Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
2 Material and Methods
A database was generated from a long-term macro-zoobenthos time series at four
sites in the German Bight (Fig. 1 ). Benthos samples were collected each spring
from 1981 to 2011 (i.e.
taxa by station
matrix). The sites covered the dominant
sediment types (FSd =
fine sand, Slt = silt, SSd = silty sand and WB = White Bank
with silty sand in deeper waters) in the south-eastern North Sea with the corre-
sponding typical benthic associations (Salzwedel et al. 1985 ). At each station and
sampling date,
ve 0.1 m 2 samples were taken with a van Veen grab. The samples
were sieved over 0.5 mm mesh and
fixed in 4 % buffered formalin. Macro-zoo-
benthic organisms were identi
ed to species level as far as possible, counted and
weighed (wet weight). In total we identi
ed 334 species belonging to 235 genera
and 157 families, respectively. After computing average abundance (N/m 2 ) per
sampling date and station from the
five replicate samples, our basic data matrix
consisted of 334 species
31 sampling dates. From these data, we
computed average abundance per species and station over the complete sampling
period (1981
×
four stations
×
2011).
-
Fig. 1 Location of the four long-term monitoring sites (i.e. Slt silt; SSd silty sand, FSd fine sand,
WB White Bank) for macro-zoobenthos in the German Bight
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