Process-driven and biological characterisation and mapping of seabed habitats sensitive to trawling.

ABSTRACT: The increase of anthropogenic pressures on the marine environment together with the necessity of a sustainable management of marine living resources have underlined the need to map and model coastal environments, particularly for the purposes of spatial planning and for the implementation of integrated ecosystem-based management approach. The present study compares outputs of a process-driven benthic habitat sensitivity (PDS) model to the structure, composition and distribution of benthic invertebrates in the Eastern English Channel and southern part of the North Sea. Trawl disturbance indicators (TDI) computed from species biological traits and benthic community composition were produced from samples collected with a bottom trawl. The TDI was found to be highly correlated to the PDS furth

SUBMITTER: Foveau A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5628812 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature