Benthic Infauna Samples from a Maerl Bed in Poole Bay, 1990

Southampton Oceanography Centre conducted a 1990 survey of the benthic infauna within a live maerl bed off Handfast Point in Poole Bay. The dataset likely contains species records and maerl weight data from 19 grab samples taken along a transect and at a single site to capture rarer species. This report was originally a dissertation by G.A. Rowe, later updated with contributions from other authors through the Nature Conservancy Council.

Use Cases

• Analyze species community composition based on the transect sampling from nine sites.
• Study the relationship between maerl substrate weight and infauna presence based on the dried and weighed samples.
• Identify rare benthic species based on the ten replicate samples taken at a single site.
• Map benthic biodiversity in a specific coastal habitat based on the geographically referenced sampling locations.

Strengths

• Sampling methodology is explicitly described, using a Day grab covering 0.1m2 and a 0.5mm sieve.
• Includes a specific effort to capture rare species via ten replicate samples at one site.
• Original data was reviewed and expanded with contributions from the Nature Conservancy Council.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The datum for latitude/longitude coordinates was not stated in the original report and was assigned by the database.

Provenance

Source

Southampton Oceanography Centre, with report held at English Nature (Dorset Team).

Collection Method

Benthic samples collected using a Day grab, washed on a 0.5mm sieve, and identified in lab; live and dead maerl dried and weighed.

Time Range

1990

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Poole Bay, specifically the maerl bed off Handfast Point at the southern end of Studland Bay, UK.