CARIMED (CARbon, tracers, and ancillary data In the MEDiterranean Sea): a ship-based data synthesis product - overview and quality control procedures

Date

2026-07-01

Author

Alvarez, Marta
Garcia-Ibanez, Maribel I.
Lange, Nico
Kozyr, Alex
Velo, Anton
Tanhua, Toste
Civitarese, Giuseppe
Cantoni, Carolina
Belgacem, Malek
Schroeder, Katrin
Acerbi, Ruben
Coppola, Laurent
Wagener, Thibaut
Fajar, Noelia M.
Flecha, Susana
Giani, Michele
Giannoudi, Louisa
Guallart, Elisa F.
Hassoun, Abed El Rahman
Huertas, Emma I.
IBELLO, VALERİA
Keraghel, Mehdia A.
Louanchi, Ferial
Luchetta, Anna
Perez, Fiz F.
Schirnick, Carsten
Souvermezoglou, Ekaterini
Urbini, Lidia
Vidal, Montserrat
Ziveri, Patrizia

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

42
views

17
downloads

Cite This

The Mediterranean Sea (MedSea) is highly sensitive to climate-driven changes in temperature, oxygen, and pH, among other variables. To better assess these long-term trends, we developed CARIMED (CARbon, tracers, and ancillary data In the MEDiterranean Sea), the first comprehensive, harmonised data synthesis product for the MedSea. CARIMED integrates hydrographic, inorganic carbon, transient tracer, and ancillary measurements from 46 research cruises spanning the period from 1976 to 2018, containing observations for the entire water column across all MedSea sub-basins. A substantial component of the data was retrieved from fragmented or locally archived historical records, thus consolidating previously inaccessible measurements. Following global synthesis approaches, CARIMED applies a quality-controlled, and bias-adjusted framework. A key adaptation was the secondary quality control (2QC) procedure, specifically tailored to the MedSea's unique hydrography, utilising sub-basin divisions and supplementary checks (including statistical consistency assessments) to resolve complex, often contradictory, inter-cruise offsets. This rigorous process minimised systematic biases, yielding a dataset with improved consistency, and highlights the urgent need for adapted standard operating procedures and reference materials to address the MedSea biogeochemical particularities. CARIMED delivers two complementary, freely available products: the aggregated original cruise data product (10.20350/digitalCSIC/17785, Garc & iacute;a-Ib & aacute;& ntilde;ez et al., 2025) and the final bias-adjusted data synthesis product (10.25921/cp5b-zq67, & Aacute;lvarez et al., 2025; hosted at https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/ocean-carbon-acidification-data-system/oceans/CARIMED/, last access: 26 June 2026). This essential resource establishes a new benchmark for assessing long-term biogeochemical trends, validating regional ocean models, and supporting climate-change mitigation and adaptation strategies in this rapidly changing semi-enclosed basin.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/120592

Collections

Graduate School of Marine Sciences, Article