Data for: Mapping ecological diversity and interactions with bottom-contact fishing on the Flemish Cap (northwest Atlantic)
Description
Records of the invertebrate epibenthos drawn from the catches of the 2007 EU Flemish Cap bottom-trawl survey, conducted by the Instituto Español de Oceanografía together with the Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas and the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera. The survey sampled all of the trawlable area of Division 3M between 138 and 1488 m depth, including the Cap and the eastern side of Flemish Pass, following a depth-stratified random sampling design. It was conducted on board the Spanish research vessel Vizconde de Eza, with standardized sets of a Lofoten bottom trawl, which swept ≈0.04 km2 each set. A total of 177 valid trawl sets, 176 with presence of benthic invertebrate fauna, were included in the analyses. Murillo et al. (2016a) provided details of sample processing and species identifications. In brief: all non-encrusting invertebrates other than cephalopods and pelagic shrimps were extracted from the trawl catches and identified to the lowest possible taxon, 285 discrete taxa being recorded, and the biomass (wet weight) in kg for each was determined. Murillo, F.J., Serrano, A., Kenchington, E., Mora, J., 2016a. Epibenthic assemblages of the Tail of the Grand Bank and Flemish Cap (northwest Atlantic) in relation to environmental parameters and trawling intensity. Deep-Sea Res. I 109, 99–122.