Check List 18(3): 593-628, doi: 10.15560/18.3.593

Annotated checklist and biodiversity analysis of benthic fauna at Sylt Outer Reef and Borkum Reef Ground (North Sea)

Sarah Joy Hahn^‡, Angelika Brandt^§|, Moritz Sonnewald^‡

‡ Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany§ Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Frankfurt, Germany| Senckenberg, Frankfurt, Germany

Corresponding author: Sarah Joy Hahn ( sarah-joy.hahn@senckenberg.de )

Academic editor: Luis Felipe Skinner

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Hahn SJ, Brandt A, Sonnewald M (2022) Annotated checklist and biodiversity analysis of benthic fauna at Sylt Outer Reef and Borkum Reef Ground (North Sea). Check List 18(3): 593-628. https://doi.org/10.15560/18.3.593

Abstract

Benthic fauna caught by ring dredge and 2 m beam trawl at the NATURA 2000 Sylt Outer Reef (SAR) and Borkum Reef Ground (BRG) sites in the North Sea are examined in relation to the intensity of mobile bottom-trawling fisheries. Samples were taken from 33 stations in the two areas, and the collected benthic fauna, consisting of infauna, epifauna, and demersal fish was determined. A total of 123 species were found, consisting of the phyla Chordata, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, Annelida, Cnidaria, and Bryozoa, with Chordata and Mollusca being the most species-rich phyla. The species compositions of BRG and SAR are relatively clearly separated. There was greater species diversity at BRG, likely due to lower fishing pressure from mobile bottom trawling than at SAR. Long-term data acquisition and analysis will be needed to visualize past and future changes in biodiversity

Keywords

Beam trawl, benthic fauna, fishery impact, MGF Nordsee, ring dredge, species composition