2003 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA4 Analysis of macroinvertebrate samples from the Northern Triangle area (north UKCS)

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA4) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change) and it presents results from the macrofaunal analysis of sixty-three macrobenthos samples. The samples were from a range of depths in the SEA4 Northern Triangle area, at the northernmost extent of British waters. Most of the samples were rich in terms of numbers of taxa and individuals and all major benthic invertebrate phyla were represented in the survey. The fauna included several taxa that are likely to be undescribed species and many have been recorded by nominal names. Several groups have also been left at higher taxonomic levels. Data analysis was not included for this part of the project. A preliminary literature list for deep-sea taxonomy was compiled for the project and provided in the report. A spreadsheet of data is also available.本报告为贸易工业部（现能源与气候变化部）牵头实施的战略环境评估（Strategic Environmental Assessment，SEA4）项目的成果之一，呈现了针对63份大型底栖生物（macrobenthos）样本的大型底栖动物群落分析结果。样本采集自英国海域最北端的SEA4北部三角区域内的不同水深梯度环境。多数样本的分类单元与个体丰度均较为可观，本次调查覆盖了全部主要的底栖无脊椎动物门类。本次调查检出的底栖动物群落中，包含多个大概率尚未被正式描述的分类单元，且多数类群已以暂定学名完成记录。部分类群仅鉴定至较高的分类阶元，未开展更细致的分类学划分。本项目该部分研究内容未包含数据分析环节。本项目还编制了深海分类学初步文献清单，并附于本报告之中。相关实验数据的电子表格亦可另行获取。