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Metadata: 2011 Marine Ecological Surveys (MES) Recovery os Seabed Resources Following Marine Aggregate Extraction
Abstract:
Dredging for marine sands and gravels makes a significant contribution to the raw materials needed for construction work and beach replenishment in the UK. Whilst the impact of dredging on physical and biological resources is well understood less is known about how these resources recover after dredging stops. In high energy, naturally disturbed environments, physical and biological recovery is rapid because dredge tracks are quickly eroded and faunal communities are made up of many small bodied, rapidly maturing opportunistic species that are already adapted to high levels of disturbance and rapidly recolonise disturbed areas. Nevertheless, in many habitats where aggregate dredging has occurred, a return to a pre-dredge physical or biological conditions often takes years or decades if it occurs at all. In many cases a return to a similar pre-dredge condition may never be possible. This may be because of the highly variable distribution and settlement of marine organisms that occurs naturally or because sediment composition has been altered and supports a different assemblage of animals. What may be more important to recovery is the ability of a different suite of species to perform a similar function within the wider marine ecosystem. Benthic communities are often important in terms of cycling of organic particulate matter and the provision of a food resource for food chains that eventually lead to fisheries production for example. Some recent research indicates that functional recovery may occur more rapidly than recovery of community composition. This work is however, at an early stage and further studies are required to improve our understanding of the impact of aggregate dredging on marine ecosystem functioning and its recovery.
Data holder:
Marine Ecological Surveys Ltd
| Other details | ||
| Internal code | Internally assigned metadata identifier | 4950 |
| 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. | 2011 Marine Ecological Surveys (MES) Recovery os Seabed Resources Following Marine Aggregate Extraction |
| 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. | 8139e249-8ad5-44e3-a427-37ff87942b02 |
| Resource Identifier | This is the code assigned by the data owner. | MEPF 10/P148 |
| 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. | series |
| Start date | This describes the date the resource starts. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2011 |
| End date | This describes the date the resource ends. This may only be the year if month and day are not known | 2011 |
| 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. | Dredging for marine sands and gravels makes a significant contribution to the raw materials needed for construction work and beach replenishment in the UK. Whilst the impact of dredging on physical and biological resources is well understood less is known about how these resources recover after dredging stops. In high energy, naturally disturbed environments, physical and biological recovery is rapid because dredge tracks are quickly eroded and faunal communities are made up of many small bodied, rapidly maturing opportunistic species that are already adapted to high levels of disturbance and rapidly recolonise disturbed areas. Nevertheless, in many habitats where aggregate dredging has occurred, a return to a pre-dredge physical or biological conditions often takes years or decades if it occurs at all. In many cases a return to a similar pre-dredge condition may never be possible. This may be because of the highly variable distribution and settlement of marine organisms that occurs naturally or because sediment composition has been altered and supports a different assemblage of animals. What may be more important to recovery is the ability of a different suite of species to perform a similar function within the wider marine ecosystem. Benthic communities are often important in terms of cycling of organic particulate matter and the provision of a food resource for food chains that eventually lead to fisheries production for example. Some recent research indicates that functional recovery may occur more rapidly than recovery of community composition. This work is however, at an early stage and further studies are required to improve our understanding of the impact of aggregate dredging on marine ecosystem functioning and its recovery. |
| Lineage | Lineage includes the background information, history of the sources of data, data quality statements and methods. | Create by The Crown Estate for the purpose to upload the data on the Marine Data Exchange (MDE) |
| Related keywords | ||
| Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Offshore area of search |
| General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Marine Environmental Data and Information Network | |
| Keyword title | MEDIN | |
| Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Marine Environmental Data and Information Network |
| Keyword title | MEDIN | |
| Keyword | General subject area(s) associated with the resource, uses multiple controlled vocabularies | Habitat extent |
| Geographical coverage | ||
| North | The northern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 55.811304 |
| East | The eastern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 1.762849 |
| South | The southern-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | 49.882252 |
| West | The western-most limit of the data resource in decimal degrees | -6.372828 |
| 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 | Marine Ecological Surveys Ltd | |
| Phone | +44 (0)1225 442211 | |
| Fax | +44 (0)1225 444411 | |
| Delivery point | 3 Palace Yard Mews | |
| Postal code | BA1 2NH | |
| City | Bath | |
| Country | United Kingdom | |
| marine@seasurvey.co.uk | ||
| URL | http://www.seasurvey.co.uk/ | |
| Role | The originator is the person or organisation who created, collected or produced the resource. | originator |
| Organisation name | Marine Ecological Surveys Ltd | |
| Phone | +44 (0)1225 442211 | |
| Fax | +44 (0)1225 444411 | |
| Delivery point | 3 Palace Yard Mews | |
| Postal code | BA1 2NH | |
| City | Bath | |
| Country | United Kingdom | |
| marine@seasurvey.co.uk | ||
| URL | http://www.seasurvey.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 | Marine Ecological Surveys Ltd | |
| Phone | +44 (0)1225 442211 | |
| Fax | +44 (0)1225 444411 | |
| Delivery point | 3 Palace Yard Mews | |
| Postal code | BA1 2NH | |
| City | Bath | |
| Country | United Kingdom | |
| marine@seasurvey.co.uk | ||
| URL | http://www.seasurvey.co.uk/ | |
| Resource locators | ||
| Locator URL | Web address (URL) that links to the resource | https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk/details/1607/summary |
| Web address (URL) that links to the resource | https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk | |
| Dataset constraints | ||
| 20 Limitations on Public Access - Access constraints | restricted | |
| 21 Conditions for Access and Use - Use limitation | This states any constraints on use of the data. Multiple conditions can be recorded for different parts of the data resource. If no conditions apply, then `No condtions apply` is recorded. This uses free text. | http://www.marinedataexchange.com/pages/terms-of-use.aspx |
| This states any constraints on use of the data. Multiple conditions can be recorded for different parts of the data resource. If no conditions apply, then `No condtions apply` is recorded. This uses free text. | http://www.marinedataexchange.com/pages/terms-of-use.aspx | |
| Version info | ||
| Date of creation | The date that the resource was created. | 2026-04-19 |
| 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. | 2015-05-20 |
| Metadata standard name | The name of the metadata standard used to create this metadata | MEDIN Discovery Profile |
| Metadata standard version | The version of the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard used to create the metadata record | 2.3.8 |