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Fishery bycatch is a serious threat to several protected, endangered, and threatened species (PETs), requiring urgent action to develop and implement conservation measures. This study performs an Ecological Risk Assessment for the Effects of Fishing (ERAEF) using a spatially and temporally Productivity–Susceptibility Analysis (PSA) to calculate the potential risk to great shearwaters (Ardenna gravis) from direct interaction with the metiers of the artisanal tuna fishing fleet at the Bay of Biscay (baitboats and trollers). The PSA incorporates productivity attributes based on the Fecundity Factor Index; and susceptibility attributes calculated from the species spatio-temporal abundance patterns obtained developing density surface models and distribution and intensity of fishing activity based on pooled Vessel Monitoring System and logbook data. The PSA shows an overall moderate risk to great shearwaters by the artisanal tuna fishery also revealing that baitboats are less risky than trollers (risk score of 3.12 ± 0.09 and 2.70 ± 0.05, respectively). Spatially, the likelihood of presence of high potential risk areas was associated with prey availability for both the PET and the commercial fish species. The systematic, repeatable, and standardized ERAEF followed in this study can be used to advice for ecosystem-based fisheries management to improve management measures for reducing bycatch of PETs around the world.

Although rivers contribute to the flux of litter to the marine environment, estimates of riverine litter amounts and detailed studies on floating riverine litter behaviour once it has reached the sea are still scarce. This paper provides an analysis of the seasonal behaviour of floating marine litter released by rivers within the south-eastern Bay of Biscay based on riverine litter characterizations, drifters, and high-frequency radar observations and Lagrangian simulations. Virtual particles were released in the coastal area as a proxy of the floating fraction of riverine litter entering from rivers and reaching the open waters. Particles were parameterized with a wind drag coefficient (Cd) to represent their trajectories and fate according to the buoyancy of the litter items. They were forced with numerical winds and measured currents provided by high-frequency radars covering selected seasonal week-long periods between 2009 and 2021. To gain a better insight into the type and buoyancy of the items, samples collected from a barrier placed at the Deba River (Spain) were characterized at the laboratory. Items were grouped into two categories: low-buoyancy items (objects not exposed to wind forcing, e.g. plastic bags) and highly buoyant items (objects highly exposed to wind forcing, e.g. bottles). Overall, low-buoyancy items encompassed almost 90 % by number and 68 % by weight. Weakly buoyant items were parameterized with Cd = 0 % and highly buoyant items with Cd = 4 %; this latter value is the result of the joint analysis of modelled and observed trajectories of four satellite drifting buoys released at the Adour (France), Deba (Spain), and Oria (Spain) river mouths. Particles parameterized with Cd = 4 % drifted faster towards the coast through the wind, notably during the first 24 h. In summer, over 97 % of particles beached after 1 week of simulation. In autumn this value fell to 54 %. In contrast, low-buoyancy items took longer to arrive at the shoreline, particularly during spring with fewer than 25 % of particles beached by the end of the simulations. The highest concentrations (>200 particles km−1) were recorded during summer for Cd = 4 % in the French region of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Results showed that the regions in the study area were highly affected by rivers within or nearby the region itself. These results couple observations and a river-by-river modelling approach and can assist decision-makers on setting emergency responses to high fluxes of floating riverine litter and on defining future monitoring strategies for heavily polluted regions within the south-eastern Bay of Biscay.

Quality physical oceanographic data such as currents and waves are needed to understand processes and produce forecasts for multiple scientific, management and industry applications. Some of the applications that require currents and waves data are the estimation of climate change impacts, marine species distribution changes, litter accumulation in beaches and vessels fuel consumption. The X-band radar can provide such currents and waves data in near real time.An X-band radar (transmission frequency: 9410 ± 30 MHz) was installed in Biarritz in March 2021 and it is expected to acquire data until the end of February 2022, as part of the SusTunTech project (https://www.sustuntech.eu/the-project/). Since it´s installation, the x-band radar has been measuring data non-stop, except during few days (due to power failures). The radar is monitoring oceanographic processes at coastal scales in this shallow water coastal area up to 3.2 km offshore. The main parameter extracted from the radar data are spectral wave parameters such as significant wave height, peak wave period and direction as well as surface current fields. During a short calibration phase, the marine radar has to be calibrated for significant wave heights utilizing in situ measurements. For accurate surface current measurements from the X-band radar, the tidal water depth variation of up to 4 m in the study area is being taken into account. Four ADCPs and two pressure sensors were installed in the area covered by the x-band radar from March to May 2021 as part of MARLIT project (https://www.suez.com/en/news/marlit-project-prevention-storm-related-risks-protection-coast-against-climate-change) to strengthen the x-band radar data information.The presented multiplatform experiment (in-situ data from MARLIT project and X-band from SusTunTech project) is allowing to compare the measurements of the same variable by different instruments and find complementarities of these instruments to characterize the wave regime and the surface currents of the study area. In addition, these measurements will be utilized to validate and better understand the remarkable intensification of significant wave heights suggested by local wave models at specific locations within the area covered by the X-band area (Varing et al. 2020). Finally, the better knowledge acquired about the longshore distribution of wave and current energy will help to assess local early warning systems to prevent storm-related risks along the highly urbanized coastline of Biarritz. Nowadays, such systems are increasingly being used by scientists, policy and industry in their activities. Therefore, the importance of producing quality data to feed modelling and its applications.

