Data for the North Sea Benthos Project were provided by the

• Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Rijkswaterstaat Haren
• TNO
• the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
• the Senckenberg Institute Wilhelmshaven
• the University of Kiel
• the Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde
• the Marine Station - University of Lille
• Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)
• Marine Ecological Surveys Ltd. (on behalf of a UK dredging consortium)
• Marine Biology section - University of Gent
• Sea Fisheries Department Oostende
• FRS Marine Laboratory Aberdeen
• Akvaplan NIVA Tromso
• Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA).

Sampling occurred mainly in spring and early summer of 2000 and covered almost the whole North Sea from the English Channel to about 60°N. The Norwegian data set contains information mainly from studies associated with oil and gas platforms.

Most of the sampling in 2000 was conducted with a 0.1 m2 van Veen grab and samples were sieved over a 1 mm mesh. Two to three replicates per station were taken. Dutch samples were obtained with a box corer, British ones with a 0.1m2 Day or Hamon grab depending on the sediment type.

Biomass was estimated by most of the laboratories, ranging from wet weight to ash free dry weight. Conversion factors can be used to standardize biomass for all data sets. AFDW and wet weight data are available from NIOZ and Wimereux to calculate conversion factors; conversions by Rumohr et al. (1987) are also commonly used.

Samples for sediment composition and contaminants were taken by most participants, either from extra grabs or from the same grab as used for faunal analysis. Samples for analysis of meiofauna were taken only by CEFAS and FRS.

Access to data

The following rules with respect to access to, and use of individual or institutional data sets were agreed at the workshop on the North Sea Benthos Project (NSBP-2000) held in Oostende, Belgium, at 28-29 January 2002, with minor amendments added at the ICES SG NSBP 2000 inter-sessional workshop at Oostende in November 2003:

• The raw data compilation will only be available for participants in the NSBP-2000 for the purpose of data analysis aimed at the production of common reports/publications. At a later moment it will be decided when public access to the raw data can be allowed. Individual datasets which comprise the data compilation remain the property of the original data collectors and may be made available through other national sources
• All data contributors can be co-authors on any publication based on the integrated dataset. For each publication there will be a group-decision regarding the name of the ‘first’ author and the order of co-authors.
• The timing of any common report or publication will consider and respect any national requirement with regard to reporting on national data sets.
• Any participant who wants to use data from another data owner can do so only after given consent by the respective data owners.
• The meta-data regarding individual or institutional data sets will be made available to public access via the web. These meta-data will not include any raw data as mentioned under (1) nor species lists.