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Metadata: Select benthic invertebrate and sediment data collected between 1969 and 2023 for an Ecological Risk-Based Approach to Facilitate Licensing Offshore Wind Development
Abstract:
The OneBenthic dataset contains records of benthic invertebrate assemblages and associated sediment particle size analyses (PSA) collected between 1969 and 2023 across the UK continental shelf and wider North Sea. It brings together harmonised information on macrofaunal abundance, biomass, and sediment composition derived from more than 50,000 seabed grab and core samples. For this study, a quality-controlled subset of 18,348 samples was used to generate spatial models of three ecological risk elements: benthic sensitivity (based on biological traits), biodiversity, and assemblage rarity. The dataset supports the development of ecological risk maps and an online decision-support tool to inform offshore wind farm licensing and marine spatial planning. Users should note that the dataset represents sedimentary habitats sampled by grabs and cores; results may not accurately describe rocky or hard-substrate environments and are not intended for navigational use.
Data holder:
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory (CEFAS)
| Other details | ||
| Internal code | Internally assigned metadata identifier | 10725 |
| Title | The title is used to provide a brief and precise description of the dataset such as 'Date', 'Originating organisation/programme', 'Location' and 'Type of survey'. All acronyms and abbreviations should be reproduced in full. | Select benthic invertebrate and sediment data collected between 1969 and 2023 for an Ecological Risk-Based Approach to Facilitate Licensing Offshore Wind Development |
| File Identifier | The File Identifier is a code, preferably a GUID, that is globally unique and remains with the same metadata record even if the record is edited or transferred between portals or tools. | CEFASc86ea621-2dea-4679-88d3-8963ae7e5c94 |
| Resource Identifier | This is the code assigned by the data owner. | CEFAS22304 |
| Resource type | The resource type will likely be a dataset but could also be a series (collection of datasets with a common specification) or a service. | dataset |
| Start date | This describes the date the resource starts. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 1969-01-01 |
| End date | This describes the date the resource ends. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2023-11-23 |
| Frequency of updates | This describes the frequency with which the resource is modified or updated i.e. a monitoring programme that samples once per year has a frequency that is described as 'annually'. | unknown |
| Abstract | The abstract provides a clear and brief statement of the content of the resource. | The OneBenthic dataset contains records of benthic invertebrate assemblages and associated sediment particle size analyses (PSA) collected between 1969 and 2023 across the UK continental shelf and wider North Sea. It brings together harmonised information on macrofaunal abundance, biomass, and sediment composition derived from more than 50,000 seabed grab and core samples. For this study, a quality-controlled subset of 18,348 samples was used to generate spatial models of three ecological risk elements: benthic sensitivity (based on biological traits), biodiversity, and assemblage rarity. The dataset supports the development of ecological risk maps and an online decision-support tool to inform offshore wind farm licensing and marine spatial planning. Users should note that the dataset represents sedimentary habitats sampled by grabs and cores; results may not accurately describe rocky or hard-substrate environments and are not intended for navigational use. |
| Lineage | Lineage includes the background information, history of the sources of data, data quality statements and methods. | The dataset was compiled from publicly available benthic invertebrate and sediment particle size analysis (PSA) data stored within the OneBenthic database, a cloud-based PostgreSQL repository maintained by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS). The database integrates over 50,000 grab and core samples collected between 1969 and 2023 from UK shelf waters and neighbouring areas of the northeast Atlantic. Sampling methods followed established methodology, with the subset used here restricted to samples collected using a 0.1 m² grab or core and processed on a 1 millimetre sieve. Colonial taxa were included and recorded with a value of one. Raw abundance data were fourth-root transformed to down-weight highly abundant taxa, and samples less than 50 metres apart were removed to mitigate spatial autocorrelation. Biological traits information for taxa was sourced primarily from Clare et al. (2022), with trait data inferred for missing taxa using closely related genera or families. Samples were subject to quality control checks to ensure consistency in taxonomic nomenclature (via the World Register of Marine Species, WoRMS) and comparability of sampling methods. Environmental predictor variables used for modelling were obtained from Bio-ORACLE, gridded bathymetry data (GEBCO), and sediment composition layers from Mitchell et al. (2019). Spatial modelling of sensitivity, biodiversity, and assemblage rarity was carried out using Random Forest approaches with cross-validation to assess model robustness. Overall, the dataset is considered of high quality for large-scale spatial analyses of benthic assemblages in sedimentary habitats. Users should note that the dataset does not include rocky or hard-substrate habitats and is therefore not comprehensive for all benthic environments. |
