WestBanks builds further on the expertise and knowledge gathered in the SPSD I project "Structural and Functional biodiversity of North Sea ecosystems: species and their habitats as indicators for a sustainable development of the Belgian Continental Shelf" and the SPSD II project "TROPHOS: Higher trophic levels in the Southern North Sea".
In both projects, structural and functional characteristics of the higher trophic levels (benthos, fish and birds) were investigated and in relationship with anthropogenic disturbances; emphasis was also given to the dispersal capacities and the genetic structure of some important key species.
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Within the project' Structural and functional biodiversity of North sea ecosystems (1997-2001), an emphasis was made to incorporate all existing and new biodiversity information (community, population and genetic level) on all benthic compartments, including demersal fish, their parasites and birds. Most emphasis was given on the description of the structural aspects of benthic biodiversity in order to find a pattern within the relationship between the biological and the geochemical characteristics of the sediment. The question whether the structuring of ecosystem and species diversity and its functioning is reflected in the genetic structuring of marine taxa on the Belgian Continental Shelf was addressed for the first time.
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The TROPHOS project(2002-2006) formed a continuation of the SPSD-I research project. TROPHOS focused on the structure present in the higher trophical levels
of the marine ecosystem on the Belgian Continental Shelf (BCS). |
FINAL REPORT 'Higher trophic levels in the Southern North Sea: TROPHOS (2002-2004)' is now available!!
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Schematic overview of the structural processes and interactions within WestBanks