Identifying the role that environmental factors and biotic interactions play in species distribution can be essential to better understand and predict how ecosystems will respond to changing environmental conditions. This study aimed at disentangling the assemblage of the pelagic predator–prey community by identifying interspecific associations and their main drivers. For this purpose, we applied the joint species distribution modelling approach, JSDM, to the co-occurrence patterns of both prey and top predator communities obtained from JUVENA surveys during 2013–2016 in the Bay of Biscay. Results showed that the co-occurrence patterns of top predators and prey were driven by a combination of environmental and biotic factors, which highlighted the importance of considering both components to fully understand the community structure. In addition, results also revealed that many biotic interactions, such as schooling in prey (e.g. anchovy–sardine), local enhancement/facilitation in predators (e.g. Cory’s shearwater–fin whale), and predation between predator–prey species (e.g. northern gannet–horse mackerel), were led by positive associations, although predator avoidance behaviour was also suggested between negatively associated species (e.g. striped dolphin–blue whiting). The identification of interspecific associations can therefore provide insights on the functioning of predators–prey network and help advance towards an ecosystem-based management.

The Bay of Biscay is being affected by increasing level of marine litter, which is causing a wide variety of adverse environmental, social, public health, safety and economic impacts. The term “beach littering” has been coined to refer to the marine litter that is deposited on beaches. This litter may come from the sea and through land-based pathways, either from remote or adjacent areas. Dirty beaches can derive in loss of aesthetical value, beach cleaning cost, environmental harm or tourism revenue reduction among others. Therefore, local authorities have started to search for cost-effective approaches to understand and reduce litter accumulation in their beaches. A model is presented in this paper, which is based on Bayesian Networks and enables the forecasting of marine litter beaching at seven beaches located on the south-eastern coast of the Bay of Biscay. The model uses 9.5 years of metocean, environmental and beach cleaning data. The class to predict was defined as a variable with two possible values: Low and High accumulation of beach litter. The obtained models reached an average accuracy of 65.3 ± 6.4%, being the river flow, precipitation, wind and wave the most significant predictors and likely drivers of litter accumulation in beaches. These models may provide some insight to local authorities on the drivers affecting the litter beaching and may help to define their strategies for its reduction., This research was supported by the European Union (LIFE LEMA project, LIFE15/ENV/ES/000252). Igor Granado has been benefited from a grant from the Training of Technologists Programme of the Department of Economic Development and Infrastructures of the Basque Government. Jose A. Fernandes work is funded by the Gipuzkoa Talent Fellowships by Gipuzkoa Provincial Council. Jerónimo Hernández-González holds a grant (Juan de la Cierva - Incorporación) from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

Numerical models point to the south-east Bay of Biscay as a convergence area for floating particles, including plastics. The few existing studies on plastic abundance in the area mainly focus on open waters and yet information on the coastal area is limited. To fill this gap, neustonic samples were taken along the coastal waters of the south-east Bay of Biscay (2017-2020) to define the spatial distribution of plastic abundances and composition. Results show an average plastic abundance of 739,395 ± 2,625,271 items/km

This report describes the governance of the European HF radar network including: the landscape of the Ocean observation networks and infrastructures, the role and links between operators of observational systems and stakeholders, the role and activities of the EuroGOOS HF radar Task Team in building a sound community strategy, the roadmap of the community with current achievements and future work lines.

The JUVENA survey was funded by the ‘Viceconsejería de Agricultura, Pesca y Políticas Alimentarias ‐ Departamento de Desarrollo Económico y Sostenibilidad y Medio Ambiente’ of the Basque Government, the ‘Secretaría General de Pesca, Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente’ of the Spanish Government and by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO). This research was funded by the Spanish Government (Ministry of Science and Innovation) through the CHALLENGES (CTM2013‐47032‐R) and the EPELECO (RTI2018‐101591‐B‐I00) projects, the Basque Government (‘Viceconsejería de Agricultura, Pesca y Políticas Alimentarias ‐ Departamento de Desarrollo Económico, Sostenibilidad y Medio Ambiente’) through the ECOPES project as well as the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission (Contract No. 862428, Atlantic Mission: Mapping and assessing present and future status of Atlantic marine ecosystems under climate change and exploitation). A.A. has benefited from a Basque Government scholarship (PRE_2016_1_0134) and M.L. from Ramón y Cajal funding (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, RYC‐2012‐09897). Special thanks are given to the crew on board R/V Emma Bardán and R/V Ramón Margalef and all the AZTI and Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) staff who participated in JUVENA surveys for their excellent job and collaborative support. This paper received contribution nº 1013 from AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA). Aim: Understanding the mechanisms that allow the coexistence of species is key to preserve full ecosystem functioning. In dynamic environments, the study of ecological niches faces the complexity associated to the three dimensionality of the habitat and requires information that reflects such heterogeneity. Within this context, this study intends to identify the segregation mechanisms behind the co-occurrence of five phylogenetically related pelagic birds by applying a functional perspective based on seabirds' vertical ranges and prey availability features such as depth and body size. Location: Bay of Biscay. Methods Based on the hypothesis that niche differentiation may occur in any of the three dimensions of the marine environment, we (a) identified the biologically meaningful vertical range affecting seabird species, (b) modelled their environmental and trophic niches, (c) estimated an environmental and trophic overlap index for each pairwise species, and (d) developed a conceptual framework with the most plausible segregation hypotheses. Results: The application of the conceptual framework revealed that in this particular area, pelagic birds coexist through environmental and trophic niche partitioning and potentially through vertical segregation, based on the different biologically meaningful vertical ranges we identified for each species. Indeed, some species responded to prey and oceanographic conditions on the surface (10 m), while others responded to the conditions on deeper waters (above the depth of maximum temperature gradient). These different responses could be interpreted as an additional mechanism to reduce competition, although seabirds diving records would be needed to contrast this hypothesis. Main conclusions: Niche differentiation was found to be primarily driven by trophic and environmental niche partitioning, although species were also influenced by conditions on the vertical dimension. Considering all the dimensions of the niche is essential to fully understand how diving seabirds coexist in dynamic systems and provides insights on species' 3D niches that may help advance into their management. Publisher PDF