| Related keywords | ||
| Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Biodiversity |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Benthos | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Invertebrate | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Sediment | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Sediment grain size parameters | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Species distribution | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Unknown | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Infralittoral | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Sediment | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Deep Circalittoral | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Marine Environmental Data and Information Network | |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | data.gov.uk | |
| Geographical coverage | ||
| North | The northern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 61 |
| East | The eastern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 12 |
| South | The southern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 48 |
| West | The western-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | -14 |
| Responsible organisations | ||
| Role | The point of contact is person or organisation with responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the metadata for the resource. | pointOfContact |
| Organisation name | Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory (CEFAS) | |
| Delivery point | Cefas Lowestoft Laboratory, Pakefield Road | |
| Postal code | NR33 0HT | |
| City | Lowestoft | |
| Administrative area | Suffolk | |
| Country | UK | |
| data.manager@cefas.co.uk | ||
| Role | The originator is the person or organisation who created, collected or produced the resource. | originator |
| Organisation name | Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory (CEFAS) | |
| Delivery point | Cefas Lowestoft Laboratory, Pakefield Road | |
| Postal code | NR33 0HT | |
| City | Lowestoft | |
| Administrative area | Suffolk | |
| Country | UK | |
| data.manager@cefas.co.uk | ||
| Role | The custodian is the person or organisation that accepts responsibility for the resource and ensures appropriate care and maintenance. If a dataset has been lodged with a Data Archive Centre for maintenance then this organisation is be entered here. | custodian |
| Organisation name | Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory (CEFAS) | |
| Delivery point | Cefas Lowestoft Laboratory, Pakefield Road | |
| Postal code | NR33 0HT | |
| City | Lowestoft | |
| Administrative area | Suffolk | |
| Country | UK | |
| data.manager@cefas.co.uk | ||
| Role | The distributor is the person or organisation that distributes the resource. | distributor |
| Organisation name | Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory (CEFAS) | |
| Delivery point | Cefas Lowestoft Laboratory, Pakefield Road | |
| Postal code | NR33 0HT | |
| City | Lowestoft | |
| Administrative area | Suffolk | |
| Country | UK | |
| data.manager@cefas.co.uk | ||
| Role | The owner is the person or organisation that owns the resource. | owner |
| Organisation name | Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory (CEFAS) | |
| data.manager@cefas.co.uk | ||
| Role | The owner is the person or organisation that owns the resource. | owner |
| Organisation name | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) | |
| defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk | ||
| Role | The owner is the person or organisation that owns the resource. | owner |
| Organisation name | The Crown Estate | |
| enquiries@thecrownestate.co.uk | ||
| Role | The owner is the person or organisation that owns the resource. | owner |
| Organisation name | British Marine Aggregate Producers Association (BMAPA) | |
| bmapa@mineralproducts.org | ||
| Resource locators | ||
| Locator URL | Web address (URL) that links to the resource | https://data.cefas.co.uk/view/22304 |
| Locator name | Name of the web resource | Cefas Data Portal |
| Dataset constraints | ||
| 20.1 Limitations on Public Access - Access constraints | This states `otherRestrictions` from ISO vocabulary RestrictionCode and is an INSPIRE/GEMINI requirement. | otherRestrictions |
| 20.2 Limitations on Public Access - Other constraints | noLimitations | |
| 21.1 Conditions for Access and Use - Use constraints | This states `otherRestrictions` from ISO vocabulary RestrictionCode and is an INSPIRE/GEMINI requirement. | otherRestrictions |
| 21.2 Conditions for Access and Use - Other constraints | https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ | |
| Version info | ||
| Date of publication | The publication date of the resource or if previously unpublished the date that the resource was made publicly available via the MEDIN network. | 2025-10-14 |
| Date of last revision | The most recent date that the resource was revised. | 2026-01-29 |
| Date of creation | The date that the resource was created. | 2025-09-01 |
| Harvest date | The date which this record has been (re)harvested from the provider. | 2026-04-19 |
| Metadata date | The date when the content of this metadata record was last updated. | 2026-01-29 |
| Metadata standard name | The name of the metadata standard used to create this metadata | MEDIN |
| Metadata standard version | The version of the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard used to create the metadata record | 3.1.1 |