Environmental and sediment conditions, infaunal benthic communities and biodiversity in the Celtic Sea collected from cruise DY021 spatial survey on the RSS Discovery, March 2015.

A masters student project conducted by Imogen McClelland. In total 61 macrofaunal benthic NIOZ cores (1m²) were collected and analysed from the Celtic Sea. This formed the Spatial Project whch was collected in addition and alongside samples taken as part of the Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry (SSB) project during the SSB cruise DY021 in March 2015. Working on transects across the sampling zone each area was characterised using environmental and sediment conditions in addition to the benthic faunal abundances and wet biomass. This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [grant numbers NE/K00204X/1, Shelf Seas Biogeochemistry Research Programme and NE/L003279/1, Marine Ecosystems Research Programme]. The Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry (SSB) research programme took a holistic approach to the cycling of nutrients and carbon and the controls on primary and secondary production in UK and European shelf seas, to increase understanding of these processes and their role in wider biogeochemical cycles. The Marine Ecosystems Research Programme (MERP) set out to integrate existing marine data and target new data with current models and knowledge of marine ecosystem services, in order to improve understanding of the whole UK marine ecosystem. The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) created the metadata entry and is responsible for holding master copies of the data.

本数据集为伊莫金·麦克莱兰（Imogen McClelland）的硕士研究生课题研究成果。研究团队于凯尔特海（Celtic Sea）共采集并分析了61个大型底栖生物（macrofaunal benthic）NIOZ柱状采样样，单样采样面积为1平方米。该采样工作隶属于「空间项目（Spatial Project）」，并与2015年3月DY021航次的陆架海生物地球化学（Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry, SSB）项目所采集的样本同步开展，作为其补充研究内容。研究人员沿采样区断面布设取样点位，针对每个采样区域，除统计底栖生物丰度与湿生物量外，还对其环境与沉积条件开展了表征分析。本研究由自然环境研究理事会（Natural Environment Research Council）与环境、食品与农村事务部（Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs）联合资助，资助编号分别为NE/K00204X/1（陆架海生物地球化学研究计划）与NE/L003279/1（海洋生态系统研究计划）。陆架海生物地球化学（SSB）研究计划采用整体化研究范式，聚焦英国及欧洲陆架海的营养盐与碳循环过程，以及初级、次级生产的调控机制，以期深化对上述过程及其在更广尺度生物地球化学循环中所扮演角色的认知。海洋生态系统研究计划（Marine Ecosystems Research Programme, MERP）旨在整合现有海洋数据，并结合当前海洋生态系统服务的相关模型与研究认知补充采集新数据，以提升对英国全域海洋生态系统的理解水平。英国海洋学数据中心（British Oceanographic Data Centre, BODC）负责创建本数据集的元数据条目，并承担数据主副本的保管职责。