The role of coastal mesoscale variability in the modulation of surface along-shelf and cross-shelf exchanges in the SE Bay of Biscay has been demonstrated by several works, from land-based and satellite observations, including high resolution current fields from high-frequency (HF) radars. However, the characterization of physical processes and associated transports at subsurface levels from observations remains a challenge since observations are often too scarce to offer the required spatio-temporal resolution and coverage. In addition to the numerical modelling, the use of methods to reconstruct three-dimensional (3D) current fields from the combination of multiplatform data offers an alternative approach for the study of 3D properties of mesoscale coastal processes, and an improved background to explore bio-physical interactions. Studying the physical properties of coastal mesoscale structures at subsurface levels, where primary production and plankton concentration peak, is key to understand the coupling between physical and biological processes. In this work, we use a previously validated data-reconstruction method and different CMEMS products (coastal simulations, observations from HF radar, satellite, mooring) and glider data, to better characterize the 3D structure of a coastal mode-water eddy and its associated water volume transport. Different Lagrangian properties (maps of particle density, residence times, Lagrangian eddy kinetic energy) obtained at surface and subsurface levels provide a new insight into the water volume transports associated with the main coastal processes in the area.

Keywords: marine litter; coastal ocean modeling; video monitoring; satellite observation; Bay of BiscayThe service “Floating Marine Litter Tracking”, or “FML-TRACK” is a downstream service from Copernicus Marine Service, aiming at providing an operational support to reduce Floating Marine Litter (FML) in the coastal area. More precisely, FML-TRACK aims at supporting FML reduction strategies both downstream (interception at sea with collect vessels and on beaches with cleaning facilities) and upstream (source identification and reduction), by tracking the dispersion of FML in estuaries and in the coastal ocean. Using a combination of innovative detection technologies and operational metocean modelling, the service produces tailored decision-aid indicators to monitor and guide FML collect operations, including day-to-day operation support in near real time. Guidance offered by these indicators help maximizing the amount of FML removed from the natural environment, while at the same time contributing to reduce the cost and impacts of operations (i.e. cost per kilogram of collected FML, fuel consumption, carbon footprint). Moreover, tracking technologies contribute to the reduction of FML emission at the source, by helping identifying most probable emission sectors depending on metocean conditions.To achieve these purposes, FML-TRACK combines innovative detection solutions based on video monitoring in rivers and satellite imagery in the coastal area, together with metocean-based FML transport modelling. In the operational mode of the service, it provides a decision-aid dashboard supporting day-to-day FML collect operations. The dashboard offers indicators aiming at guiding FML collect operations, to monitor and optimize their efficiency. It especially provides a tracking of FML in the coastal area and a prediction of concentration hotspots to guide collect vessel at sea; and anticipate massive onshore arrivals to help beach cleaning at land.The service was demonstrated in the coastal area of the South-Eastern Bay of Biscay, part of the Iberian-Biscay-Ireland regional seas. It took benefit of pre-existing components developed during the former LIFE LEMA program, which were further improved and complemented to bring the tool and service to a new stage, compatible with a realistic application in an operational context.Main end-users of the service are coastal public administrations involved in the reduction of FML in their region. End-users can also be private companies operating sea or beach cleaning. Fishermen who can be involved in FML collect effort (actively or passively) may also use the service as a support to operations and/or to participate in the monitoring program. Finally, the service may also be of interest for NGOs and scientists committed to the study of and fight against FML, through either participation to the monitoring and/or use of the database for science, awareness and education.

The European Blue Growth perspective suggests a larger share in global economic productionand food security appointed to the marine and coastal zone and an increase of marine and coastalinfrastructures and operations. However, this growth must be aligned with increasingenvironmental constraints as well as complying and restoring regulations and frameworks. Thecompliance of growth and sustainability requires the adoption of economically and ecologicallyefficient behaviours, based on a wider incorporation of available information and knowledge fromthe industry and citizens alike. Marine and coastal managers must make decisions to maintainthe social, economic, and ecological health of marine and coastal areas while operating, planningand managing their activities at sea.The European funded FORCOAST project represents a step forward in this direction by bringingthe coastal water quality and met-ocean information closer to the target sectors: wild fisheries,oyster grounds restoration, and bivalve mariculture. FORCOAST will develop, test anddemonstrate, in operational mode, novel Copernicus-based downstream information services thatwill incorporate and combine Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS),Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) and Climate Change Monitoring Service (CMS),local monitoring data and advanced modelling in the service.FORCOAST will provide consistent high-resolution data products for coastal applications, basedon a standardized data processing scheme. The services of FORCOAST will provide managerialtools (e.g decision support, user warnings, on-demand case study) built upon those products andimplemented through cloud-processing infrastructures.FORCOAST will develop and provide those services in eight pilot service uptake sites coveringfive different regional waters (North Sea, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and thecoastal Atlantic Ocean). Each of those pilots gathers marine information producers (eg. models),providers (dissemination) and user (operating SMEs), to ensure inter-sectoral consistency.The outcome of FORCOAST is a novel commercial service that will provide Copernicus-baseddownstream information coastal services to a variety of stakeholders, which will result in anoperation, planning and management improvement of different marine activities in the sectors ofwild fisheries and aquaculture, having an economic and societal positive effect on the involvedparties.*This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovationprogramme under grant agreement No 870465

