Maybe Deltares colleagues (e.g. Bas Borsje) have some interesting datasets, parameters such as bed shear stress and near bed salinity have considerable explaining power but maybe you're more interested in sea surface parameters.

In IMARES report "Kansenkaarten voor schelpdieren op basis van abiotiek en hun relatie tot het voorkomen van zwarte zee-eenden (C042/11)" they also modelled species distribution but only for the shallow coastal area using several statistical methods.

I can help with boasted regression trees if needed.

Hi Joop,

Did you check out http://marine.copernicus.eu/ ? There are several products available free of charge there (current velocity is among them)...

Hi Maarten, thank you for your answer, I must have a look at the Deltares datasets.

Pepijn, I looked at the Copernicus website and played with one dataset last week, I should have mentioned this in my question. I reached the conclusion that I probably need a smaller scale dataset as my species data is very local (max observation area

Hei Joop, 

may the CoastDat dataset of HZG is of help? It is a model based product with  a high spatial and temproal resolution for the currents (5km to 100m ), but is only 2-d (which might be OK for the shallower and coastal North Sea) (doi:

10.1594/WDCC/coastDat-1_Tide-Surge). They also provide current data and temperature and salinity with a 3-d model but with 20km resolution. A similar dataset but with a higher resolution of 10km is available (daily resolution) from our work with the ECOSMO model (Daewel & Schrum, 2013, from 1948-2008). From this model in addition to physics also biogeochemical parameters (Nitrate, ammonia, phosphate, Silicate, Particulate organic matter, dissolved organic matter, opal, diatoms, flagellates, zooplankton, organic sediments and primary and secondary production) are availble. 

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924796313000705

The webpage of ICES WGOOFE might be of help too, but I´m not sure how updated it is (at least our latest products and the CoastDat data are not on) http://www.ices.dk/community/groups/Pages/WGOOFE.aspx. For some reasons it is not possible to assess the product web-site, but this might be temporary.

Hope this was of help.

.

Hi Corinna,

Thank you for your suggestions. I looked at the CoastDat set (http://www.coastdat.de/data_all/hindcast1/index.php) and it has a better resolution in large parts of the North Sea. They have a 1.6km resolution for a smaller area and a netCDF available for download here: http://cera-www.dkrz.de/WDCC/ui/EntryList.jsp?acronym=coastDat-2_TRIM-NP-2d

Hi Joop,

A new publication just appeared

Monthly maps of optimally interpolated in situ hydrography in the North

Sea from 1948 to 2013 by Núñez-Riboni and Akimova in Journal of Marine Systems 151, 15-34

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmarsys.2015.06.003

Possibly this is useful to you.

Also check out this in situ temperature data logged along shipping routes. It may be useful to compare with the above-mentioned models.

http://www.sahfos.ac.uk/cpr-data/data-sets/temperature-data.aspx

They also have CPR (continuous plankton recorder) species data available, though I think there may be fees associated with analysis or retrieval.

http://www.sahfos.ac.uk/about-us/cpr-survey/the-cpr-survey.aspx

http://www.sahfos.ac.uk/cpr-data/cpr-data-for-model-validation.aspx

Sincerely,

Wayne

Hi Joop,

NOAA's ERDDAP (griddap) server also has a wealth of gridded data sets (satellite data, ocean model products). Often these are available on a global scale, in various resolutions (spatially as well as temporally; e.g. daily or weekly composites). 

Check it out: http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/index.html?page=1&itemsPerPage=1000

It is very easy to form an URL request in R and to download .nc files only for your study area. 

There is also an R-Package, called Xtracto. http://coastwatch.pfel.noaa.gov/xtracto/

Cheers, Anita

http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/index.html?page=1&itemsPerPage=1000