The ICES North Sea Benthos Project: Objectives and Data Management

1
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
Example output from the system
People involved Cochrane, S. Akvaplan-NIVA,
Polar Environmental Centre, N-9296 Tromsø, Norway
Sabine.Cochrane_at_akvaplan.niva.nl
Craeymeersch, J. RIVO, PO Box 77, Nl-4400 AB
Yerseke j.a.craeymeersch_at_rivo.wag-ur.nl de
Kluijver, M. ISP.ETI, University of Amsterdam,
PO Box 49766, NL-1090 GT Amsterdam
kluijver_at_science.uva.nl Degraer, S.
University of Gent, Krijgslaan 281/S8, B-9000
Gent steven.degraer_at_rug.ac.be Desroy, N.
Station Marine de Wimereux, 28, Avenue Foch, B.P.
80, 62930 Wimereux, France nicolas.desroy_at_univ-li
lle1.fr Dewarumez, J. M. Station Marine de
Wimereux, 28, Avenue Foch, B.P. 80, 62930
Wimereux, France jean-marie.dewarumez_at_univ-lille1
.fr Duineveld, G. NIOZ, PO Box 59, Nl-1970 AB
Den Burg-Texel duin_at_nioz.nl Eggleton, J.
CEFAS, Burnham Laboratory, Burnham-on-Crouch,
Essex CMO 8HA, UK j.eggleton_at_cefas.co.uk
Essink, K. Rijkswaterstaat/RIKZ, PO Box 207,
9750 AE Haren, The Netherlands Hillewaert, H.
Sea Fisheries Department, Ankerstraat 1, B-8400
Oostende hans.hillewaert_at_dvz.be Kröncke, I.
Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Schleusenstrasse
39a, D-26382 Wilhelmshaven ingrid.kroencke_at_sencke
nberg.de Lavaleye, M. S. S. Royal Netherlands
Institute for Sea Research, Postbox 59, 1790AB
Den Burg lava_at_nioz.nl Nehmer, P. AWI, PO
Box, D-27515 Bremerhaven pnehmer_at_gmx.de
Newell, R. Marine Ecological Surveys Ltd., 24a,
Monmouth Place, Bath BA1 2AY, UK
info_at_marineecologicalsurveys.co.uk Oug, E.
Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Branch
Office South, Televeien 3, N-4879 Grimstad Norway
eivind.oug_at_niva.no Rachor, E. AWI, PO Box,
D-27515 Bremerhaven erachor_at_awi-bremerhaven.de
Rees, H. CEFAS, Burnham Laboratory,
Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex CMO 8HA, UK
h.l.rees_at_cefas.co.uk Reiß, H.
Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Schleusenstrasse
39a, D-26382 Wilhelmshaven hreiss_at_senkenberg.de
Robertson, M. FRS Marine Laboratory, PO Box
101, Aberdeen, UK AB11 9DB M.R.Robertson_at_marlab.a
c.uk Smith, R. CEFAS, Burnham Laboratory,
Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex CMO 8HA, UK
r.smith_at_cefas.co.uk Van Hoey, G. University
of Gent, Krijgslaan 281/S8, B-9000 Gent
g.vanhoey_at_rug.ac.be Vanden Berghe, E. VLIZ,
Vismijn, Pakhuizen 45-52, B-8400, Oostende
wardvdb_at_vliz.be.
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 statistics
The 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.
Contact Country Stations Distribution
records Cochrane Norway (open sea) 37 3784 Degr
aer Belgium 256 4057 Van Dalfsen Doggerbank
12 566 Desroy France (coastal) 93 789 Duinev
eld Netherlands 100 4663 Dewarumez France
(Channel) 15 965 Hillewaert Belgium 8 203 N
ehring Germany 10 286 Newell UK
(Channel) 567 24357 Oug Norway
(coastal) 12 1918 Rachor Germany 181 6971
Rees UK (North Sea) 53 4096 Robertson UK
(Scotland) 38 4681 Rumohr Germany 19 1026