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MACROBEL: Long term trends in the macrobenthos of the Belgian Continental Shelf [Lange-termijn trends in het macrobenthos van de Belgische Continentale Plaat]
Citation
Degraer, S.; Wittoeck, J.; Appeltans, W.; Cooreman, K.; Deprez, T.; Hillewaert, H.; Hostens, K.; Mees, J.; Vanden Berghe, E.; Vincx, M. (2006) Macrobel: Long term trends in the macrobenthos of the Belgian Continental Shelf. Oostende, Belgium. Http://www.vliz.be/vmdcdata/macrobel/. https://marineinfo.org/id/dataset/145
Contact: Onderzoeksgroep Mariene Biologie (UGent-MARBIOL), more

Access data
Archived data
Dedicated website
Availability: Creative Commons License This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Description
The global objective of this project is to deliver a substantial contribution to the knowledge of the long term variability in the biodiversity of the macrobenthos and the relationship with anthropogenic activities on the Belgian Continental Shelf. more

The Belgian Continental Shelf (BCS) (surface : 2017 kmĀ²) is only 0.5 % of the North Sea surface, but it has a very high diversity in marine habitats and associated biological communities. Also, the socio-economic importance of the BCS is very high. As in most areas around the North Sea, a lot of anthropogenic activities, such as sea fisheries, maritime transport, military shootings, dredging activities and others occur on the BCS.

The combination of the ecological and the socio-economic value of the BCS causes conflicts between both interests. Therefore it is very important to develop a sustainable management plan for the natural resources of the BCS. To obtain this goal, information and knowledge is required about:

  • geographical distribution of the marine biological communities,
  • the structure of these communities,
  • their relationship with the physical and the chemical environment,
  • the natural ecological and genetic variability, and
  • the nature and the effect of the anthropogenic influences on these ecosystem components.

Macrobenthic organisms are good candidates for monitoring the short and long-term effects of natural and anthropogenic impacts on and within the marine environment because of their direct link with the sediment and with the processes that occur immediately above the sediments.

The global objective of this project is to deliver a substantial contribution to the knowledge of the long term variability in the biodiversity of the macrobenthos and the relationship with anthropogenic activities.

The specific aim of this website is to deliver an atlas with distribution maps of the macrobenthos of the Belgian Coastal Shelf (BCS) for the periods 1977-1983 and 1994-2000. Besides biogeographic and taxonomy information, which is given for each taxon, descriptive details on morphology, biology, ecology, habitat preferences and illustrations are given for a limited number a taxa (see list below). Eventually, by continuing monitoring programmes, our knowledge of different effects of antropogenic activities on the macrobenthos will aid in the development of a sustainable management plan for the Belgian Coastal Shelf.


Scope
Themes:
Biology, Biology > Benthos, Biology > Ecology - biodiversity
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal, Benthic communities, Biogeography, Data, Long-term effects, Macrobenthos, Marine Genomics, Taxonomy, ANE, Belgium, Belgian Continental Shelf (BCS), EurOBIS calculated BBOX, Amphipoda, Bivalvia, Echinodermata, Polychaeta

Geographical coverage
ANE, Belgium, Belgian Continental Shelf (BCS) [Marine Regions]
EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations
Bounding Box
Coordinates: MinLong: 2,258; MinLat: 51,0983 - MaxLong: 3,3114; MaxLat: 51,7511 [WGS84]

Temporal coverage
1976 - 1986
1994 - 2001
1 December 2001 - 30 November 2003

Taxonomic coverage
Amphipoda [WoRMS]
Bivalvia [WoRMS]
Echinodermata [WoRMS]
Polychaeta [WoRMS]

Parameters
Count
Granulometric variables Methodology
Macrobenthos biomass
Macrobenthos density
Granulometric variables: Coulter Counter LS particle size analyzer

Contributors
Universiteit Gent; Faculteit Wetenschappen; Vakgroep Biologie; Onderzoeksgroep Mariene Biologie (MARBIOL), moredata creatordata ownerdata creator
Degraer, Steven
Wittoeck, Jan
Van Hoey, Gert
Vincx, Magda
Deprez, Tim
Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO)sponsor
Onderzoeksdomein Visserij, morepartnerdata creator
De Clerck, Rudy
Hillewaert, Hans
Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ), moredata creator
Vanhoorne, Bart
Appeltans, Ward
Vanden Berghe, Edward
Mees, Jan
Vlaamse overheid; Beleidsdomein Landbouw en Visserij; Instituut voor landbouw- , visserij en voedingsonderzoek; Kenniseenheid: Dier; Aquatisch Milieu en Kwaliteitdata creator
Cooreman, Kris
Hostens, Kristian (Kris)
Instituut voor Landbouw-, Visserij- en Voedingsonderzoek (ILVO)
Van Hoey, Gert

Related datasets
Published in:
EurOBIS: European Ocean Biodiversity Information System, more
NSBP: North Sea Benthos Project
(Partly) included in:
Distribution of benthic macroinvertebrate living modes in European seas

Project
MACROBEL: Long term trends in the macrobenthos of the Belgian Continental Shelf

Publication
Based on this dataset
Degraer, S. et al. (2006). The macrobenthos atlas of the Belgian part of the North Sea. Belgian Science Policy: Brussel. ISBN 90-810081-6-1. 164, photographs, 1 cd-rom pp.

Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Data origin: Research
Release date: 2005-03-21
Metadatarecord created: 2004-06-09
Information last updated: 2013-12-04
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy