SHARK - Regional monitoring and monitoring projects of Epibenthos in Sweden since 1994

Regional monitoring programs for Epibenthos have been performed since 1994 in Sweden. The monitoring is financed by the Swedish county administration boards, Swedish municipalities and Swedish coalitions of water conservation. Recipient control data financed by companies are also included. Sampling is performed by a large number of different institutes and consulting firms. Data from monitoring projects are also included in this dataset. The data is stored in the database SHARK, hosted and maintained by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. The Epibenthos monitoring programs and projects studies hard and soft bottoms from the surface down to 10-20 meters. Data is collected in transects or squares with help of divers. Species abundances are determined directly by the divers or photographs are taken and analyzed later.