Host: UB
Name of the event: GEOMARE Speeches 2026
Place: Barcelona, Spain
Date: 12/11/2025
Partners involved: UB
Monitoring environmental conditions under which benthic communities develop is crucial for understanding their distribution and ecological state. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of high resolution environmental data from shallow areas where photic and mesophotic benthic communities occur. Here, we present high-resolution environmental monitoring of the upper shelf in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea coast where gorgonian forests occur at 20-50 m water depth. We present data from a six-month mooring deployment at 32 m depth, recording temperature, pressure and current speed and direction every 20 min. We also performed monthly CTD profiles in 12 stations along a 2 km transect perpendicular to the coastline, from 10 to 50 m deep. CTD measurements included temperature, salinity, turbidity, transmissivity, fluorescence, dissolved oxygen and irradiance. Data reveal that predominant currents flow northward and south-westward. Significant short-term variations in temperature during spring, as well as pressure oscillations probably driven by tides were detected. The data were compared with measurements from a land environmental station to identify the main atmospheric drivers of our observations. The observations were also compared with satellite and reanalysis products provided by the Copernicus Marine Service to determine their applicability to estimate environmental conditions in the study area.
Contribution OC project: Disseminating environmental monitoring in Torredembarra