Compilation of a quality-controlled database of biological and chemical oceanographic parameters in the Central Mediterranean Sea

The EU-MAST/MEDAR/MEDATLAS II project (Mediterranean Data Archeology and Rescue of temperature, salinity and bio-chemical parameters, 1998-2001) provided the most updated and comprehensive data set and climatological atlas of physical, biological and chemical oceanographic parameters for the Mediterranean and Black Sea. The MEDAR/MEDATLAS II distributed data management structure, composed by NODC/DNA from 20 countries, four regional data centres (in charged of data compilation in the Eastern, Central, Western Mediterranean and Black Sea, respectively) and a global assembling centre (responsible of the overall integration), strengthen the IOC/IODE network at national and regional level, enhancing the overall capacity in data rescuing and validation. The multidisciplinary hydrographic data set, globally assembled, was checked for quality by compatible and coherent common procedures, based on international standards. The validation process, fully implemented for temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, phosphate, and silicate, was extended to other biological and chemical parameters, which include alkalinity, ammonium, chlorophyll-a, nitrite, pH, total phosphorus and total nitrogen. New broad range check values in the sub-domains discretisation of the Central Mediterranean were defined. The global analysis of biological and chemical core parameters defined very wide broad ranges at surface, rather wide for the intermediate layer, while the ranges are narrow in the deep layer. The statistical results here obtained could be used to improve data management practices, providing trustworthy intervals to substantiate studies on spatial-temporal variations of selected physical, biological and chemical properties over the past 80 years.