The sediments layer portrays the type of sea floor you can find in the sea area.
The sediments layer is a static layer, it can help in decision making to plan for wind farms or other structures fixed to the sea floor. It can also assist in identifying potentially important areas for protection.
In this tab you can see the information that applies concretely to the North Sea edition of the MSP Challenge.
Comming soon
Common name: Flame shells
"This habitat has a restricted distribution in the North East Atlantic Region, with current known records confined to the west coast of Scotland and one sea lough in Ireland. There are no long term (>50 year) data sets, but more recent studies show that several known beds in Scotland have declined in extent and density of L. hians individuals since first studied in the late 1970's. In Ireland, the dense L. hians beds in Mulroy Bay reported in 1995 are no longer present in the southern section. Because of the decline in quantity and quality of this habitat in recent years, together with its narrow geographical distribution and the continuing threats, this habitat has been assessed as Vulnerable."
"Flame shell beds are likely to be sensitive to substratum loss, smothering, increased wave action, changes in water flow, physical disturbance, synthetic contaminants, increased nutrients, decreased salinity, and extraction. Flame shell beds are highly vulnerable to seabed trawling and dredging, evidence of this is found in the destruction of the once large beds in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. Other threats include coastal developments and coastal defences, disturbance by mooring chains and anchors and contamination by Tributyl Tin (TBT) a component of antifouling paint."
Source: European Red List of Habitats - Marine Habitat Group. (2015). Retrieved from European Environment Information and Observation Network, accessed on 2021-11-10.
"Natural stocks of flat oyster Ostrea edulis, and naturally occurring beds of O. edulis are known to have been more abundant and widespread in the 18th and 19th centuries with large offshore oyster grounds in the southern North Sea, the English Channel, the Irish Sea and off the southwest to north-west coasts of Ireland. OSPAR has listed O. edulis and O. edulis beds as threatened and/or declining in all regions where they occur. In the Wadden Sea, oyster beds are resently considered to be ‘critical’ (under immediate threat of extinction) and have therefore been added to a Red List of macrofaunal benthic invertebrates for the area. There is currently insufficient information, however, to determine the true distribution and extent of the habitat throughout the North East Atlantic region."
"During the 20th century, the occurrence of O. edulis beds in European waters has declined, largely due to excessive harvesting and disease outbreaks. O. edulis beds are also sensitive to a wide range of pressures, such as: substratum loss, smothering, decrease in temperature, increase in wave exposure, increased water flow, abrasion and physical disturbance, synthetic compound contamination, introduction of microbial pathogens/parasites, heavy metal contamination, changes in oxygenation, introduction of nonnative species and harvesting."
Source: European Red List of Habitats - Marine Habitat Group. (2016). Retrieved from European Environment Information and Observation Network, accessed on 2022-02-10.
For more information please refer to the original document here.
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yyyy-mm-dd North Sea
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"The dataset was created to be used in the HELCOM Baltic Sea Impact Index (BSII). It represents benthic biotope complexes in the Baltic Sea, based on a combination of geological sediment data and light availability data. The dataset contains the following six classes: 1 = Photic sand 2 = Non-photic sand 3 = Photic mud and clay 4 = Non-photic mud and clay 5 = Photic hard bottom 6 = Non-photic hard bottom The sediment data used in this dataset has been produced within the EU Interreg IIIB project BALANCE (www.balance-eu.org). The light availability data has been produced withing the EUSeaMap project (unpublished data) and was reported on request to HELCOM Secreteriat by DHI."
Description retrieved from HELCOM's metadata page for this resource (2021-07-19)
Not available. Revision date: 2010-10-01.Updated in 2017.
This layer was adapted for MSP Challenge integration. The photic and non-photic zones were merged to obtain just the sediments' classes: sand, mud and clay , and hard bottom.
Clyde Marine Region types here
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yyyy-mm-dd Clyde Marine Region
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Adriatic Sea types here
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yyyy-mm-dd Adriatic Sea
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Co-funded by the European Union.