-frequency) radar surface current observations in the Ibiza Channel from the Balearic Islands Coastal Ocean Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB). A small fraction of the radial current observations are set aside to validate the velocity reconstruction. The remaining radial currents from the two radar sites are combined to derive total surface currents using DIVAnd and then compared to the cross-validation dataset and to drifter observations. The benefit of the dynamic constraints is shown relative to a variational interpolation without these dynamical constraints. The best results were obtained using the Coriolis force and the surface pressure gradient as a constraint which are able to improve the reconstruction from the Open-boundary Modal Analysis, a quite commonly used method to interpolate HF radar observations, once multiple time instances are considered together. ; The F.R.S.-FNRS (Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique de Belgique) funded the position of Alexander Barth. Computational resources have been provided in part by the Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif (CÉCI), funded by the F.R.S.-FNRS under Grant No. 2.5020.11 and by the Walloon Region. Support from the SeaDataCloud project (grant agreement no. 730960) and the JERICO-S3 project (grant agreement no. 871153) funded by European Union's Horizon 2020 and the EMODnet Physics project, funded by the European Commission Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries are also gratefully acknowledged.

Phytoplankton blooms in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea are seasonal events that mainly occur in a specific area comprising the Gulf of Lion and the Provençal basin, where they are promoted by a general cyclonic circulation, strong wind-driven mixing and subsequent re-stratification of the water column. At the southern boundary of this area, a persistent density front known as the north Balearic front can be found. The front is presumed to cause an early phytoplankton bloom in its vicinity because (a) it enhances the transport of nutrients into the euphotic layer and (b) it promotes the speedy re-stratification of the water column (through frontal instabilities). In February and March 2013, a glider, equipped with a CTD (conductivity, temperature, and depth device) and a fluorometer, was deployed on a mission that took it from the Balearic Islands to Sardinia and back. The frontal zone was crossed twice, once during the outbound leg and the once on the return leg. The data provided by the glider clearly showed the onset of a bloom soon after a decrease in wind-driven turbulent convection and mixing. The in situ observations were supported and confirmed by satellite imagery. It is shown that frontal dynamics play a key role in the promotion and acceleration of re-stratification, which is a necessary pre-conditioning factor for the onset of blooms much like other relevant processes such as an enhanced biological pump. Swift re-stratification stimulates new production by inhibiting mixing. Finally, viewing the blooming phenomenon from a regional perspective, it seems that Sverdrup's critical depth model applies in the northern well-mixed area whereas, in the south, front-related re-stratification seems to be the principal cause. © Author(s) 2014. ; The research described in this paper was funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 262584, JERICO ; Peer Reviewed

Phytoplankton bloom in NW Mediterranan sea is a seasonal event that mainly occurrs in a limited area (Gulf of Lyon and Provençal basin) where this phenomenon is promoted by a cyclonic circulation, strong wind-driven mixing and subsequent spring restratification. At the southern boundary of this area a density front (North Balearic Front) separating denser waters from the lighter Modified Atlantic Waters reservoir at south is suspected to trigger weaker and earlier (late winter) blooms by (a) enhanced pumping of nutrients into the euphotic layer and (b) promoting an early restratification of the water column (by frontal instabilities). A multisensor glider round trip, equipped with CTD and fluorimeter, crossing the frontal area in February–March 2013, allowed to observe the bloom triggering after the decrease of intense wind-driven turbulent convection and mixing. Satellite imagery supports and confirms in-situ observations. It was shown that frontal activity has a relevant role in the promotion and acceleration of the dynamical restratification, with a consequent biological response in terms of primary production. Restratification is necessary preconditioning factor for bloom triggering in frontal area, net of other involved mechanism promoting the bloom as the enhanced biological pump. So, like for high-latitude fronts (Taylor and Ferrari, 2011a), also for this mid-latitude oligotrophic region front seems to promote new production by dynamically enahnced restratification inhibiting mixing. Finally, we argued that Sverdrup's Critical Depth criterion seems to apply in the northern well-mixed area, where the zeroing of heat fluxes (and related turbulent convection) does not correspond to a prompt onset of the bloom (which appeared 1 month later). ; The research leading to results discussed in this paper has received funding by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 262584, JERICO. In particular, we especially thank the JERICO TNA program ; Peer Reviewed

In numerical ocean modeling, dynamical downscaling is the approach consisting in generating high-resolution regional simulations exploiting the information from coarser resolution models for initial and boundary conditions. Here we evaluate the impacts of downscaling the 1/16 (~ 6–7 km) CMEMS Mediterranean reanalysis model solution into a high-resolution 2-km free-run simulation over the Western Mediterranean basin, focusing on the surface circulation and mesoscale activity. Multi-platform observations from satellite-borne altimeters, high-frequency radar, fixed moorings, and gliders are used for this evaluation, providing insights into the variability from basin to coastal scales. Results show that the downscaling leads to an improvement of the time-averaged surface circulation, especially in the topographically complex area of the Balearic Sea. In particular, the path of the Balearic current is improved in the high-resolution model, also positively affecting transports through the Ibiza Channel. While the high-resolution model produces a similar number of large eddies as CMEMS Med Rea and altimetry, it generates a much larger number of small-scale eddies. Looking into the variability, in the absence of data assimilation, the high-resolution model is not able to properly reproduce the observed phases of mesoscale structures, especially in the southern part of the domain. This negatively affects the representation of the variability of the surface currents interacting with these eddies, highlighting the importance of data assimilation in the high-resolution ocean model in this region to constrain the evolution of these mesoscale structures. ; This work was supported by La Caixa foundation through the MedClic project (LCF/PR/PR14/11090002) and by the JERICO-NEXT project funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 654410).