Windrow is a long-established term for the aggregations of seafoam, seaweeds, plankton and natural debris that appear on the ocean surface. Here, we define a "litter windrow" as any aggregation of floating litter at the submesoscale domain (, This study is an outcome of the research project entitled "MappingWindrows as Proxy for Marine Litter Monitoring from Space" (WASP), funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) Contract No. 4000130627/20/NL/GLC, within the Discovery Campaign in Marine Litter. AC had additional support from MIDaS (CTM2016-77106-R, AEI/FEDER/UE), and SA from PRIN 2017-2017WERYZP-EMME project. AI was supported by the Environmental Research and Technology Development Fund (JPMEERF18S20201) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, and by SATREPS of Japan International Cooperation Agency and Japan Science and Technology Agency. OB and AR contribution was funded through the EU's LIFE Program (LIFE LEMA project, grant agreement no. LIFE15 ENV/ES/000252). This is contribution number 1016 of AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA).

Coastal mesoscale eddies are important oceanic structures partially responsible for regulating ocean-shelf exchanges. However, their description and characterization are challenging; observations are often too scarce for studying their physical properties and environmental impacts at the required spatio-temporal resolution. Therefore, models and data extrapolation methods are key tools for this purpose. Observations from high-frequency radar, one satellite and two gliders, are used here to better characterize the three-dimensional structure of a coastal mode-water eddy from a multiplatform approach in the southeastern Bay of Biscay in spring 2018. After the joint analysis of the observations, a three-dimensional data reconstruction method is applied to reconstruct the eddy current velocity field and estimate the associated water volume transport. The target eddy is detected by surface observations (high-frequency radar and satellite) for two weeks and presents similar dimensions and lifetimes as other eddies studied previously in the same location. However, this is the first time that the water column properties are also observed for this region, which depicts a mode-water eddy behavior, i.e., an uplift of the isopycnals in the near-surface and a downlift deeper in the water column. The reconstructed upper water column (1–100 m) eddy dynamics agree with the geostrophic dynamics observed by one of the gliders and result in cross-shelf inshore (offshore) volume transports between 0.04 (−0.01) and 0.15 (−0.11) Sv. The multiplatform data approach and the data reconstruction method are here highlighted as useful tools to characterize and three-dimensionally reconstruct coastal mesoscale processes in coastal areas., SI

Satellite altimeters provide continuous information of the sea level variability and mesoscale processes for the global ocean. For estimating the sea level above the geoid and monitoring the full ocean dynamics from altimeters measurements, a key reference surface is needed: The Mean Dynamic Topography (MDT). However, in coastal areas, where, in situ measurements are sparse and the typical scales of the motion are generally smaller than in the deep ocean, the global MDT solutions are less accurate than in the open ocean, even if significant improvement has been done in the past years. An opportunity to fill in this gap has arisen with the growing availability of long time-series of high-resolution HF radar surface velocity measurements in some areas, such as the south-eastern Bay of Biscay. The prerequisite for the computation of a coastal MDT, using the newly available data of surface velocities, was to obtain a robust methodology to remove the ageostrophic signal from the HF radar measurements, in coherence with the scales resolved by the altimetry. To that end, we first filtered out the tidal and inertial motions, and then, we developed and tested a method that removed the Ekman component and the remaining divergent part of the flow. A regional high-resolution hindcast simulation was used to assess the method. Then, the processed HF radar geostrophic velocities were used in synergy with additional in situ data, altimetry, and gravimetry to compute a new coastal MDT, which shows significant improvement compared with the global MDT. This study showcases the benefit of combining satellite data with continuous, high-frequency, and synoptic in situ velocity data from coastal radar measurements; taking advantage of the different scales resolved by each of the measuring systems. The integrated analysis of in situ observations, satellite data, and numerical simulations has provided a further step in the understanding of the local ocean processes, and the new MDT a basis for more reliable monitoring of the study area. Recommendations for the replicability of the methodology in other coastal areas are also provided. Finally, the methods developed in this study and the more accurate regional MDT could benefit present and future high-resolution altimetric missions.

Mesoscale dynamics play a major role in several ocean processes, not only in the transport of momentum, heat, mass, particles and microorganisms but also in the provisioning of nutrients into the euphotic zone. Mesoscale processes can define niches where specific phytoplankton species flourish. However, this effect is not straightforward in coastal areas, which are submitted to a more complex interplay between different oceanic processes. In this context, the ETOILE campaign surveyed the CapBreton canyon area in the South-East of Bay of Biscay in early August 2017. The main objective of this study was to link the occurrence and distribution of phytoplankton with the mesoscale ocean processes. On top of the remote sensing data available for this area, such as High Frequency radar or satellite data, in situ discrete hydrographic measurements were carried out by a CTD and a Moving Vessel Profiler. Likewise, multi-spectral fluorescence casts were performed in selected stations. Other parameters such as temperature, conductivity and in vivo multi-spectral fluorescence were also continuously recorded at surface. From our observations, we discuss on the distinct effect and importance of different factors affecting the phytoplankton distribution. Overall, salinity is the most important parameter modulating not only algae distribution but also the composition of the community in terms of spectral groups. Although below the mixed layer salinity still impacts significantly phytoplankton, vorticity comes into play and becomes the dominant factor determining both distribution and composition. The present study brings into consideration the relevance of the hydrodynamical variables in the study of phytoplankton.

