The ICES North Sea Benthos Project: Objectives and Data Management Hubert Rees 1, Eike Rachor 2,...

The ICES North Sea Benthos Project: Objectives and Data Management

Hubert Rees 1, Eike Rachor 2, Edward Vanden Berghe 3 1 CEFAS, Burnham Laboratory; 2 AWI; 3 VLIZ

The ICES Study Group on the North Sea Benthos Project 2000 (an offshoot of the ICES Benthos Ecology Working Group) is integrating recent macrobenthic infaunal data (1999-2001) available from various sources, including national monitoring surveys. The main goal is an overall comparison with the ICES North Sea Benthos Survey data of 1986 (see Künitzer et al., 1992), in order to determine whether there have been any significant changes and, if so, what may be the causal influences (e.g., climate change, fishing impacts). The work will contribute valuable information on several other topics such as habitat classification and the distribution of sensitive and opportunistic species. In addition to physico-chemical measurements of sediment samples alongside the benthic fauna, information on water depths, temperature, water quality and salinity will be incorporated in the analysis of species and community distributions. Also, we will use existing ecological and hydrographical models for currents, bottom shear stress and carbon input, along with information on the distribution of habitat types, to explain the observed distribution patterns.

Data received from the project participants were uploaded into a central database. The database itself is an MS SQL server database, with a front-end developed in MS Access. For the taxonomy/species lists, no separate database was developed, but the ‘Aphia’, existing species register at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) was used. The structure for the taxonomic information was adapted from the structure of the ITIS database. The taxonomic hierarchy is implemented as an open-ended hierarchy, where every taxonomic name or name part is stored in a single record, together with a pointer to a ‘parent’ record. Rather than linking the distribution records directly to Aphia, intermediate tables were used, allowing conservation of the original names, and control over the degree of lumping of doubtful taxa in a single entity for purposes of analysis.

Positions of the sampling locations. Colours correspond to different sources of data. Open circles represent the 1986 NSBS stations

People involvedCochrane, S.: Akvaplan-NIVA, Polar Environmental Centre, N-9296

Tromsø, Norway [[email protected]]; Craeymeersch, J.: RIVO, PO Box 77, Nl-4400 AB Yerseke

[[email protected]]; de Kluijver, M.: ISP.ETI, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 49766, NL-

1090 GT Amsterdam [[email protected]]; Degraer, S.: University of Gent, Krijgslaan 281/S8, B-9000 Gent

[[email protected]]; Desroy, N.: Station Marine de Wimereux, 28, Avenue Foch, B.P. 80,

62930 Wimereux, France [[email protected]]; Dewarumez, J. M.: Station Marine de Wimereux, 28, Avenue Foch,

B.P. 80, 62930 Wimereux, France [[email protected]];

Duineveld, G.: NIOZ, PO Box 59, Nl-1970 AB Den Burg-Texel [[email protected]];

Eggleton, J.: CEFAS, Burnham Laboratory, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex CMO 8HA, UK [[email protected]];

Essink, K.: Rijkswaterstaat/RIKZ, PO Box 207, 9750 AE Haren, The Netherlands;

Hillewaert, H.: Sea Fisheries Department, Ankerstraat 1, B-8400 Oostende [[email protected]];

Kröncke, I.: Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Schleusenstrasse 39a, D-26382 Wilhelmshaven [[email protected]];

Lavaleye, M. S. S.: Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Postbox 59, 1790AB Den Burg [[email protected]];

Nehmer, P.: AWI, PO Box, D-27515 Bremerhaven [[email protected]]; Newell, R.: Marine Ecological Surveys Ltd., 24a, Monmouth Place,

Bath BA1 2AY, UK [[email protected]] ; Oug, E.: Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Branch Office South,

Televeien 3, N-4879 Grimstad Norway [[email protected]]; Rachor, E.: AWI, PO Box, D-27515 Bremerhaven [erachor@awi-

bremerhaven.de]; Rees, H.: CEFAS, Burnham Laboratory, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex

CMO 8HA, UK [[email protected]]; Reiß, H.: Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Schleusenstrasse 39a, D-

26382 Wilhelmshaven [[email protected]]; Robertson, M.: FRS Marine Laboratory, PO Box 101, Aberdeen, UK

AB11 9DB [[email protected]]; Smith, R.: CEFAS, Burnham Laboratory, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex

CMO 8HA, UK [[email protected]]; Van Hoey, G.: University of Gent, Krijgslaan 281/S8, B-9000 Gent

[[email protected]]; Vanden Berghe, E.: VLIZ, Vismijn, Pakhuizen 45-52, B-8400,

Oostende [[email protected]].

Contact Country Stations Distribution recordsCochrane Norway (open sea) 37 3784Degraer Belgium 256 4057Van Dalfsen Doggerbank 12 566Desroy France (coastal) 93 789Duineveld Netherlands 100 4663Dewarumez France (Channel) 15 965Hillewaert Belgium 8 203Nehring Germany 10 286Newell UK (Channel) 567 24357Oug Norway (coastal) 12 1918Rachor Germany 181 6971Rees UK (North Sea) 53 4096Robertson UK (Scotland) 38 4681Rumohr Germany 19 1026

Example output from the system

Brittle star Acrocnida brachiata, 1986 (red) vs 2000 (green) densities

Sea urchin Echinocardium cordatum, 1986 (red) vs 2000 (green) densities

Same as map to the left, but including stations where E. cordatum was not found

Results of Twinspan analysis; colour reflects cluster membership (infaunal assemblages)

Some statisticsThe combined dataset of 2000 records consists of 58362 distribution records, belonging to 1861 taxa, of which 1712 are currently considered valid. There were a total of 1401 stations, and 2509 samples. For the 1986 survey, there were 11,820 distribution records, 709 taxa, 701 valid taxa, 231 stations and 281 samples. The number of stations and distribution records in each of the 2000 data sets is listed in the table below.

The ICES North Sea Benthos Project: Objectives and Data Management Hubert Rees 1, Eike Rachor 2,...

Documents

Transcript of The ICES North Sea Benthos Project: Objectives and Data Management Hubert Rees 1, Eike Rachor 2,...