Macrobel: Long term trends in the macrobenthos of the Belgian Continental Shelf (EUROBIS)

The global objective of this project is to deliver a substantial contribution to the knowledge of the long term variability in the biodiversity of the macrobenthos and the relationship with anthropogenic activities on the Belgian Continental Shelf.

The Belgian Continental Shelf (BCS) (surface : 2017 km²) is only 0.5 % of the North Sea surface, but it has a very high diversity in marine habitats and associated biological communities. Also, the socio-economic importance of the BCS is very high. As in most areas around the North Sea, a lot of anthropogenic activities, such as sea fisheries, maritime transport, military shootings, dredging activities and others occur on the BCS.

The combination of the ecological and the socio-economic value of the BCS causes conflicts between both interests. Therefore it is very important to develop a sustainable management plan for the natural resources of the BCS. To obtain this goal, information and knowledge is required about

- geographical distribution of the marine biological communities,
- the structure of these communities,
- their relationship with the physical and the chemical environment,
- the natural ecological and genetic variability, and
- the nature and the effect of the anthropogenic influences on these ecosystem components.

Macrobenthic organisms are good candidates for monitoring the short and long-term effects of natural and anthropogenic impacts on and within the marine environment because of their direct link with the sediment and with the processes that occur immediately above the sediments.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE

The specific aim of this website is to deliver an atlas with distribution maps of the macrobenthos of the Belgian Coastal Shelf (BCS) for the periods 1977-1983 and 1994-2000. Besides biogeographic and taxonomy information, which is given for each taxon, descriptive details on morphology, biology, ecology, habitat preferences and illustrations are given for a limited number a taxa (see list below). Eventually, by continuing monitoring programmes, our knowledge of different effects of antropogenic activities on the macrobenthos will aid in the development of a sustainable management plan for the Belgian Coastal Shelf.

Size reference: 338 species; 771 stations; 21,041 distribution records

[Source: The information provided in the summary was extracted from the MarBEF Data System at http://www.marbef.org/data/eurobis.php

本项目的总体目标是，为深入认知比利时大陆架（Belgian Continental Shelf, BCS）大型底栖生物（macrobenthos）多样性的长期变化规律及其与人类活动的关联，提供重要的科学支撑。

比利时大陆架（BCS）面积为2017平方千米，占北海总面积的0.5%，却拥有极为丰富的海洋生境类型及与之伴生的生物群落。同时，该海域的社会经济价值亦十分显著。与北海周边多数海域类似，BCS上存在大量人类活动，包括海洋渔业、海上航运、军事射击演习、疏浚作业及其他相关活动。

BCS兼具生态与社会经济双重价值，这导致两类利益间产生冲突。因此，为该海域的自然资源制定可持续管理规划至关重要。为实现这一目标，需掌握以下五方面的信息与知识：
1. 海洋生物群落的地理分布；
2. 此类群落的结构特征；
3. 它们与物理、化学环境的相互关系；
4. 自然生态与遗传变异特性；
5. 人类活动对这些生态系统组分的影响性质与效应。

大型底栖生物与沉积物及沉积物表层紧邻发生的过程直接相关，因此是监测自然及人类活动对海洋环境造成的短期与长期影响的理想监测对象。

### 具体目标
本网站的核心目标是构建一套图集，呈现1977-1983年及1994-2000年两个时段内比利时沿岸大陆架（Belgian Coastal Shelf, BCS）大型底栖生物的分布地图。除针对每个分类单元提供生物地理学与分类学信息外，还将为部分分类单元（详见下文列表）提供形态学、生物学、生态学及生境偏好等方面的详细描述及配套插图。后续通过持续开展监测项目，我们对人类活动对大型底栖生物产生的各类影响的认知，将助力BCS可持续管理规划的制定。

本数据集涵盖338个物种、771个采样站位与21041条分布记录。

【数据来源】本摘要信息提取自MarBEF数据系统（http://www.marbef.org/data/eurobis.php）