bc31d375b970fa882c38e6672d856af0 English dataset Natural England Data Manager +44 (0)300 060 3900 +44 (0)300 060 2356 Foss House, Kings Pool, 1-2 Peasholme Green York YO1 7PX enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk pointOfContact 2017-04-18 MEDIN Discovery metadata standard 2.3.8 urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326 2011 University of Exeter (UoE) Plymouth Sound. Investigation into the cumulative small scale impacts on the Plymouth Sound SAC 2017-04-18 publication NATENG000289 http://www.naturalengland.org.uk In this study, this theory was examined to understand the effects of cumulative disturbances through a field based test. It examined the effects of different disturbances (crab tiling and mooring) together and separately, on the infaunal intertidal communities (Carcinus maenas and meiofauna). The results indicated that mooring appeared to increase overall crab abundance, specifically juveniles and reproductive crabs, whereas tiling showed little difference. The treatments together appeared to create an intermediate abundance of crabs (the control= 90, mooring= 260, tiling= 112 and the cumulative treatment=209). Meiofauna increased in diversity and decreased in evenness for the cumulative treatments. The individual treatments showed that tiling alone could have a positive effect shown by high copepod ratios. Biomass was shown to have no impact. This highlights the complexity of measuring disturbance. These results have shown that disturbances together do not combine to create a larger impact. However, the responses observed may also be influenced by season and other site specific factors such as history of previous disturbance. The results do not conform to the linear interpretation of the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis if the assumption is more disturbances creates more impact, as more disturbances did not result in a bigger impact. This highlights the difficulty to classify an optimum disturbance regime to help future conservation objectives. Natural England Data Manager +44 (0)300 060 3900 +44 (0)300 060 2356 Foss House, Kings Pool, 1-2 Peasholme Green York YO1 7PX enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk originator Natural England Data Manager +44 (0)300 060 3900 +44 (0)300 060 2356 Foss House, Kings Pool, 1-2 Peasholme Green York YO1 7PX enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk custodian notPlanned Delimited Documents Marine Environmental Data and Information Network Geology Species distribution GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2008-01-06 revision Zoobenthos taxonomic abundance Sediment grain size parameters SeaDataNet P021 parameter discovery vocabulary 2009-11-16 revision Accessible under Open Government Licence https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ otherRestrictions Accessible under Open Government Licence https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ English geoscientificInformation biota Charting Progress 2 Sea Areas 2009-06-18 creation Western Channel and Celtic Sea ICES Rectangles 2009-05-01 creation 29E5 International Hydrographic Bureau, Limits of Oceans and Seas 1954-01-01 creation English Channel SeaDataNet vertical extent keywords 2010-01-01 revision infralittoral SeaDataNet vertical extent keywords 2010-01-01 revision soil and sediment boundary layer ICES Statistical Areas 2014-05-16 creation VIIe -4.2270 -4.0608 50.2964 50.3971 2011-05-01 2011-07-31 Natural England Data Manager +44 (0)300 060 3900 +44 (0)300 060 2356 Foss House, Kings Pool, 1-2 Peasholme Green York YO1 7PX enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk distributor http://www.naturalengland.org.uk A link to the web service or dataset dataset Plymouth Sound is situated 50.343 degrees N, 4.143 degrees W in the Western English Channel off the coast of Devon. Three rivers were included in the sampled areas; the Tamar (50o 21, 30 N, 10o00 W), Lynher (50o 379 N, 42o64W) and the Tavy (50o 28 N, 40o 09 W). The other rivers that lie within the Plymouth Sound are not currently included within the designations of the SAC and therefore were not incorporated. The treatments included ‘mooring’, ‘crab tiling’, ‘mooring and crab tiling’ and a ‘control’. All of the 24 sites had six replicates, and were randomly selected to avoid bias. Data was collected at during the months of May – July 2011. Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) area summary data was mapped onto Arc Geographical Information System (GIS) software, so that the same habitat type could be selected minimising the effects of different habitats. Digimap OS map layers of the area were also included; shape files contributed from the Plymouth City Council included areas of moorings and crab tiles. Sites could then be randomly selected using a tool in Arc GIS.