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A comparison of benthic biodiversity in the North Sea, English Channel and Celtic Seas - Macroinfauna
Citation
Rees, H.L. et al. A comparison of benthic biodiversity in the North Sea, English Channel and Celtic Seas - Macroinfauna. Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science; Burnham Laboratory, 12 Apr 2005, Essex, UK. https://marineinfo.org/id/dataset/3094
Contact: Rees, Hubert

Access data
Archived data
Availability: Creative Commons License This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Description
Comparison dataset of Animalia in the North Sea, the English Channel and the Celtic Sea. more

During April and May 1993, and in February and May 1994, samples of the benthic macrofauna were collected from MAFF research vessels at each of the 25 "intermediate" and "offshore" stations around the England and Wales coastline. One station in the SW Approaches (S48) was sampled in December 1992, i.e. outside the recommended February and May sampling window, but this offshore, deep-water environment was included as a clean-water "reference" point. (An attempt to sample S48 in February 1994 had to be abandoned due to bad weather.) An additional station off the Tees Estuary was sampled to provide information on the shallow coastal environment in this area. At each location, five sediment samples for macrofauna analysis were collected using a 0.1 m² day grab from the central point of a 500 m grid of 9 stations, the latter being sampled for contaminant analyses only. The five replicates were collected from within a 100 m range ring, using SEXTANT software and DGPS position-fixing. The depth of sediment in the closed jaws of the grab was determined, as an indication of sample volume. Very small samples (i.e. less than about 5 cm depth) were discarded. A visual description of the sediment type was recorded, together with the location and times at which the sample was collected, and the prevailing sea state, wind strength, and water depth. A small subsample for sediment particle size analysis was removed using a 2 cm diameter perspex corer inserted to a depth of about 5 cm. The contents of the grab were transferred to a hopper, and gently washed over a 1 mm mesh brass sieve. The retained material was preserved for analysis in 5% formaldehyde in seawater with added Rose Bengal. 430 taxa were identified, consisting of 186 polychaetes, 112 crustaceans, 76 molluscs, 19 echinoderms, and 37 in the catergory "other groups".

Scope
Themes:
Biology > Benthos, Biology > Ecology - biodiversity
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal, Deep water, Offshore, research vessel, ANE, Celtic Sea, ANE, English Channel, ANE, North Sea, EurOBIS calculated BBOX, Animalia

Geographical coverage
ANE, Celtic Sea [Marine Regions]
ANE, English Channel [Marine Regions]
ANE, North Sea [Marine Regions]
EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations
Bounding Box
Coordinates: MinLong: -7,996; MinLat: 48,5028 - MaxLong: 3,0522; MaxLat: 55,0087 [WGS84]

Temporal coverage
December 1992 - May 1994

Taxonomic coverage
Animalia [WoRMS]

Parameters
Abundance
Taxonomy

Contributors
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science; Burnham Laboratory, moredata managerdata providerdata creator
Marine Biological Association of the UK (MBA), moredata provider

Related datasets
Published in:
EurOBIS: European Ocean Biodiversity Information System, more

Publication
Based on this dataset
Rees, H.L. et al. (1999). A comparison of benthic biodiversity in the North Sea, English Channel, and Celtic Seas ICES J. Mar. Sci./J. Cons. int. Explor. Mer 56: 228-246, more

Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Data origin: Research: field survey
Metadatarecord created: 2012-06-22
Information last updated: 2022-08-09
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