127. Large and more mobile epibenthic communities were investigated by a series of twelve 2 m beam trawls (see Appendix S for raw data). Trawl site T3 was abandoned due to the presence of Sabellaria as detected by the drop down video (DDV) survey). All other sites were successfully sampled.
128. The total number of taxa used in the analysis was 96 including enumerated and non‐ enumerated, 72 of which were identified to species level.
129. The most common epibenthic group sampled was Chordata (31%), followed by Crustacea (29%) and Cnidaria at 12%. All the other major groups accounted for less of 10% each (Figure 3.14a).
130. The non‐enumerated taxa included all the colonial organisms which belonged to the Phyla Cnidaria and Bryozoa. The abundance calculations included numerable taxa only and therefore the colonial organisms recorded were excluded. A total of 3,216 individuals were recorded. As well as being the most common phylum, Chordata were also the most abundant one, accounting for 47% of the total abundance. This was due to the high numbers of solenette Buglossideum luteum, sand goby Pomatoschistus minutus and lesser weever Echiichthys vipera. The second most abundant major group was Crustacea, with 34%, due to high abundance of the brown shrimp Crangon allmanni and the shrimp Philocheras trispinosus, and Echinodermata (17%), with the brittlestars Ophiura ophiura and Ophiura albida being the two most abundant species. Other major taxa contributing to the total abundance included Mollusca (1%) and Polychaeta (1%) (Figure 3.14b).
Benthic Characterisation Report November 2013
East Anglia THREE and FOUR Offshore Cable Corridor
