Thanks to dedicated resources under the BDF project, the Latvian Institute of Aqauatic Ecology (LHEI) have improved capacities to share Latvian marine monitoring data with the launch of LatMare (latmare.lhei.lv), an online database platform.
Rita Poikane, the project focal point at LHEI, states the objectives: “LatMare aims to increase overall monitoring data availability and transparency of the decision-making based on the data“.
LatMare offers open access to Latvian marine monitoring data from 1995 on the following data types:
- Oceanographic in-situ data (including nutrients and chlorophyll-a)
- Contaminants in biota and in sediment
- Biological observations (Zooplankton, Phytoplankton, Zoobenthos)
- Meteorological observations
Users can search for data by defining parameters of interest such as reporting period, cruise, monitoring station, etc. (see screenshot below). An interactive map is also featured with placemarks for each monitoring station and polygons to clearly separate monitoring regions. Users can then extract the data for download into XLS format.
Rita Poikane emphasizes that; “LatMare data is public and LHEI encourages its use to increase regional understanding and improved rapid management of the Baltic Sea”.
In efforts to encourage data accessibility and reuse specific monitoring data is also featured on the Latvian Data Portal (data.gov.lv), for example the catalogue ‘Contaminants in fishes of the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Riga‘. This catalogue is also harvested via the European Data Portal (data.europa.eu).
LHEI are a partner of the BDF project with targeted engagement in Activity 1 (Increase of capacity at national data host institutes), Activity 5 (Further development of data processing and software used in hazardous substances assessment), and Activity 6 (Development of data processing and software to be used in biodiversity assessment).
