Dissolved Oxygen Level

The Dissolved Oxygen Level index is relevant to marine ecosystems and fisheries. This Index is part of the Biochemical ocean properties type of the Oceanic category of the classification. A higher/lower index value indicates higher/lower oxygen content and thus lower/higher risk. Oxygen concentrations above 190 mmol m³ are considered to be sufficient to support healthy marine communities with minimal problems, while oxygen concentrations below 62.5 mmol m³ are considered to be a source of serious concern.

Definition

The Dissolved Oxygen Level index (mol / m³) is the concentration of dissolved oxygen at a certain depth.

Data Sources

The simulated index data are from the Marine biogeochemistry data for the Northwest European Shelf and Mediterranean Sea from 2006 up to 2100 derived from climate projections dataset. The dataset contains a set of projected changes in marine physics and biogeochemical variables used to infer climate change indicators, as well as changes in the lower trophic levels (plankton) of the marine food web. Two sets of simulations were produced with the ERSEM ecosystem model coupled with two circulation models (POLCOMS and NEMO) over two different domains (pan european for POLCOMS or northwest european shelf for NEMO) and time frames from 2006 up to 2049 (NEMO-ERSEM) or 2099 (POLCOMS-ERSEM). Here only the data from POLCOMS-ERSEM is used as it covers a larger domain over a longer time frame. The spatial resolution is 1° x 1° (approximately 11kmx11km) with 43 vertical layers and covers the 2006-2099 period and both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5.

Supporting Information

Further information about this application can be found in the ECDE application User Guide and the Data and datasets underpining the ECDE. Related information can also be found on other sections of the EEA site: The Index based interactive EEA report: Open ocean — ocean chemistry: dissolved oxygen and ocean acidity (link).

Data download

The aggregated data shown on the map can be downloaded as csv files.