Marine biological survey to establish the distribution and status of ...

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Each discrete grab sample was emptied into a wash box on the deck of RV Aora. In the wash box the sediment was gently agitated with seawater from the deck hose and washed through a 1 mm sieve. After gentle sieving the residue was transferred to an airtight bucket, fixed with a 15% formal saline solution and labelled on both the inside and outside of the bucket with relevant station details. Once the formalin had been added to the storage buckets, they were carefully inverted to ensure that all the material was exposed to the fixative solution. No vital stain was added to the samples. Photographs were taken of each full grab before processing and of the sediment residue following sieving (Plate 4). Plate 4 Example photographs showing the volume and contents of a successful grab sample (Station G09) and the residue retained in the 1 mm sieve Laboratory extraction and identification to the finest practicable resolution and enumeration of the sampled fauna was carried out by Dr. Peter Garwood of Identichaet, a renowned international expert in the field of marine invertebrate taxonomy and macrobenthic infaunal identification. This was carried out according to NMBAQC guidelines. The sediment samples, which were kept frozen, were couriered to Hebog Environmental, an NMBAQC laboratory, for particle size distribution analysis using a combination of wet and dry sieving for particles larger than 63 m and by electronic particle counting for material smaller than 63 m. The organic matter determination was calculated by loss on ignition at 450°C. 2.5 Diver sampling The main focus of the diving survey was to collect detailed in-situ, biological records from selected MPA search features within diving depths (
sketches of the site. These data were supplemented by digital video and digital SLR photography. Following the survey, biotope codes were assigned to the data which were entered into Excel spreadsheets and subsequently into Marine Recorder. Figure 10 Distribution of dive sites surveyed in 2010 within the Sound of Canna © Crown Copyright and database right [2012]. All rights reserved. Ordnance survey License number 100017908. This product has been derived in part from material obtained from the UK Hydrographic Office with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and UK Hydrographic Office (www.ukho.gov.uk). NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION The divers were restricted to a maximum depth of 40 m. On the cliffs, the northern sea fan Swiftia pallida was not found shallower than 30 m and thus there was very little time available in this target MPA search feature. In order to maximise the information collected, both pairs of divers covered the same dive site. At less complex or shallower sites, only a single pair of divers was required to satisfactorily complete the survey tasks. 2.5.1 Seagrass beds Two small Zostera marina seagrass beds were found during the video work and these were mapped during the diving survey. The water was clear enough to allow divers to snorkel around the perimeter with a GPS in a waterproof case attached to a small float. The tracks were later downloaded and the beds mapped. Meanwhile, divers carried out Phase 2 recording and took photographs and video. The sediments within each bed were also described and cored with a 10.3 cm diameter, 15 - 20 cm depth core in order to sample the infauna. Five replicate cores were collected from each bed and washed with seawater through a 1 mm mesh sieve. The sediment and fauna retained on the sieve were preserved in a 15% formal saline solution for subsequent identification. A sample of sediment was also taken and later processed for Particle Size Analysis (PSA) and ‘Loss on Ignition’ (LoI), the former to help to characterise the particle size distribution and the latter to provide a measure of the organic content of the sediment. This sample consisted of a scrape of approximately 500 g of the top 50 mm of sediment. 16
Page 1 and 2: Scottish Natural Heritage Commissio
Page 4 and 5: COMMISSIONED REPORT Summary Marine
Page 6 and 7: Contents Page no. 1 Introduction ..
Page 8 and 9: Page no. Figure 28 Basking shark ho
Page 10 and 11: 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The S
Page 12 and 13: Rum has a far more complex structur
Page 14 and 15: In 1993 an SNH team conducted remot
Page 16 and 17: Richardson et al. (2004) showed tha
Page 18 and 19: 2 METHODS 2.1 Sampling strategy The
Page 20 and 21: Figure 6 Shallow water video statio
Page 22 and 23: Figure 8 Video stations surveyed in
Page 26 and 27: Following the survey, the infauna w
Page 28 and 29: Table 2 Biotopes identified in the
Page 30 and 31: Figure 11 2010 survey coverage off
Page 32 and 33: Circalittoral sandy mud (SS.SMu.CSa
Page 34 and 35: Description The distribution of the
Page 36 and 37: Figure 16 Division of the megafauna
Page 38 and 39: Some L. saccharina forest (IR.LIR.K
Page 40 and 41: Rhodophyllis werneri and Scinaia in
Page 42 and 43: Plate 8 A northern sea fan Swiftia
Page 44 and 45: Zostera marina/angustifolia beds on
Page 46 and 47: This is consistent with infaunal co
Page 48 and 49: the fan mussels ranged from an esti
Page 50 and 51: Plate 13 A small basking shark in C
Page 52 and 53: Distribution Depth range: 72 - 21
Page 54 and 55: Figure 31 Other species of interest
Page 56 and 57: coverage predictive biotope distrib
Page 58 and 59: 4 DISCUSSION This section presents
Page 60 and 61: Table 4 Summary of the assessment o
Page 62 and 63: The burrowed mud supported langoust
Page 64 and 65: in areas where it is protected from
Page 66 and 67: Table 6 Summary of a preliminary as
Page 68 and 69: 5.2 Future data review and biologic
Page 70 and 71: Ingle, R.W. (1996). Shallow-water c
Page 72 and 73: Appendix 1 Drop-down video and dive
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Date Station Time Latitude Longitud
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Table A1.2 Summary notes (biologica
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Tow Id no Tow Data point Date Tape
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Tow Id no Tow Data point Date A123
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Table A1.3 Summary of sampling unde
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Site No. Date Habitat Id (Site No:H
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Species MCS Code D D 1 _ 2 D D 1 _
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Species MCS Code Suberites ficus C2
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Species MCS Code Cryptopleura ramos
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Species MCS Code Scrupocellaria Y83
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Table A1.6 Species recorded (matrix
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Species MCS Code A 1 2 _ 1 A 1 2 _
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Table A1.7 Species recorded (matrix
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Species MCS Code Dive 1.1 Dive 2.1
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Table A2.1 Positional and depth inf
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Table A2.3 List of taxa identified
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Taxa MCS Code G 01 G 02 G 03 G 04 G
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Taxa MCS Code G 01 G 02 G 03 Diasty
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Taxa MCS Code G 01 Ascidiella sp. Z
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Figure A2.1 Bray-Curtis similarity
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Appendix 3 Macrofaunal and sediment
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Table A3.3 Results of univariate an
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Appendix 4 Photo and video logs - 2
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File Name Subject Site Name Island
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Table A4.2 Drop-down video log, 201
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File Name File size Folder Site No
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File Name File size Folder Site No
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www.snh.gov.uk © Scottish Natural
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