2003 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA4 Technical report - Shallow benthos (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). It is a synthesis of information describing the seabed habitats, species and communities on the continental shelf of the west of Orkney and Shetland relevant to the SEA 4 area. It provides a summary of the benthic communities and assemblages which inhabit the shallow waters of the SEA4 area, from littoral to offshore areas. A wide range of habitats exist in the area because of the heterogeneity of the seafloor environment, ranging from hard rock sites exposed to the full force of waves and tidal currents to muddy sediments in sheltered inlets. The shelf and offshore areas include varying bedforms of sand and gravel, some of high carbonate content, and considerable amounts of glacigenic material. The epifauna and infauna which inhabit these different environments are summarised. A section of the report discusses the environmental impacts of anthropogenic activities in the area. These include the harvesting of algae from rocky shores, the release of radionuclides on the Caithness coast (Dounreay), dredging for sedimentary material, trawling and mariculture, in addition to the offshore oil and gas industry.
Simple
- Date (Publication)
- 2003-06-01
- Identifier
- British Geological Survey / BGS_SEA_51
Custodian
British Geological Survey (BGS)
-
Paul Henni
Murchison House, West Mains Road
,
Edinburgh
,
EH9 3LA
,
UK
+44 (0)131 667 1000
Originator
Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
+44 (0) 1823 284077
Admiralty Way
,
London
,
SW1A 2HD
,
UK
+44 0300 060 4000
+44 (0) 1823 284077
- Maintenance and update frequency
- notPlanned Not planned
- Name
- Documents
- Keywords
- SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
-
- Habitats and biotopes
- Species distribution
- SeaVoX Vertical Co-ordinate Coverages
- Use limitation
- The SEAs data were produced as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme; Crown Copyright, all rights reserved. The DECC SEA must be acknowledged in any maps or publications that make use of the data. All the data files are freely available to the public. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS. BGS (NERC) has been contracted by DECC to publish SEA datasets on its behalf. All intellectual property rights (including , without limitation, copyrights, database rights and all other rights which subsist or may at any time in the future subsist in the Dataset(s)) in the Dataset(s) ('Intellectual Property Rights') are owned by DECC (formerly the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform). BGS has been authorised by DECC to use SEA datasets for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit basis'. BGS has been authorised by DECC to pass on SEA datasets to third parties so that they can use them for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit' basis.
- Access constraints
- intellectualPropertyRights Intellectual property rights
- Distance
- 5 http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/ISO_19139_Schemas/resources/uom/gmxUom.xml#m
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Topic category
-
- Biota
- Environment
- Geoscientific information
- Oceans
- Date (Revision)
- 2006-01-01
- Unique resource identifier
- North Atlantic Ocean
N
S
E
W
- Begin date
- 2003-01-01
- End date
- 2003-01-01
- Supplemental Information
- http://www.offshore-sea.org.uk/site/index.php
- Reference system identifier
- OGP / urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
- Distribution format
-
- OnLine resource
-
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal
The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS.
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Statement
- This report was prepared by Professor A. Eleftheriou of the Institute of Marine Biology of Crete as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme. The information was gained from a wide range of available sources (classical and recent scientific studies, regional surveys commissioned by government and government agencies, as well as industry).
- File identifier
- aba64100-c128-4de3-e044-0003ba6f30bd XML
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Date stamp
- 2011-08-30
- Metadata standard name
- MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard
- Metadata standard version
- Version 2.3.5
Overviews
Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
Provided by
Associated resources
Not available