Coastal areas of Great Britain (including Northern Ireland and some of the Isle of Man)

Habitat characterisation; Habitat extent; Zoobenthos taxonomy-related abundance per unit area of the littoral zone; Sediment grain size parameters; Salinity of the water column; Seabed photography; Zoobenthos taxonomic abundance; Zoobenthos taxonomy-related counts

Pelagic trawl nets; benthos samplers; cameras; sediment grabs; unconsolidated sediment corers; manual biota samplers; rock dredges

The aim of the Marine Nature Conservation Review (MNCR) is to extend knowledge of benthic marine habitats, communities and species in Great Britain, particularly through description of their characteristics, distribution and extent. A further aim is to identify sites and species of nature conservation importance. The still-growing MNCR database was therefore developed in-house to provide a fundamental underpinning to the work of the MNCR and Marine Conservation Branch of the JNCC. The database currently comprises a number of modules including literature reviews and field data. The field data is hierarchical with a one-to-many relationship between surveys and sites, and sites and habitats respectively. It is used to store raw field survey data from surveys of areas from all around the British coast (including the islands) by the MNCR, country agencies (e.g. English Nature) and contractors. This includes details of any photographs taken to support the survey work and cataloguing of specimens of organisms taken from the field. It also stores data from previous Nature Conservancy Council databases. It is currently being used to develop a community/biotope classification scheme. Data can be downloaded to the UK Digital Marine Atlas (UKDMA) or used in a variety of interfaced packages.

Hill, T.O., Thorpe, K., Connor, D.W. and Mills, D.J.L. (1993) Littoral and sublittoral surveys of the UK North Sea coast - input and analysis of data to the Marine Nature Conservation Review. Final Report., Joint Nature Conservation Committee Report, No. 166. (MNCR Report, No.MNCR/OR/16).; Mills, D.J.L., Hill, T.O., Thorpe, K. and Connor, D.W. (1993) Atlas of marine biological surveys in Britain. Joint Nature Conservation Committee Report, No. 167., Marine Nature Conservation Review Report, No.MNCR/OR/17; Mills, D.J.L. (1991) Marine Nature Conservation Review: data handling systems. Nature Conservancy Council. CSD Report, No. 1192, Marine Nature Conservation Review Report, No.MNCR/OR/12

Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Marine Conservation Branch (Peterborough)
Monkstone House City Road
Peterborough

PE1 1JY
United Kingdom