Large scale convergence regions of floating marine litter are commonly observed in semi-enclosed seas as the Bay of Biscay. However, clean-up activities on such accumulation regions are limited by the spread of the large-size floating litter on the sea surface. Data gathered by a small-scale fishing vessel devoted to active fishing for floating litter activities during the spring and summer of 2018 reveals that the linear streaks of high concentration of floating litter (so-called litter “windrows”) are common accumulation structures in the south-east coast of the Bay of Biscay. The random search of litter windrows for their collection through surface tows of macro-nets was proved to be an effective action for floating litter mitigation. A total of 196 tows collected 16.2 tons of floating marine litter in 68 working days. Most of the litter windrows were around 1 km length and, on average, accumulated 77.75 kg of floating marine litter. Fishing, shipping and aquaculture sectors were the source of 35% of the 4,130 litter items analyzed (55% in weight of the sourced items), and plastic was the most common type of material (96% in terms of items). A better understanding of the phenomenon of the litter windrows, capable to guide clean-up efforts in space and time, would provide a considerable improvement in the efficiency of mitigation actions to reduce the marine litter pollution. The observations of litter windrows in the coastal area of the south-east of the Bay of Biscay demonstrate the key role of submesoscale processes in the distribution of FML. The present work provides a thorough description of floating litter windrows in nature, which it was nonexistent to date. The results are the kind of proof necessary to boost the research addressed on the submesoscale aggregations of FML. Coupling litter windrows observations with remote-sensing technology and high-resolution modelling techniques offer great opportunities for the mitigation actions against marine litter.

Rivers act as pathways to the ocean of significant but unquantified amounts of plastic pollution. Measuring with precision the quantities of riverine plastic inputs is crucial to support and ensure the effectiveness of prevention and mitigation waste management actions. However, there is a lack of technological tools capable of monitoring and, consequently, assessing accurately plastic abundances and its temporal variability through river water surfaces. Within the LIFE LEMA project, two videometry systems were installed at the river mouths of two European rivers (Oria in Spain and Adour in France) and a detection algorithm was developed to monitor litter inputs in near real time . The objective of these developments was to detect riverine pollution at water surface, with the goal of quantifying the number and providing data on the travel speed and size of the floating items. Between 2018 and 2020, the system was tested under different environmental conditions. These tests have led to develop a second version of the algorithm that improves the results reducing false positives. After these improvements, a new validation has been carried out consisting in detailed analysis of more than 300 short videos of 5 minutes duration recorded in Orio’s station under different river flows, weather conditions and plastic loads. The validation results highlighted the operational reliability of the system. In a scale of 1 to 5 scoring (being 1 very bad and 5 very good) over 70% of the recordings scored 4 to 5. This also demonstrated the great potential of the videometry system in harmonizing visual observations of floating riverine litter. The data provided by the systems is currently being used in the LEMA TOOL, a tool designed to guide local authorities on managing, monitoring and forecasting marine litter presence and abundances in coastal waters of the SE Bay of Biscay. Furthermore, the data provided is key to evaluate the sources of the pollution and the efficiency of waste management measures within the river basins, towards a successful reduction of plastic inputs into the ocean.

The use of High Frequency Radar (HFR) data is increasing worldwide for operational oceanography and data assimilation, as it provides real-time coastal surface currents at high temporal and spatial resolution. In this work, a Lagrangian based empirical real-time, Short-Term Prediction (L-STP) system is presented in order to provide short term forecasts of up to 48 hours of ocean currents from HFR data. The method is based on the finding of historical gridded analogues of Lagrangian trajectories obtained from HFR surface currents. Then, assuming that the present state will follow the same temporal evolution as did the historical analogue, we obtain a short-term prediction of the surface currents. The method is applied to two HFR systems covering two areas with different dynamical characteristics: the southeast Bay of Biscay and the central Red Sea. The L-STP improves on previous prediction systems implemented for the SE Bay of Biscay and provides good results for the Red Sea study area. A comparison of the L-STP methodology with predictions based on persistence and reference fields has been performed in order to quantify the error introduced by this Lagrangian approach. Furthermore, a temporal sensitivity analysis has been addressed to determine the limit of applicability of the methodology regarding the temporal horizon of Lagrangian prediction. A real-time skill-score has been developed using the results of this analysis which allows to identify periods when the short-term prediction performance is more likely to be low and persistence can be used as a better predictor for the future currents.

High Frequency Radar (HFR) technology refers to land based remote sensing instruments capable of measuring surface currents and ocean waves at ranges up to 200 km or more. HFR technology is widely acknowledged as a cost-efficient tool to monitor coastal regions and has potential use to monitor coastal regions all over the world. Globally, the number of HFR stations is steadily increasing. Regional networks provide real-time data in support of operational activities such as search and rescue operations, fast response in case of maritime accidents and spill of pollutants, and resource management. Each operator needs a general understanding of the working principles in order to ensure that instruments are managed properly. A set of harmonized quality assurance and quality control procedures is recommended, along with an effective approach to HFR data discovery and dissemination, to provide high quality measurements to the end users. Different documents providing best practices for operation and maintenance have emerged in the past years. They are oriented either to Direction Finding (DF) or Beam Forming (BF) systems, or to specific manufacturer’s radar systems. The main objective of this paper is to offer a comprehensive “Best Practices” document in an effort of ensuring consistency between different deployments and harmonized operations of HFR systems. This, regardless of system manufacturer, antenna design and setup. A homogeneous approach is given when possible, general concepts and definitions are introduced in order to provide a framework for both data processing and management steps. Examples are also given from the European HFR users with focus on Near Real Time data flow suitable for operational services.

