Macrobenthos of the sand biotops, 2003 (Black Sea off the coast of south-weastern Crimea)

Macrofauna were sampled in 2003, collected from the Sevastopol area (Black Sea off the coast of south-weastern Crimea). The sampling took place with the devices: Grab (0.04 m²) and Petersen Grab (0.1 m²) at depths from 3 to 25 m. Three transects were located perpendicular to the coast at a distance of 100 m. Two samples were taken at each station (44 samples per area). The sampled material was washed with 1 mm mesh sieve system and preserved in 75% alcohol, which is known to preserve morphological structures without distortion. We avoided prior fixation in formalin in order to not damage calcareous taxa. For each species, the average abundance (Ind/m²), the average wet biomass (g/m²) and the number of species was recorded.