Datasets used on the analysis of Mediterranean Mass mortality events during the 2015-2019 period

This upload contains three datasets in CSV files and a PDF file with the specific description of the CSV files. These data was used for the analysis of the mass mortality events reported during the period 2015-2019 across the Mediterranean. The datasets are 1) a CSV file with the data used for the description of the spatial-temporal, depth and biological patterns of mortality observed in the Mediterranean Sea in the 2015-2019 period; 2) a CSV file with the data used to conduct the analyses on the relationship between marine heatwaves (MHW) days found on the surface (averaged per monitored area and year) and the corresponding mass mortality incidence of benthic organisms; 3) a CSV file with the data used to conduct the analyses on the relationship between in-situ MHW days (averaged per monitored area, depth and year) and the corresponding mass mortality incidence. Data were obtained through benthic community field surveys conducted by 33 research teams from 11 Mediterranean countries. Surveys covered thousands of kms of coastline, spanning 13º of latitude (32 °S to 45 °N) and 40º of longitude (-5°W to 35°E) in the Mediterranean Sea. The dataset provides the most updated inventory of mass mortality events records for benthic species between 2015-2019 in the region. The surveys were conducted in 142 monitoring areas. Monitoring areas were considered as geographic areas (10-25 km coastline, e.g., a marine protected area and the nearby coast) sharing common environmental features. In situ temperature conditions datasets base consists of high frequency (hourly) time series obtained using HOBO data loggers (accuracy ± 0.21°C) set-up at standard depths along rocky walls by divers, generally every 5 m from the surface to 40 m depth.This dataset as in the case of the mortality was assembled under the T-MEDNet initiative (www.t-mednet.org). Satellite derived sea surface temperature (SST) across the Mediterranean Sea was obtained from CMEMS (https://resources.marine.copernicus.eu/?option=com_csw&view=details&product_id=SST_MED_SST_L4_REP_OBSERVATIONS_010_021). The data consists of daily (night-time), gap free, optimally interpolated foundation SST at ~4 km resolution from AVHRR with improved accuracy and stability over the 1982-2019 period.