The effective monitoring and understanding of the dynamics of coastal currents is crucial for the development of environmentally sustainable coastal activities in order to preserve marine ecosystems as well as to support marine and navigation safety. This need is driving the set-up of a growing number of multiplatform operational observing systems, aiming for the continuous monitoring of the coastal ocean. A significant percentage of the existing observatories is equipped with land-based high-frequency radars (HFRs), which provide real-time currents with high spatio-temporal coverage and resolutions. Several approaches have been used in the past to expand the surface current velocity measurements provided by HFR to subsurface levels, since this can expand the application of the technology to other fields, like marine ecology or fisheries. The possibility of obtaining 3D velocity current fields from the combination of data from HFRs with complementary data, such as the velocity current profiles provided by in situ acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) moorings is explored here. To that end, two different methods to reconstruct the 3D current velocity fields are assessed by a standard approach conceptually similar to OSSEs (observing system simulation experiments), where 3D numerical simulations are used as true ocean in order to evaluate the performance of the data-reconstruction methods. The observations of currents from a HFR and ADCP moorings are emulated by extracting the corresponding data from the 3D true ocean, and used as input for the methods. Then, the 3D reconstructed fields (outputs of the methods) are compared to the true ocean to assess the skills of the data-reconstruction methods. These methods are based on different approaches: on the one hand, the reduced order optimal interpolation uses an approximation to the velocity covariances (which can be obtained from historical data or a realistic numerical simulation) and on the other hand, the discrete cosine transform penalized least square is based on penalized least squares regression that balances fidelity to the data and smoothness of the solution. This study, which is based on the configuration of a real observatory located in the south-eastern Bay of Biscay (SE-BoB), is a first step towards the application of the data-reconstruction methods to real data, since it explores their skills and limitations. In the SE-BoB, where the coastal observatory includes a long-range HFR and two ADCP moorings inside the HFR footprint area, the results show satisfactory 3D reconstructions with mean spatial (for each depth level) errors between 0.55 and 7 cm s−1 for the first 150 m depth and mean relative errors of 0.07–1.2 times the rms value for most of the cases. The data-reconstruction methods perform better in well-sampled areas, and both show promising skills for the 3D reconstruction of currents as well as for the computation of new operational products integrating complementary observations, broadening the applications of the in situ observational data in the study area.

Editors: Karina von Schuckmann; Pierre-Yves Le Traon.-- Review Editors: Neville Smith (Chair); Ananda Pascual; Samuel Djavidnia; Jean-Pierre Gattuso; Marilaure Grégoire; Glenn Nolan., The authors would like to thank the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya (ICGC) for providing data. Thanks are due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017/2019), through national funds., Chapter 1: Introduction and the European Environment policy framework.-- CMEMS OSR4, Chapter 2: State, variability and change in the ocean.-- CMEMS OSR4, Chapter 3: Case studies.-- CMEMS OSR4, Chapter 4: Specific events 2018.

In the Bay of Biscay, regional monitoring programmes and data on abundance and distribution of floating marine litter are scarce, contrary to many other European marine regions. Here, a joint analysis of multiyear observations (2017-2019) of floating micro and macrolitter and oceanographic conditions was conducted for the Bay of Biscay by combining microlitter samplings with neuston nets and vessel-based macrolitter observations. Results show spatiotemporal abundance and distribution patterns. The density of floating microlitter increased from 26,056 items/km

Rapid spread of resistance to vancomycin has generated difficult to treat bacterial pathogens worldwide. Though vancomycin resistance is often conferred by the conjugative transposon Tn1549, it is yet unclear whether Tn1549 moves actively between bacteria. Here we demonstrate, through development of an in vivo assay system, that a mini-Tn1549 can transpose in E. coli away from its natural Gram-positive host. We find the transposon-encoded INT enzyme and its catalytic tyrosine Y380 to be essential for transposition. A second Tn1549 protein, XIS is important for efficient and accurate transposition. We further show that DNA flanking the left transposon end is critical for excision, with changes to nucleotides 7 and 9 impairing movement. These mutations could be partially compensated for by changing the final nucleotide of the right transposon end, implying concerted excision of the two ends. With changes in these essential DNA sequences, or without XIS, a large amount of flanking DNA transposes with Tn1549. This rescues mobility and allows the transposon to capture and transfer flanking genomic DNA. We further identify the transposon integration target sites as TTTT-N6-AAAA. Overall, our results provide molecular insights into conjugative transposition and the adaptability of Tn1549 for efficient antibiotic resistance transfer.

Introduction The birth plan allows the woman to express her expectations and needs with regards to the childbearing continuum but its use has been debated in the clinical context and in published literature. The birth plan was first introduced in the Spanish Health Service in 2008 through the Strategy for the Care in Normal Childbirth. In Catalonia, the Normal Childbirth Care Programme has promoted the use of birth plans in hospitals participating in this Programme. Objective This works describes and analyses the birth plans produced by the participating hospitals in order to gather knowledge about the options available to women. Method Qualitative study in which the content of birth plans is systematically and quantitatively described in order to evaluate options available to women. The final sample includes all the birth plans provided by 30 Catalonian public hospitals. Following an initial assessment, it was decided to devise a grading scale which allowed to code and assign a value to each of the items contained in the birth plans. Results Three different types of birth plan are identified: a) those which present a list of items with no (or very little) associated explanations, b) list of items with some explanations and c) plans without items which only explain normal working practices in the hospital and/or protocols.

