Sampling of the biological and physical characteristics of 155 stations in the
English Channel, Celtic Seas and the North Sea. This dataset contains
details of the abundance of macrofauna found at each of the 155 sample
stations collected between 2000 and 2007.
Environmental variables quantified for each station included bathymetry
(except North Sea and western Scotland), stratification, bottom temperature
and a number of derived granulometric parameters (e.g., % silt, % gravel,
sorting coefficient, skewness, kurtosis), together with modelled parameters
such as bed tidal stress, wave stress, bottom temperature, a stratification
index and satellite-derived surface chlorophyll a (mean values for 2002-07
used).
Estimates of the benthic productivity associated with such communities were
also derived, for the first time, at this large spatial scale.