This dataset is part of the 2024 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 10, criterion 3. This dataset reports the amount of plastic ingested (stomach contents) by Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) beached along the Belgian coast (environmental target: fewer than 10% of fulmars contain more than 0.1g of plastic in their stomach).

UNDER EMBARGO - This dataset is part of BE/2023 sampling campagn in SW Greenland fjords (Igaliku and Tunulliarfik). Pelagic community was analysed using Imaging Flow Cytometry (iFCM) with an ImageStream®X Mk II. Cells were grouped into functional size classes—pico-, nano- and microplankton—according to measured cell length. Cells lacking chlorophyll autofluorescence were classified as heterotrophic or chemotrophic organisms, including heterotrophic picoplankton/bacteria (HP; ≤2 µm) and heterotrophic nanoplankton (HN; 2–20 µm). No larger heterotrophs (>20 µm) were visually detected. Autofluorescent cells were considered phototrophic, although this fraction may also include mixotrophic taxa, and comprised picophytoplankton (AP; ≤2 µm), nanophytoplankton (AN; 2–20 µm), and microphytoplankton (AMicro; 20–100 µm). To estimate the biovolume of each plankton class, the two-dimensional cell surface area measured by the IDEAS® imaging software was multiplied by the mean cell width, assuming that cell width approximates the third spatial dimension. Carbon biomass was subsequently derived from biovolume using established carbon–volume relationships. For the HP fraction, carbon content was estimated using the bacterial conversion proposed by Romanova and Sazhin (2010), where volume is expressed in µm³. Although the HP fraction may also include heterotrophic picoeukaryotes, and its biomass may therefore be partly underestimated, this conversion was applied because the fraction was assumed to be numerically dominated by bacteria. For the other protist groups, carbon biomass was derived following Menden-Deuer and Lessard (2000). Carbon values were converted from pg C cell⁻¹ to carbon biomass (µg C L⁻¹) based on cell abundance.

This dataset is part of the 2018 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 1, criterion 2. The Raja clavata dataset describes the results of the Offshore Beam Trawl Surveys (BTS) in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) between 2010 and 2017. Occurrences of Raja Clavata, along with dates and locations, are reported. The codes used in the attached file are based on the ICES DATRAS (Database of Trawl Surveys) standard. The seabirds dataset describes the density of seabirds (N birds/km) observed in the BPNS between 1987 and 2016 (three surveys a year).

This dataset is part of the 2024 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 8, criterion 4. This dataset reports the proportion of oiled Common Guillemots (Uria aalge) among stranded seabirds along the Belgian coast, as an indicator of acute oil pollution (environmental target: average proportion of oiled guillemots below 10% of the total found dead or dying on the beaches).

This dataset is part of the 2024 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 6, criterion 4. This dataset reports the ratio of hard-substrate surface area (colonised by hard-substrate epifauna) to soft-sediment surface area in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS), which should not show a negative trend.

This dataset presents findings from an environmental impact assessment conducted along three gradients extending northeastward, southeastward, and southwestward from the Princess Elisabeth Energy Island. Samples were collected at 20 locations in 2024, and 8 locations in 2025 in triplicate, using a 0.1 m² Van Veen Grab, assessing sediment grain size distribution and total organic carbon content. Macrobenthos samples were preserved, stained, and analyzed in the laboratory.

This dataset is part of the 2018 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 7, criterion 1. This dataset describes the impact of an offshore windmills farm on the hydrodynamics in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS). Originally, it is a NetCDF file with the results of the reference simulation made with the COHERENS (COupled Hydrodynamical Ecological model for REgioNal Shelf seas) hydrodynamic model only forced by tides (no wind effect). Model resolution : ~ 12.5m. It contains both the reference situation which is a simulation without any windmill and the modeling result of the influence by the windmills on the hydrodynamic in the BPNS. The dataset contains the results on the most inner nested grid level for one reference spring-neap cycle: - hourly sea surface elevation - hourly bottom shear stress - hourly 3D horizontal velocity components (u,v) - hourly 3D eddy viscosity - time-averaged bottom shear stress over the reference spring-neap cycle - percentile 90 of the bottom shear stress for the reference spring-neap cycle - percentile 90 of the specific kinetic energy at the sea bed - accumulated time during which sedimentation processes are dominant - accumulated time during which re-suspension processes are dominant.

UNDER EMBARGO - This dataset is part of BE/2023 sampling campagn in SW Greenland fjords (Igaliku and Tunulliarfik). Samples for DNA extraction were collected along fjord transects at several depths of the water column. The focus of the study was to determine the taxonomical composotion of bacterial community in two Arctic fjords.

This dataset is part of the 2024 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 2, criterion 1. This dataset lists the newly-introduced species encountered in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) between 2016 and 2021, combining dedicated non-indigenous species (NIS) surveys of artificial hard substrates with incidental NIS records collected during the soft-sediment and epibenthos monitoring programmes.

This dataset is part of the 2024 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 1, criterion 2. This dataset reports the population abundance (number of individuals, biomass) of benthic-feeding, pelagic-feeding, surface-feeding and wading birds in Belgian waters, combining yearly breeding-colony nest counts along the Belgian coast with ship-based at-sea seabird counts.