Microplastics (MPs) are an environmental problem of growing concern, and several studies have defined the Bay of Biscay (BoB) as a marine litter accumulation area. To address the abundance of MPs in this region, a critical overview is presented compiling the research performed to date on the different water bodies, sediments and biota. The comparative assessment highlights high spatial and temporal variability in MP distribution. MPs appear in at least 50% of the samples in waters and sediments. Polypropylene, polyethylene, polyester and polystyrene are the most frequent polymers, with a significant predominance of fragments and fibres. The BoB can be considered a region with medium concentration of MPs. However, monitoring programmes are needed to compile data over time and thus evaluate the historical trends of MP pollution. The difficulty of comparing studies is highlighted, due to the use of different methodologies. Hence, the harmonisation of monitoring methods is urgently required.

Monitoring and investigating the dynamics of coastal currents is crucial for the development of environmentally sustainable coastal activities, in order to preserve marine ecosystems as well as to support marine and navigation safety. This need is driving the set-up of a growing number of multiplatform operational observing systems, aiming to the continuous monitoring of the coastal ocean. A significant percent of the existing observatories is today equipped with land-based High Frequency Radars (HFR), which provide real-time currents with unprecedent coverage and resolution, limited however, to the surface layer. The combination of data from HFR with complementary data from in-situ platforms providing information of the currents at subsurface layers (ADCP moorings) is investigated here to reconstruct the 3D current velocity field from in-situ observations. For this purpose, two methods based on different approaches are used. On the one hand, the Reduced Order Optimal Interpolation which is fed, in this case, with a spatial covariance matrix extracted from a realistic numerical oceanic simulation; and on the other hand, the Discrete Cosine Transform Penalized Least Square, which is a data gap-filling method based on penalized least squares regression that balances fidelity to the data and smoothness of the solution. As a proof of concept, we test the methods’ skills by using emulated observations of currents, extracted from a numerical simulation (3D reference field). The test set-up emulates the real observatory scenario in the study area (south-eastern Bay of Biscay), which includes a long-range HFR and two ADCP moorings inside the HFR footprint area. Then, the reconstructed fields (outputs of the methods) are compared with the 3D reference fields. In general, the results show satisfactory 3D reconstructions with mean spatial (for each depth level) errors between 0.55–10.94 cm s−1 for the first 150 m depth. The methods perform better in well sampled areas, and although different performances between the methods are observed, both show promising skills for the computation of new operational products integrating complementary observations, broadening the applications of in-situ observational data.

The fundamental role of the ocean for life and well-being on Earth is more and more recognised at the highest political level. In 2015, the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development were adopted by world leaders. The SDG 14 ‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development’ is dedicated to the oceans. The mention of the ocean in the Paris Agreement signed in 2016 marked a decisive milestone. In 2018, the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) has been proclaimed (https://en.unesco.org/ocean-decade): The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO will gather ocean stakeholders worldwide behind a common framework to foster evidence-based policy-making. In fall 2019, the IPCC special report on ocean and cryosphere will be published, and will provide an opportunity to increase awareness and action before COP251 (already claimed as ‘Blue COP’).

Academic, government, and private organizations from around the globe have established High Frequency radar (hereinafter, HFR) networks at regional or national levels. Partnerships have been established to coordinate and collaborate on a single global HFR network (http://global-hfradar.org/ ). These partnerships were established in 2012 as part of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) to promote HFR technology and increase data sharing among operators and users. The main product of HFR networks are continuous maps of ocean surface currents within 200 km of the coast at high spatial (1-6 km) and temporal resolution (hourly or higher). Cutting-edge remote sensing technologies are becoming a standard component for ocean observing systems, contributing to the paradigm shift towards ocean monitoring. In 2017 the Global HFR Network was recognized by the Joint Technical WMO-IOC Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) as an observing network of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). In this paper we will discuss the development of the network as well as establishing goals for the future. The U.S. High Frequency Radar Network (HFRNet) has been in operation for over thirteen years, with radar data being ingested from 31 organizations including measurements from Canada and Mexico. HFRNet currently holds a collection from over 150 radar installations totaling millions of records of surface ocean velocity measurements. During the past 10 years in Europe, HFR networks have been showing steady growth with over 60 stations currently deployed and many in the planning stage. In Asia and Oceania countries, more than 110 radar stations are in operation. HFR technology can be found in a wide range of applications: for marine safety, oil spill response, tsunami warning, pollution assessment, coastal zone management, tracking environmental change, numerical model simulation of 3-dimensional circulation, and research to generate new understanding of coastal ocean dynamics, depending mainly on each country's coastal sea characteristics. These radar networks are examples of national inter-agency and inter-institutional partnerships for improving oceanographic research and operations. As global partnerships grow, these collaborations and improved data sharing enhances our ability to respond to regional, national, and global environmental and management issues.

Marine litter is identified as the major ocean pollution today, with a significant impact on the environment. The transport of litter by ocean circulation is still poorly understood, and the manage...

