2015 - 2017 Community Seagrass Initiative (CSI) South Coast Cornwall, Devon and Dorset Seagrass Transect Survey
The Community Seagrass Initiative is a citizen science lead monitoring programme. It focusses on sub-tidal seagrass beds in the South West of England between Looe in Cornwall and Weymouth in Dorset. There are 19 beds surveyed by the project in total, some, but not all, fall within the boundaries of designated Marine Protected Areas (MPS's). Data on seagrass shoot density, fauna counts on a very broad sale, and presence/absence of some Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) and commercial fisheries species. Data is collected by volunteer divers that don't necessarily have previous marine biological surveying experience. They have been trained by the project on the surveying and animal identification skills required.
dataset
http://doi.org/10.17031/64771292116ed
name: DOI URL
description: A link to the web service or dataset
http://https://www.dassh.ac.uk
name: DASSH website
description: A link to the general host site
DASSHSE00000043
http://www.dassh.ac.uk
eng
urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
biota
biota
revision
2008-01-06
creation
2011-02-16
creation
2003-01-01
revision
2009-11-16
revision
2005-04-27
publication
2017-10-31
-4.5153
-2.1670
50.7425
50.1408
creation
2009-06-18
Western Channel and Celtic Sea
2015-03-25
2017-09-22
publication
2017-12-15
creation
2018-02-02
revision
2017-12-15
notPlanned
The Community Seagrass Initiative (CSI) is a citizen science project focused on increasing knowledge about sub-tidal seagrass (Zostera marina) habitats in the South West of England. As such the data has been collected by volunteers who's backgrounds are not necessarily in marine monitoring but who show an interest in developing these skills. All volunteers were capable of collecting very accurate data on seagrass shoot density so this data is of high quality. For the fauna abundance data each volunteer is assessed by their local Project Officer to either be a "Beginner" or "Competent" surveyor. This is based on the Project Officer's opinion (based on previous experience as well as quality assurance on the CSI surveys) of their ability to identify fauna to the appropriate level for this survey. The survey protocol is as follows: Diver pairs are equipped with a 0.5m x 0.5m quadrat, a recording slate, camera in underwater housing and a surface marker buoy mounted with a handheld Garmin GPS (to enable later geo-referencing of photos taken) as well as their personal dive computers and compasses. All divers follow the same protocol, there can be 3-5 diver pairs taking part in parallel transects during each survey. At the point of deployment the diver pair descend and survey 3 randomly sampled quadrats which make up "station A". They then swim along a pre-determined compass bearing and certain distance and survey a further 3 quadrats at "station B". This pattern continues until the diver pair have either completed all 5 stations (3 quadrats at each station A-E) or reach the maximum dive time given, whichever comes first. Divers must take photos of each quadrat for later quality assurance checks of the data collected. Within the quadrat divers will count the number of seagrass shoots (to allow shoot density to be calculated) and the abundance present of each of the following broad fauna groups: Ascidians, Bryozoans (counted as number of blades with bryozoan colonies present), Cnidarians (including hydroids which are counted as number of blades with hydroid colonies present), Crustaceans, Echinoderms, Fish, Molluscs, Porifera, and Worms (of all worm phyla). The presence of certain Biodiversity Action Plan Species and commercial fisheries species will also be recorded throughout the dive (not confined to within quadrats). This list of species is: Hippocampus hippocampus, Hippocampus guttulatus, any species of stalked jellyfish, Atrina fragilis, Raja undulata (and its eggs), Pollachius pollachius, Pecten maximus, Sepia officinalis (and its eggs). Survey results are discussed with divers immediately after dive ends. Slates are checked by the Project Officers. Written results quality assured against photos taken.
Please cite the "Community Seagrass Initiative, National Marine Aquarium" when using
This version is public access (certain species removed). The complete version is available with permission from the National Marine Aquarium.
Data Manager
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
originator
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
originator
Data Manager
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
custodian
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
custodian
Data Manager
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
pointOfContact
National Marine Aquarium (NMA)
pointOfContact
2023-06-01