Southern England sediment elemental concentration data

The database provides a summary of >45,000 contaminant concentration data points for twenty-nine marine sediment chemicals from 334 Southern England (UK) sites (sites within the English/French Channel and the southern North and Celtic Seas), covering a survey period of 31 years (1983-2013). The database provides spatially and temporally extensive records of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) concentrations in sediments from coastal and open sea sites. Additional records of manganese (Mn), aluminium (Al), lithium (Li), tin (Sn) [and tributyltin (TBT)], barium (Ba), antimony (Sb), boron (B), calcium (Ca), molybdenum (Mo), cobalt (Co), selenium (Se), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), beryllium (Be), vanadium (V), titanium (Ti), sodium (Na), silver (Ag), thallium (Tl) and strontium (Sr) represent approximately 13 % of the full database. The database can be used to assess the contaminant load for specific sites, but also to strengthen and target current and future legislative control measures for anthropogenic contaminant inputs. Information contained in the database is relevant to marine ecotoxicologists, coastal ecologists (practitioners, scientists and policy makers) and government decision makers.