QUEST projects both used and produced an immense variety of global data sets that needed to be shared efficiently between the project teams. These global synthesis data sets are also a key part of QUEST's legacy, providing a powerful way of communicating the results of QUEST among and beyond the UK Earth System research community. This dataset contains a map of a ecosystem. This map depicts the 825 terrestrial ecoregions of the globe. Ecoregions are relatively large units of land contain ing distinct assemblages of natural communities and species, with boundaries that approximate the original extent of natural communities prior to major land-use change. This comprehensive, global map provides a useful framework for conducting biogeographical or macroecological research, for identifying areas of outstanding biodiversity and conse rvation priority, for assessing the representation and gaps in conservation efforts worldwide, and for communicating the global distribution of natural communities on earth.

This dataset contains a map of ground movements covering the Afar Rift Zone in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti for the time period between October 2014 and August 2019. The Afar region is located where three tectonic plates are pulling apart, creating rift segments which are 50-100 km long. Surface deformation on these segments is not constant in time, with episodes of rifting occurring periodically and magma intrusions causing sudden ground movements. We use frequent Sentinel-1 satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) observations to measure surface displacements through time across the whole region. We relate these to ground based Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations and combine data from different satellite tracks to produce maps of the average surface velocity in three directions (perpendicular to the rift zone, parallel to the rift zone, and vertical). The continued observation of these time-varying ground movements is important for understanding how continents break up, with data here providing evidence of how tightly focussed extension is around the rift segments and of the subsurface magma movement at several volcanic centres.

The dataset contains three modelled estimates of global ammonia emissions from seabird colonies, at a spatial resolution of 0.1 degrees latitude/longitude. The model estimates were derived with a) detailed global seabird population data collated from a large number of sources (data sources date from 1980-2010 for different parts of the world) b) climate data (source: High-resolution Gridded Datasets, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, UK. http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/hrg/ last updated by Harris, I. (2007), date: 1995) c) emission model derived by Riddick et al. (2012) with funding for the project from the CEH Integrating Fund (NERC). A detailed description and discussion of the datasets, including methodology and uncertainties, can be found in the following peer-reviewed article: S. N. Riddick, U. Dragosits, T. D. Blackall, F. Daunt, S. Wanless and M. A. Sutton (2012) The global distribution of ammonia emissions from seabird colonies. Atmospheric Environment, 55 (2012), pp. 319-327 DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.02.052 Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/c9e802b3-43c8-4b36-a3a3-8861d9da8ea9