Benthos of a Sublittoral Sandbank in the Southern Bight of the North Sea: General Considerations

Abstract

In two previous papers (Vanosmael et al. 1982; Willems et al. 1982) the macrofauna and meiofauna of a sublittoral sandbank in the Belgian coastal waters of the North Sea were described. This sandbank, the Kwinte Bank, is one of a series of parallel linear banks, the Flemish Banks, which are 15–25 km long and 3–6 km wide and rise about 25 m above the surrounding sea-floor. They are stressed, high-energy environments, subject to extreme physical disturbance by the very strong tidal currents which run parallel to the long axis of the sandbank and which put the whole upper layer of the sediment in a state of suspension at times.