e738e8b672c30ac9533edb1bd62bca8a
English
dataset
Data Manager National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
Data Manager
dassh.enquires@mba.ac.uk
pointOfContact
Mark Parry
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
csi@national-aquarium.co.uk
pointOfContact
2023-06-01
MEDIN Discovery metadata standard
2.3.8
urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
2015 - 2017 Community Seagrass Initiative (CSI) South Coast Cornwall, Devon and Dorset Seagrass Transect Survey
2017-12-15
publication
2018-02-02
creation
2017-12-15
revision
DASSHSE00000043
http://www.dassh.ac.uk
The Community Seagrass Initiative is a citizen science lead monitoring programme. It focusses on sub-tidal seagrass beds in the South West of England between Looe in Cornwall and Weymouth in Dorset. There are 19 beds surveyed by the project in total, some, but not all, fall within the boundaries of designated Marine Protected Areas (MPS's). Data on seagrass shoot density, fauna counts on a very broad sale, and presence/absence of some Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) and commercial fisheries species. Data is collected by volunteer divers that don't necessarily have previous marine biological surveying experience. They have been trained by the project on the surveying and animal identification skills required.
Data Manager National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
Data Manager
dassh.enquires@mba.ac.uk
originator
Mark Parry
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
csi@national-aquarium.co.uk
originator
Data Manager National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
Data Manager
dassh.enquires@mba.ac.uk
custodian
Mark Parry
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
csi@national-aquarium.co.uk
custodian
notPlanned
Delimited
Marine Environmental Data and Information Network
NDGO0005
Habitats and biotopes
Species distribution
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
2008-01-06
revision
Habitats and biotopes
Area management/restriction/regulation zones and reporting units
INSPIRE THEMES
2011-02-16
creation
Marine
UNESCO
2003-01-01
creation
Fish taxonomy-related counts
Habitat characterisation
Macroalgae and seagrass taxonomy-related counts
SeaDataNet P021 parameter discovery vocabulary
2009-11-16
revision
oceans
International Standards Organisation ISO19115 Topic Categories
2005-04-27
revision
Seabed Impact
Internal_Waves
2017-10-31
publication
Please cite the "Community Seagrass Initiative, National Marine Aquarium" when using
otherRestrictions
This version is public access (certain species removed). The complete version is available with permission from the National Marine Aquarium.
English
biota
biota
Charting Progress 2 Sea Areas
2009-06-18
creation
Western Channel and Celtic Sea
-4.5153
-2.1670
50.1408
50.7425
2015-03-25
2017-09-22
Data Manager National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
Data Manager
dassh.enquires@mba.ac.uk
distributor
Mark Parry
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
csi@national-aquarium.co.uk
distributor
http://doi.org/10.17031/64771292116ed
DOI URL
A link to the web service or dataset
http://https://www.dassh.ac.uk
DASSH website
A link to the general host site
dataset
The Community Seagrass Initiative (CSI) is a citizen science project focused on increasing knowledge about sub-tidal seagrass (Zostera marina) habitats in the South West of England.
As such the data has been collected by volunteers who's backgrounds are not necessarily in marine monitoring but who show an interest in developing these skills. All volunteers were capable of collecting very accurate data on seagrass shoot density so this data is of high quality. For the fauna abundance data each volunteer is assessed by their local Project Officer to either be a "Beginner" or "Competent" surveyor. This is based on the Project Officer's opinion (based on previous experience as well as quality assurance on the CSI surveys) of their ability to identify fauna to the appropriate level for this survey.
The survey protocol is as follows:
Diver pairs are equipped with a 0.5m x 0.5m quadrat, a recording slate, camera in underwater housing and a surface marker buoy mounted with a handheld Garmin GPS (to enable later geo-referencing of photos taken) as well as their personal dive computers and compasses. All divers follow the same protocol, there can be 3-5 diver pairs taking part in parallel transects during each survey. At the point of deployment the diver pair descend and survey 3 randomly sampled quadrats which make up "station A". They then swim along a pre-determined compass bearing and certain distance and survey a further 3 quadrats at "station B". This pattern continues until the diver pair have either completed all 5 stations (3 quadrats at each station A-E) or reach the maximum dive time given, whichever comes first. Divers must take photos of each quadrat for later quality assurance checks of the data collected. Within the quadrat divers will count the number of seagrass shoots (to allow shoot density to be calculated) and the abundance present of each of the following broad fauna groups: Ascidians, Bryozoans (counted as number of blades with bryozoan colonies present), Cnidarians (including hydroids which are counted as number of blades with hydroid colonies present), Crustaceans, Echinoderms, Fish, Molluscs, Porifera, and Worms (of all worm phyla). The presence of certain Biodiversity Action Plan Species and commercial fisheries species will also be recorded throughout the dive (not confined to within quadrats). This list of species is: Hippocampus hippocampus, Hippocampus guttulatus, any species of stalked jellyfish, Atrina fragilis, Raja undulata (and its eggs), Pollachius pollachius, Pecten maximus, Sepia officinalis (and its eggs). Survey results are discussed with divers immediately after dive ends. Slates are checked by the Project Officers. Written results quality assured against photos taken.