Morphodynamic classification of beaches has achieved widespread acceptance in both geological and geomorphological literature. In this sense, the present work classifies twelve Mediterranean low energetic beaches according to the dimensionless fall parameter (Ω) parameter in the Island of Mallorca. Propagation of 44 yr of wave data as well as a detailed sediment study allows to provide probabilities for morphodynamical beach state on an annual and seasonal basis. Consequently, beaches in Mallorca fall between three major categories which are (a) truly reflective, (b) reflective skewed to intermediate and (c) intermediate beaches. The Mallorcan beach position in the morphodynamical scheme is close related to the physiographical and geological framework. Comparison of observed values with those obtained in the analysis leads that for gross beach classification there is agreement between predicted and real state. However on a seasonal classification, mainly during summer, there is no agreement between the predicted state and the real one. As the model does not incorporate the role of summer sea breezes, beach reflective states are highlighted. Real beach configurations correspond to more energetic wave dynamic conditions and to intermediate state scenarios. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ; Financial support from the Balearic Island Government is greatly acknowledged (UGIZ project). Support in experimental sediment characterization from J. Guillén from CMIMA (CSIC) and J.J. Fornós from UIB is greatly appreciated. Field support from B. Casas and P. Balaguer is also acknowledged. Critical comments from Dr. E. Anthony and two anonymous referees have improved substantially the first manuscript. The authors thank Puertos del Estado (Ministerio de Fomento) and Mr. Enrique Álvarez for the use of HIPOCAS database. FJM is indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science for the funding provided in the "Ramon y Cajal" Program ; Peer Reviewed

© 2014 Alvarez-Berastegui et al. Seascape ecology is an emerging discipline focused on understanding how features of the marine habitat influence the spatial distribution of marine species. However, there is still a gap in the development of concepts and techniques for its application in the marine pelagic realm, where there are no clear boundaries delimitating habitats. Here we demonstrate that pelagic seascape metrics defined as a combination of hydrographic variables and their spatial gradients calculated at an appropriate spatial scale, improve our ability to model pelagic fish distribution. We apply the analysis to study the spawning locations of two tuna species: Atlantic bluefin and bullet tuna. These two species represent a gradient in life history strategies. Bluefin tuna has a large body size and is a long-distant migrant, while bullet tuna has a small body size and lives year-round in coastal waters within the Mediterranean Sea. The results show that the models performance incorporating the proposed seascape metrics increases significantly when compared with models that do not consider these metrics. This improvement is more important for Atlantic bluefin, whose spawning ecology is dependent on the local oceanographic scenario, than it is for bullet tuna, which is less influenced by the hydrographic conditions. Our study advances our understanding of how species perceive their habitat and confirms that the spatial scale at which the seascape metrics provide information is related to the spawning ecology and life history strategy of each species. ; The development of this study was supported by the Project "PERSEUS" financed by the Seventh Framework Program for Research (FP7) under theme "Oceans Tomorrow", grant Agreement No. 287600 (http://www.perseus-fp7.eu/), the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project "BALEARES" Grant number: CTM2009-07944/MAR (http://www.fecyt.es/fecyt/home.do) and the Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability NSF-Wide Investment (SEES) Research Coordination Network, Grant 1140207 "Sustainability of Marine Renewable Resources in Subarctic Systems Under Incumbent Environmental Variability and Human Exploitation" (http://grantome.com/grant/NSF/OCE-1140207). Hydrographic data used in the study were provided by IBAMAR (http://www.ba.ieo.es/ibamar) a public data base founded by the Council for Economy and Competitiveness of the Balearic Islands Government (http://www.caib.es/govern/organigrama/area.do?coduo=6&lang=es), grant number AAEE0022/08. The research was developed under the framework of the BLUEFIN TUNA Project driven by the Balearic Island Observing and Forecasting System (www.socib.es) and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (www.ieo.es) ; Peer Reviewed

© 2014 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Satellite altimetry measurements from SARALAltiKa are analysed in the coastal ocean using the results of the GAltiKa mission (15 August 2013), which combined altimeter, HF radar and glider data coincident with the satellite track, southwest of Ibiza Island, in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The absolute dynamic topography, computed from 1 Hz and 40 Hz altimetry data, and the dynamic height, computed from glider temperature and salinity, both exhibited a weak signal with amplitudes of order 2 cm. The resulting geostrophic and HF radar velocities along the track depicted a northwestward coastal current with a maximal velocity larger than 20 cm s1. This demonstrates that the AltiKa altimeter is able to resolve SLA signals of more than 2 cm, and gradients in those signals over several tens of kilometres. After filtering, the 40 Hz data depicted a signal consistent with the other platforms, up to a distance of order 10 km from the coast ; SARAL IGDR are produced by CNES SPA Team as part of the SSALTO ground processing segment, and distributed by AVISO, with support from CNES SALP project. GAltiKa experiment was carried out in the frame of MyOcean2 EU FP7 funded project, with substantial support from SOCIB. Glider operations were partially funded by JERICO and PERSEUS FP7 projects. Additional funding from the Local Government of the Balearic Islands (CAIB51/ 2011 Grant) is also acknowledged. C. Troupin postdoctoral position was funded by MyOcean2 EU FP7 project ; Peer reviewed