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The Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (GMEP) ran from 2013 until 2016, and was probably the most comprehensive programme of ecological study ever undertaken at a national scale in Wales. The programme aimed to (1) set up an evaluation of the environmental effects of the Glastir agri-environment scheme and (2) quantify environmental status and trends across the wider countryside of Wales. The focus was on outcomes for climate change mitigation, biodiversity, soil and water quality, woodland expansion and cultural landscapes. As such, GMEP included a large field survey component, collecting data on a range of elements including vegetation, land cover and use, soils, freshwaters, birds and insect pollinators from up to 300 1 km squares throughout Wales. The field survey capitalised upon the UKCEH Countryside Survey of Great Britain, which has provided an extensive set of repeated, standardised ecological measurements since 1978. The design of both GMEP and the UKCEH Countryside Survey involved stratified-random sampling of squares from a 1 km grid, ensuring proportional representation from land classes with distinct climate, geology and physical geography. Data were collected from different land cover types and landscape features by trained professional surveyors, following standardised and published protocols. Thus, GMEP was designed so that surveys could be repeated at regular intervals to monitor the Welsh environment, including the impacts of agri-environment interventions. One such repeat survey is scheduled for 2021 under the Environment and Rural Affairs Monitoring and Modelling Programme (ERAMMP). Data from GMEP have been used to address many applied policy questions, but there is major potential for further analyses. The precise locations of data collection are not publicly available, largely for reasons of landowner confidentiality. However, the wide variety of available datasets can be (1) analysed at coarse spatial resolutions and (2) linked to each other based on square-level and plot-level identifiers, allowing exploration of relationships, trade-offs and synergies. This paper describes the key sets of raw data arising from the field survey at co-located sites, 2013 to 2016. Data from each of these survey elements are available with the following Digital Object Identifiers. Landscape features, https://doi.org/10.5285/82c63533-529e-47b9-8e78-51b27028cc7f, https://doi.org/10.5285/9f8d9cc6-b552-4c8b-af09-e92743cdd3de, https://doi.org/10.5285/f481c6bf-5774-4df8-8776-c4d7bf059d40; Vegetation plots, https://doi.org/10.5285/71d3619c-4439-4c9e-84dc-3ca873d7f5cc; Topsoil physico-chemical properties, https://doi.org/10.5285/0fa51dc6-1537-4ad6-9d06-e476c137ed09; Topsoil meso-fauna, https://doi.org/10.5285/1c5cf317-2f03-4fef-b060-9eccbb4d9c21; Topsoil particle size distribution https://doi.org/10.5285/d6c3cc3c-a7b7-48b2-9e61-d07454639656; Headwater stream quality metrics, https://doi.org/10.5285/e305fa80-3d38-4576-beef-f6546fad5d45 ; Pond quality metrics, https://doi.org/10.5285/687b38d3-2278-41a0-9317-2c7595d6b882; Insect pollinator and flower data, https://doi.org/10.5285/3c8f4e46-bf6c-4ea1-9340-571fede26ee8; Bird counts, https://doi.org/10.5285/31da0a94-62be-47b3-b76e-4bdef3037360. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global carbon cycle is currently being perturbed by the large-scale burning of fossil fuels, leading to rising global temperatures and related stress and damage to life on Earth. At the same time, we lack a detailed understanding of the various reservoirs and fluxes of the coastal and marine carbon cycle. Quantification of marine organic carbon stocks and their vulnerability to climate change and human activities is crucial for effective climate change mitigation and other management strategies. Recently, research has focussed on the ability of salt marshes, mangroves, seagrasses and macroalgae, so-called Blue Carbon ecosystems, to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as organic carbon. Likewise, fjords have been identified as locations of rapid burial of organic carbon. Less attention has, however, been directed to continental shelf sediments, presumably due to low carbon densities found in such sediments. Despite this, there are indications that organic carbon stocks of surficial shelf sediments are important: It was estimated that the upper 10 cm of the north-west European continental shelf sea sediments store between 230 and 882 teragrams (Tg) of organic carbon. A recent study found that organic carbon stocks of continental shelf sediments by far exceed those of salt marshes and seagrasses in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it was reported that marine sediment organic carbon stocks might be of similar magnitude as terrestrial soil stocks in some maritime nations.Here we report on initial results of a pilot study, which aims to spatially predict organic carbon stocks and burial rates of surface sediments in the Norwegian Trough and North Sea. This pilot study attempts to establish suitable methodologies for making such spatial predictions based on a comprehensive set of existing data on organic carbon concentrations, sediment properties and sedimentation rates. It is hoped that a complete assessment of stocks and burial rates on the Norwegian continental shelf will subsequently be conducted under the auspices of the MAREANO seafloor mapping programme. Initial results indicate that the Norwegian Trough stores approximately 67 Tg of organic carbon in the upper 10 cm of the sediment column alone. By comparison, the sediments of the Norwegian part of the North Sea, which have organic carbon densities typical for the north-west European continental shelf, contain approximately 36 Tg of organic carbon in an area that is 25% larger than the Norwegian Trough. These results indicate that the Norwegian Trough is an important regional store for organic carbon. Subsequent analysis will attempt to shed light on burial rates and the residence time of organic carbon within the zone of active degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]