Biodiversity indices; Fauna abundance per unit area of the bed

This dataset comprises species abundance and size data for marine epifauna from towed video surveys. The surveys were undertaken in Lyme Bay, Southwest England in April 2014. Detailed abundance and species composition of epifaunal communities, including percentage cover of encrusting species in the dataset was enumerated using still frames extracted from towed videos and the entire video transects themselves. During the project, 60 sites were surveyed using a towed underwater flying HD video camera along 200 metre transects. From these transects, 30 randomly selected frames were analysed. During January and February 2014, a series of storms swept the North Atlantic, generating some of the highest waves ever recorded in Western Europe with exceptionally long wave periods. The south-west coasts of the UK were heavily impacted by these storms, including Lyme Bay, an area that includes the UK's first large Marine Protected Area (MPA), designated in 2008. This survey work was carried out to test the resilience of marine epifaunal communities in Marine Protected Areas in response to storm disturbance. The project was undertaken by Dr. Emma Sheehan, Dr. Luke Holmes, and Professor Martin Attrill of the University of Plymouth as part of the NERC Discovery Science grant NE/M005208/1 titled ‘Testing resilience in Marine Protected Areas using storm disturbance in Lyme Bay, SW England’.

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