BIOMAERL.Maerl Biodiversity.Functional Structure And Antropogenic Impacts (1996-1998).

Study Extent

The dataset includes an inventory of records of 253 sampling expeditions during 1996 -1998 period. In total, 12 sampling sites from UK, France, Malta and Spain were selected, from which half of them were corresponded to affected locations and the rest to reference locations.

Sampling

The sampling equipment and the methods used were the following: beam trawls, scallop dredges, Naturalist's dredges, ring dredges, bucket dredges, van Veen grabs, Day grabs, Jonasson & Olausson box cores, Senckenberg box cores, hand-held cores, air-lifting, resin cast cores, resin cast burrows, video from a Remote Operated Vehicle, 1m2 quadrats, SCUBA, AQUAREVE dredges, Reineck box cores and Smith-Mclntyre grabs, water samples,Rallier du Baty samples, vertical sampler cores, hand vane testers, plankton nets, Secchi disc

Quality Control

All records were digitized and species names were cross-checked and taxonomically updated using the Taxon Match tool “World Register of Marine Species” (http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=match).

Method steps

1. 12 sapmpling stations.

Annelida Arthropoda Brachiopoda Bryozoa Cephalorhyncha Chaetognatha Chlorophyta Chordata Cnidaria Ctenophora Cyanobacteria Echinodermata Echiura Entoprocta Mollusca Nematoda Nemertea Ochrophyta Phoronida Platyhelminthes Porifera Rhodophyta Sipuncula Tracheophyta

1. Bacteria
   rank: kingdom
2. Chromista
   rank: kingdom
3. Plantae
   rank: kingdom
4. Animalia
   rank: kingdom

Twelve stations-control,impacted:UAC,UAI,UKC,UKI,UBBC,UBBI,UBGC,UBGI,UMC,UMI,USC,USI.