SEA4: Macroinvertebrate Samples from the Northern UK Continental Shelf

The Northern Triangle area of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) is the focus of this macrofaunal analysis. The Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) conducted this survey, analyzing sixty-three macrobenthos samples from a range of depths. The report presents the faunal results, including a spreadsheet of data and a preliminary literature list for deep-sea taxonomy.

Use Cases

• Establishing baseline biodiversity for environmental impact assessments based on the described benthic invertebrate samples.
• Taxonomic identification and discovery of potentially undescribed species based on the reported presence of taxa recorded by nominal names.
• Studying benthic community composition across depth gradients in the Northern Triangle area based on the sampling methodology.

Strengths

• Sixty-three macrobenthos samples provide a substantive survey basis.
• Samples represent all major benthic invertebrate phyla, indicating broad taxonomic coverage.
• Includes a spreadsheet of the raw data and a compiled literature list for taxonomy.

Limitations

• Data analysis was not included for this part of the project, requiring user-side processing.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change)

Collection Method

Macrofaunal analysis of collected benthic samples.

Time Range

2003

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Northern Triangle area, UK Continental Shelf (UKCS)