© The Author(s) 2019., Human mitochondrial DNA (h-mtDNA) codes for 13 subunits of the oxidative phosphorylation pathway, the essential route that produces ATP. H-mtDNA transcription and replication depends on the transcription factor TFAM, which also maintains and compacts this genome. It is well-established that TFAM activates the mtDNA promoters LSP and HSP1 at the mtDNA control region where DNA regulatory elements cluster. Previous studies identified still uncharacterized, additional binding sites at the control region downstream from and slightly similar to LSP, namely sequences X and Y (Site-X and Site-Y) (Fisher et al., Cell 50, pp 247–258, 1987). Here, we explore TFAM binding at these two sites and compare them to LSP by multiple experimental and in silico methods. Our results show that TFAM binding is strongly modulated by the sequence-dependent properties of Site-X, Site-Y and LSP. The high binding versatility of Site-Y or the considerable stiffness of Site-X tune TFAM interactions. In addition, we show that increase in TFAM/DNA complex concentration induces multimerization, which at a very high concentration triggers disruption of preformed complexes. Therefore, our results suggest that mtDNA sequences induce non-uniform TFAM binding and, consequently, direct an uneven distribution of TFAM aggregation sites during the essential process of mtDNA compaction., Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, MINECO [BFU2012-33516, BFU2015-70645-R, RTI2018-101015-B-100 to M.S; BIO2015-64802-R, BFU2014-61670-EXP and BFU2014-52864-R to M.O., BIO2016-78006R to M.P.) Generalitat de Catalunya (2014-SGR-997 and 2017-SGR-1192 to M.S.; 2014-SGR-134 to M.O.), the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Instituto Nacional de Bioinformática; the European Union (FP7-HEALTH-2010-261460, FP7-PEOPLE-2011-290246, FP7-HEALTH-2012-306029-2 to M.S.; H2020-EINFRA-2015-676556 to M.O.). The Biomolecular and Bioinformatics Resources Platform (ISCIII PT 13/000/0030 co-funded by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional [FEDER]) [grants Elixir-Excelerate: 676559; BioExcel2:823830 and MuG: 676566] to M.O. P.F.-M. was awarded with FPI fellowship from MINECO, A.R.C. a JAE fellowship from Spanish Research Council (CSIC), an A. T-S. an FPU from Ministry of Education, Professional Formation (MEFP). A.T.-S. is doing his PhD thesis under the frame of the Doctorate Program Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biomedicine of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The Structural Biology Unit at IBMB-CSIC is a “Maria de Maeztu” Unit of Excellence awarded by MINECO [MDM-2014-0435]. IRB Barcelona is the recipient of a Severo Ochoa Award of Excellence from MINECO. M.O. is an ICREA Academia researcher. Funding for open access charge: Spanish Ministry of Innovation, Science and Universities, formerly Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [BFU2015-70645-R].

Since January 2009, two long-range high-frequency (HF) radar systems have been collecting hourly high-spatial-resolution surface current data in the southeastern corner of the Bay of Biscay. The temporal resolution of the HF radar surface currents permits simulating drifter trajectories with the same time step as that of real drifters deployed in the region in 2009. The main goal of this work is to compare real drifter trajectories with trajectories computed from HF radar currents obtained using different methods, including forecast currents. Open-boundary modal analysis (OMA) is applied to the radar radial velocities and then a linear autoregressive model on the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) decomposition of an historical data series is used to forecast OMA currents. Additionally, the accuracy of the forecast method in terms of the spatial and temporal distribution of the Lagrangian distances between observations and forecasts is investigated for a 4-yr period (2009–12). The skills of the different HF radar products are evaluated within a 48-h window. The mean distances between real trajectories and their radar-derived counterparts range from 4 to 5 km for real-time and forecast currents after 12 hours of simulations. The forecast model improves persistence (i.e., the simulations obtained by using the last available OMA fields as a constant variable) after 6 hours of simulation and improves the estimation of trajectories up to 28% after 48 hours. The performance of the forecast is observed to be variable in space and time, related to the different ocean processes governing the local ocean circulation.

Coastal HF radar systems provide operational measurements of coastal surface currents with high spatial (~ 1–5 km) and temporal (~ hourly) sampling resolution while the near continuous altimetry missions afford, from 1993 to nowadays, information of geostrophic currents in the global ocean with typical along-track and temporal sampling resolutions of > 7 km and > 9 days, respectively. During the last years, the altimetry community has made a step forward in improving these data in the coastal area, where the data present lower quality than in the open ocean. The combination of HF radar and altimetry measurements arises as a promising strategy to improve the continuous monitoring of the coastal area (e.g. by expanding the measurements made by HF radars to adjacent areas covered by the altimetry, or by validating/confirming improvements brought by specific coastal algorithms or new altimeter missions). A first step towards this combination is the comparison of both datasets in the overlapping areas. In this study, a HF radar system and two Jason-2 satellite altimetry products with different processing (CTOH and CMEMS) are compared over the period from 1 January 2009 to 24 July 2015. The results provide an evaluation of the performance of different coastal altimetry datasets within the study area and a better understanding of the ocean variability contained in the HF radar and both altimetry data sets. The variability of the radar and altimetry measurements is higher near the coast, and both observing systems detect the Iberian Poleward Current and eddies, which are the main mesoscale processes within the study area. The highest correlations between radar and altimetry (up to 0.64) take place in the slope, where the Iberian Poleward Current represents a significant part of the mesoscale variability. Besides, the use of a simple Ekman model to add the wind-induced current component to the to the altimetry-derived geostrophic currents increases the agreement between both data sets (increasing the correlation in around 10 %).