The Biomass of the Bottom Fauna in the English Channel off Plymouth

Abstract

A survey has been made of the biomass of the macrobenthos at twenty stations in the English Channel off Plymouth. The object was to provide a basis for following long-term fluctuations in the fauna.A brief survey of physical conditions in the area is given, and a gradeanalysis of the soil at each station has been made.Core-samples show that the sediment is shallow in many places and rock has been taken at 36 cm. or less below the surface at a number of stations.Samples totalling ½m.2 were taken at each station with a modified 'scoopsampler', covering 1/10m.2, which is briefly described.Sources of error in sampling are considered in detail. Some species may evade the sampler and others live too deep in the sediment to be taken. A comparison against a Petersen grab and a new ' suction-corer' show that the scoop-sampler does take a reasonably quantitative sample. The number of species taken in successive hauls, when plotted against the log of the area sampled, approaches a straight-line relationship similar to that obtained by Williams (1950).A statistical analysis is made of a series of samples taken at one station, and the variance between the two samples in each haul and between successive hauls calculated. At this pàrticular station the fauna in successive samples is shown to be fairly random.A sieve of 2-2 mm. mesh was employed. Compared with a finer sieve losses in terms of numbers may be quite large, but the total weight taken is little affected.