North Sea Benthos Survey (NSBS)

North Sea Benthos Survey

In 1981, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) established a Working Group on North Sea Benthos. One of the first activities of this Working Group was to organise a survey of the North Sea benthos, covering the whole of the North Sea, and using standard sampling and processing techniques. The North Sea Benthos Survey was completed in early 1986, thanks to the efforts of several marine institutions; it covered the area between 51°N and 58°N, and 3°W to 9°E. Samples were taken by grab and box-corer for macrobenthic infauna, with additional samples for epifauna and meiobenthic infauna. Species composition and biodiversity patterns were discussed in, a.o., Heip et al. (1992), Künitzer et al. (1992) and Heip & Craeymeersch (1995). Sediment samples were taken, and the resulting analysis published by Basford et al. (1993).

Samples from the northern North Sea were gathered during eight cruises from 1980 to 1985, always in spring and early summer. This northern area covers 56°15"N to 60°45"N. Results were reported in Eleftheriou & Basford (1989). Together these results provide a database for the description of the benthic fauna of the entire North Sea.

Some taxonomic groups were treated separately. Copepods were done by R. Huys, but only for the samples of the 1986 cruises (so the northern stations of Eleftheriou and Basford do not have copepod data). The results were published in Huys (1991) and Huys et al. (1992).

A main problem encountered in the macrobenthos data treatment was taxonomic. Many taxonomical problems were solved during a special workshop on the taxonomy of North Sea benthos, held in Helgoland in 1988. Invited experts on certain taxonomic groups checked the identification of species. The way the final species list was generated is described in Craeymeersch et al. (1997) and Künitzer et al. (1992)

Partners

The following scientists participated in the North Sea Benthos survey and the analyses of the data:

A. Künitzer and E. Rachor: Alfred Wegener-Institut, Bremerhaven, Germany
D. Basford and A. Eleftheriou: Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, Scotland
C. Heip, J.A. Craeymeersch, P.M.J. Herman, R. Huys and K. Soetaert: Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Centre for Estuarine and Coastal Ecology, Yerseke, The Netherlands
J.M. Dewarumez: Station Marine, Wimereux, France
J. Dörjes: Institut für Meeresbiologie und Meeresgeologie "Senkenberg", Wilhelmshaven, Germany
G.C.A. Duineveld and P.A.J. de Wilde: Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel, The Netherlands
P. Kingston: Heriot-Watt University, Institute of Offshore engineering, Edinburgh, Scotland
U. Nierman: Biologische Anstalt Helgoland, Hamburg, Germany
H. Rumohr: Institut für Meereskunde, Kiel, Germany
T. Soltwedel: Institut für Hydrobiologie, University of Hamburg, Germany

The final data compilation was done by Johan Craeymeersch, who also passed the database to VLIZ, and assisted in developing this web application.

Publications

Note: links are to the literature part of the IMIS database; if you follow the links to the publication details, the menu in the menu bar on the left will change to reflect this

Basford, D.J.; Eleftheriou, A.; Davies, I.M.; Irion, G.; Soltwedel, T. (1993). The ICES North Sea benthos survey: the sedimentary environment. ICES J. Mar. Sci./J. Cons. int. Explor. Mer 50(1): 71-80. (Details)

Craeymeersch, J.A. (1999). The use of macrobenthic communities in the evaluation of environmental change. PhD thesis, Universiteit Gent (RUG). 254 pp. (Details)

Craeymeersch, J.A.; Heip, C.H.R.; Buijs, J. (1997). Atlas of North Sea benthic infauna: based on the 1986 North Sea Benthos Survey. ICES Cooperative Research Report, 218. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea: Copenhagen, Denmark. (Details)

Duineveld, G.C.A.; de Wilde, P.A.W.J.; Kok, A. (1990). A synopsis of the macrobenthic assemblages and benthic ETS activity in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. Neth. J. of Sea Res. 26(1): 125-138. (Details)

Duineveld, G.C.A.; Künitzer, A.; Niermann, U.; de Wilde, P.A.W.J.; Gray, J.S. (1991). The macrobenthos of the North Sea. Neth. J. of Sea Res. 28(1-2): 53-65. (Details)

Eleftheriou, A.; Basford, D.J. (1989). The macrobenthic infauna of the offshore northern North Sea. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. 69(1): 123-143. (Details)

Heip, C.; Basford, D.; Craeymeersch, J.; Dewarumez, J.-M.; de Wilde, P.; Dörjes, J.; Duineveld, G.; Eleftheriou, A.; Herman, P.M.J.; Huys, R.; Irion, G.; Niermann, U.; Kingston, P.; Künitzer, A.; Rachor, E.; Rumohr, H.; Soetaert, K.; Soltwedel, T. (1992). The benthic communities of the North Sea : a summary of the results of the North Sea benthos survey. Pp 148-175 in Anon, . (Ed.): Report of the ICES Advisory Committee on Marine Pollution. ICES Cooperative Research Report, 190. ICES: Copenhagen, Denmark. (Details)

Heip, C.; Basford, D.; Craeymeersch, J.; Dewarumez, J.-M.; Dörjes, J.; de Wilde, P.; Duineveld, G.; Eleftheriou, A.; Herman, P.M.J.; Kingston, K.; Niermann, U.; Künitzer, A.; Rachor, E.; Rumohr, H.; Soetaert, K.; Soltwedel, T. (1992). Trends in biomass, density and diversity of North Sea macrofauna. ICES J. Mar. Sci./J. Cons. int. Explor. Mer 49: 13-22. (Details)

Heip, C.; Craeymeersch, J. (1995). Benthic community structures in the North Sea. Helgol. Meeresunters. 49(1-4): 313-328. (Details)

Huys, R. (1991). The meiobenthos of the North Sea. Final report. Delta Institute for Hydrobiological Research: Yerseke, the Netherlands. (Details)

Huys, R.; Herman, P.; Heip, C.; Soetaert, K. (1992). The meiobenthos of the North Sea: density, biomass trends and distribution of copepod communities. ICES J. Mar. Sci./J. Cons. int. Explor. Mer 49: 23-44. (Details)

Künitzer, A.; Basford, D.; Craeymeersch, J.A.; Dewarumez, J.-M.; Dorjes, J.; Duineveld, G.C.A.; Eleftheriou, A.; Heip, C.; Herman, P.; Kingston, P.; Niermann, U.; Rachor, E.; Rumohr, H.; de Wilde, P.A.W.J. (1992). The benthic infauna of the North Sea: species distribution and assemblages. ICES J. Mar. Sci./J. Cons. int. Explor. Mer 49(2): 127-143. (Details)