EUSeaMap 2019, A European broad-scale seabed habitat map, technical report

• Main Authors: Vasquez, Mickael, Manca, Eleonora, Inghilesi, Roberto, Martin, Simon, Agnesi, Sabrina, Al Hamdani, Zyad, Annunziatellis, Aldo, Bekkby, Trine, Pesch, Roland, Askew, Natalie, Bentes, Luis, Castle, Lewis, Doncheva, Valentina, Drakopoulou, Vivi, Gonçalves, Jorge, Laamanen, Leena, Lillis, Helen, Loukaidi, Valia, Mcgrath, Fergal, Mo, Giulia, Monteiro, Pedro, Muresan, Mihaela, O'Keeffe, Eimear, Populus, Jacques, Pinder, Jordan, Ridgeway, Amy, Sakellariou, Dimitris, Simboura, Mika, Teaca, Adrian, Tempera, Fernando, Todorova, Valentina, Tunesi, Leonardo, Virtanen, Elina
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Barents Sea
• Online Access: https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00636/74782/75026.pdf; https://doi.org/10.13155/74782; https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00636/74782/

EUSeaMap 2019 is the third iteration of EUSeaMap. All versions have been produced as part of the EMODnet Seabed Habitats project, which is one of several thematic lots in EMODnet. The project has brought together a European consortium of specialists in benthic ecology and seabed habitat mapping. The partners first collaborated in EMODnet phase 1 (2009-2012) to deliver a prototype predictive seabed habitat map in four trial basins (Greater North Sea, Celtic Seas, Baltic, Western Mediterranean). This predictive model was named EUSeaMap (Cameron and Askew, 2011). In EMODnet Phase 2 (2012-2016), the consortium extended EUSeaMap coverage to all European regions (Populus et al, 2017). In the new version, the spatial coverage was extended further North in order to include the Barents Sea. The spatial detail was substantially improved. This was made possible by improvements to the physical predictor variables created by the other EMODnet lots which are the input data to the EUSeaMap model. A substantial revision of the map creation process has also been carried out in order to make it more reproducible. This document describes all these modifications which have led to the elaboration of EUSeaMap 2019.