The Western Channel Observatory: a century of oceanographic, chemical and biological data compiled from pelagic and benthic habitats in the Western English Channel 1903 - 2022

The Western Channel Observatory (WCO) comprises a series of pelagic, benthic and atmospheric sampling sites within 40 km of Plymouth UK, which have been sampled by the Plymouth Institutes on a regular basis since 1903. This longevity of recording and the high frequency of observations provide a unique combination of attributes, for example temperature data began to be collected in 1903 and the reference station L4 has been sampled on a weekly basis since 1988 where nearly 400 planktonic taxa have been enumerated.
Some of these data are publicly available, but use of the WCO data is hampered by different levels of data availability and formatting. This dataset integrates average monthly values of some of the key pelagic and benthic measurements for the inshore site L4 (~54 m water depth), the offshore site E1 (~75 m depth) and L5. In summary, the data include: temperature (from 1903); macronutrients (from 1934); dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity (from 2008); methane and nitrous oxide (from 2011); chlorophyll a (from 1992); pigments determined by HPLC (from 1999); pico and nanoplankton groups from flow cytometry (8 functional groups from 2007); phytoplankton (6 functional groups from 1992); FlowCam (6 groups from 2012), Noctiluca (from 1997); zooplankton (8 groups from 1988); Calanus helgolandicus egg production rates (from 1992); fish larvae from Young fish trawl survey (4 groups from 1924); benthic macrofauna (4 groups from 2008); demersal fish (19 families from 2008); blue shark, Prionace glauca (from 1958); 16s alpha diversity for sediment and water column (from 2012). These data have varying coverage in time and depth resolution. The metadata provides pointers to the source data and other related WCO data sets and outputs not compiled here.
We hope that making the data fully accessible, and including units of both abundance and biomass, will stimulate a variety of uptakes. These may include uses as an educational resource for projects, for models and budgets or for analysis of seasonality and long-term change in a coupled benthic-pelagic system and for supporting UK and NE Atlantic policy and management.

西方海峡观测站（WCO）位于英国普利茅斯市附近40公里范围内，包括一系列浮游、底栖和大气采样点。自1903年以来，普利茅斯学院定期对这些采样点进行采样，其记录的持久性与观测频率的高度相结合，构成了独特的属性组合。例如，温度数据自1903年开始收集，参考站点L4自1988年以来每周进行采样，其中已鉴定出近400种浮游生物。部分数据已公开，但WCO数据的利用受到不同数据可用性和格式化的阻碍。本数据集整合了近岸站点L4（约54米水深）、离岸站点E1（约75米水深）和L5的一些关键浮游和底栖测量的平均月度值。简而言之，数据包括：温度（自1903年起）；宏量营养素（自1934年起）；溶解无机碳和总碱度（自2008年起）；甲烷和氧化亚氮（自2011年起）；叶绿素a（自1992年起）；由高效液相色谱法确定的色素（自1999年起）；由流式细胞术确定的浮游生物中的超微型和纳米型生物群体（自2007年起，8个功能组）；浮游植物（自1992年起，6个功能组）；FlowCam（自2012年起，6组）；夜光藻（自1997年起）；浮游动物（自1988年起，8组）；北海毛颚类产卵率（自1992年起）；幼鱼拖网调查中的鱼苗（自1924年起，4组）；底栖大型无脊椎动物（自2008年起，4组）；底层鱼类（自2008年起，19个科）；蓝鲨，Prionace glauca（自1958年起）；沉积物和水柱的16sα多样性（自2012年起）。这些数据在时间和深度分辨率上具有不同的覆盖率。元数据提供了指向源数据和WCO其他相关数据集及输出的指针。我们希望使数据完全可访问，并包括丰度和生物量单位，从而激发各种应用。这些应用可能包括作为教育资源的各种项目、模型和预算，或用于分析耦合底栖-浮游系统的季节性和长期变化，以及支持英国和东北大西洋的政策与管理。