Species data for Scottish waters held and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage, derived from benthic surveys 1993 to 2018
NatureScot
Description
The dataset comprises: species records from benthic surveys commissioned by SNH or partners where the outputs are under the custodianship of SNH. Additionally species records determined from SNH analysis of third party commissioned benthic survey video footage are included. The dataset contains surveys which contributed to the Marine Nature Conservation Review (MNCR) programme, EU funded BioMar Life project, SNH Site Condition Monitoring including broad scale surveys in support of the Natura process, surveys to establish the impact of specific activities on marine habitats and species and surveys to support the Scottish Marine Protected Areas project.
Records in this dataset were originally collected for a variety of purposes including: identification of areas of marine natural heritage importance, to support protected site designation or to support site condition monitoring. This dataset is a collation of species records from these surveys and has been produced to mobilise these records to a broad spectrum of users and in so doing it contributes to Scottish Natural Heritage’s ongoing commitment to the National Biodiversity Network.
Geographic Description
The records in this dataset relate to the Scottish Marine Area, but have a predominant near-shore focus in their distribution.
Purpose
Records in this dataset were originally collected for a variety of purposes including: identification of areas of marine natural heritage importance, to support protected site designation or to support site condition monitoring. This dataset is a collation of species records from these surveys and has been produced to mobilise these records to a broad spectrum of users and in so doing it contributes to Scottish Natural Heritage’s ongoing commitment to the National Biodiversity Network.
Data quality
The majority of records have been subjected to quality assurance procedures which includes an independent oversight of a sub-set of records from each survey and specialist taxonomic input. In addition some of the data has been subject to NMBAQC protocols. Additionally, SNH project managers’ have an oversight on the survey deliverables. Overall confidence in the dataset is high although it is conceivable that errors exist in this dataset. SNH view mobilisation of these records to the NBN Gateway as a further mechanism for assuring data quality. If users of the Gateway identify potential errors in the dataset then these should be flagged with SNH who will consider all feedback.
Methods
Records in the dataset were collected as a result of commissioned surveys which used a range of methodologies often closely aligned with those of the Marine Nature Conservation Review (MNCR) as described in the MNCR Rational and Methods report (Hiscock 1996). Surveys were typically undertaken using one or more of the following techniques, remotely operated video (ROV), drop-down or towed video, grab sampling, core sampling, clump sampling, diver video, MNCR phase 2 diver recording, and intertidal transects and quadrats. Most commonly semi-quantitative recording techniques have been applied using the SACFOR abundance scale, but species presence, and count data have also been used. Typically, although not presented in this dataset many of the surveys would also have described the variety of habitats present (detailing substrata, depths, wave exposures, current regimes, salinity and so on). Verification and validation of records has typically focussed on a quality assurance protocol for taxon determination and data entry.
Citation
NatureScot ([Insert download year]). Species data for Scottish waters held and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage, derived from benthic surveys 1993 to 2018
Rights
OGL
Usage statistics
Loading...
Digitised records
Looking up... the number of records that can be accessed through the NBN Atlas. This resource was last checked for updated data on 10 Jan 2023. The most recent data was published on 10 Jan 2023.
Click to view records for the Species data for Scottish waters held and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage, derived from benthic surveys 1993 to 2018 resource.