Publication Abstract
- Title
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Rationalising seabed sediment classification to promote consistency in biotope classification and improve accuracy in predictive biotope mapping
- Publication Abstract
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Rationalising seabed sediment classification to promote consistency in biotope classification and improve accuracy in predictive biotope mapping
B. Pearce, C. James, R. Coggan*, C. Chambers, J. Hill and D. Tappin
The relationship between the distribution of benthic marine fauna and different aspects of the physical environment has been a key topic of research for many years. The nature of seabed sediments is one of the main drivers determining benthic community composition, so the way in which sediment deposits are classified is of fundamental importance in biotope classification and predictive mapping. The EUNIS habitat classification scheme splits sediment deposits into four broad classes, namely ‘mud and sandy mud’, ‘sand and muddy sand’, ‘coarse’ and ‘mixed’ sediment. However, there is no practical guidance supplied with the EUNIS scheme on how these sediment categories should be applied to empirical or modelled sediment data, leading to inconsistent biotope designations.
A segmentation of the Folk triangle, which provides a useful translation between existing Folk maps and EUNIS habitats, was developed in the MESH project (Mapping European Seabed Habitats). However, this categorisation has been demonstrated to result in a poor match between modelled and observed biotopes. Many of the difficulties in using this classification scheme have arisen because it, counter‐intuitively places some sand habitats into the coarse sediment category and because the split between ‘mud’ and ‘muddy sand’ and between ‘sand’ and ‘muddy sand’ have not been defined. During the course of two regional seabed mapping projects in the UK we investigated alternative ways of segmenting the Folk triangle and propose a refined segmentation that better reflects the relationship between sediment class and species distributions and which facilitates habitat modelling using the EUNIS habitat classification scheme.Reference:
B. Pearce, C. James, R. Coggan*, C. Chambers, J. Hill and D. Tappin (2011) Rationalising seabed sediment classification to promote consistency in biotope classification and improve accuracy in predictive biotope mapping. ICES CM 2011/G:05
- Publication Internet Address of the Data
- Publication Authors
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B. Pearce, C. James, R. Coggan*, C. Chambers, J. Hill and D. Tappin
- Publication Date
- September 2011
- Publication Reference
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ICES CM 2011/G:05
- Publication DOI: https://doi.org/
