MAREANO's Chemistry Program is responsible for collecting, analysing and reporting of seabed sediments and their chemical composition including selected environmental contaminants. Results from MAREANO's chemistry program are available in The Marine Chemistry database for Norwegian waters (MarChem). Results from the project Marine Coastal Basemaps (Norwegian name: Marine grunnkart i kystsonen) are also included here.
The data accessible through this service are available under the CC-BY 4.0 and NLOD licenses. The data are also made available with DOI's at the Norwegian Marine Data Centre (NMDC; search for MarChem). If the data are used in scientific publications, we expect users to cite the data and make acknowledgements as specified at the MarChem datasets’ landing pages at NMDC.
The database contains (as of August 2024) organic data from MAREANO collected between 2006 and 2022. The data not yet imported to MarChem are: all inorganic chemistry and microplastics data; organic data from samples taken in 2003 and 2004; and organic data from the Marine grunnkart i kystsonen project. These ‘missing’ data are still available in the outdated Chemistry database (last updated March 2023) which will be phased out. This contains data up to and including the 2021 samples.
Detailed method descriptions for sampling and analysis are given in the following method documents:
The database is updated at the beginning of each year. The method documents are updated as needed.
Multicorer with sediment samples.
MAREANO has collected sediment samples since 2006 as part of mapping the composition of the seabed and its environmental status within the Norwegian marine territory (MAREANO Chemistry Program). These samples are analysed systematically for a range of parameters, incl. physical properties and inorganic and organic components, through the collaboration between the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) and the Institute for Marine Research (IMR). Results from these analyses are compiled in annual reports (in Norwegian) from NGU (physical properties and inorganic components) and from IMR (organic compounds).
The Chemistry Program has also analysed similar sediment samples collected by IMR in 2003-2004, prior to the official start of the MAREANO mapping in 2005.
