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MESH: The Seabed Online
Maps and images of seabed habitat, geology and biological data in the seas around North-West Europe can now be viewed online. This resource was created by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, in a five nation project called, The Development of a Framework for Mapping European Seabed Habitats, or MESH. Marine biologists, the oil and gas industry, and anyone interested in conservation, will benefit from ready access to the vast amounts of data about intertidal and seabed habitats. Important to the project was discovering more about the processes that determine the existence of certain habitats in a particular location. These habitats are defined by a combination of unique conditions such as current, depth of water, temperature and the rock structure under the seafloor. Understanding and classifying this makes it possible to predict the existence of certain habitat at a particular kind of location. From this has come predictive mapping which will help determine the likely habitat at a location and avoid expensive field survey undertakings. Predictive mapping can also be used to evaluate large areas of
Sponge community at the base of Stanton Banks.
Multibeam Bathymetry of Stanton Banks with overlaid SAAB Seaeye Tiger ROV track. (Courtesy of C. McGonigle, University of Ulster)
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Marine Technology Reporter 9
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