Monitoring data (hard substrate, soft bottom) of the offshore wind farm alpha ventus (German Bight, North Sea)@en

Alpha ventus was the first German offshore wind farm build in the German exclusive economic zone in 2008/2009. The data are part of the mandatory monitoring programme of the German Standard Investigation of the Impacts of Offshore Wind Turbines on the Marine Environment (latest version: StUK 4, published by BSH 2014). Makrozoobenthos was collected in the offshore wind farm alpha ventus at four wind turbines at different depth (epifouling communities), distance-dependent to the turbines in the soft bottom, as well as randomly within the soft bottom of the offshore wind farm area and in a comparable reference area nearby. Samples were taken by scrape samples with scuba divers to analyse the epifaunal communities and with van-Veen grabs to analyse the infauna. Soft-bottom samples in the wind farm and reference area were collected in spring and autumn from 2008-2012 before, during and after construction (until three years) of the wind farm. After construction of the turbines, epifaunal community was evaluated for recording successional stages of growth on the wind turbines in different depth to cover the vertical zonation along the turbines (at 1, 5 and 10 m depth). Further, soft-bottom samples were collected distance dependent to the turbines 100, 200 and 400 m apart from the turbines. Biodiversity data of species include abundance (count data) and biomass (wet mass, g) per sample. […]