Identification

Title

Habitat point records from 1989 MNCR Whiteness Voe survey

Abstract

Whiteness Voe was selected in 1987 as a Marine Consultation Area. The Voe was chosen as a representative site for one of the few voes in Shetland for which there was a presumption against fish farming. The seagrass beds and sediment-dwelling communities at the head of the voe were considered particulary important. The survey described here was undertaken to obtain more detailed information on the marine habitats and associated communities in the upper part of Whitness Voe and to use that information to further assess the nature conservation importance of the area. The work undertaken included surveys of the extent of seagrass Zostera marina and the description and mapping of sublittoral habitats and associated communities. Seven transects were surveyed using direct observation by diving and samples of sediment collected for analysis of infaunal communities from seven sites using a diver-operated suction sampler. One hundred and one taxa were recorded from in-situ surveys and 90 from the 0.1 m squared suction samples. Seven different habitats and associated communities were recognised. Species richness in upper Whiteness Voe was found to be high for such an enclosed area. The character of the habitats and associated communities was similar to only a very few other such sites investigated during NCC commissioned and other surveys in Shetland. The beds of seagrass Zostera marina were the most extensive known for Shetland. The 14 criteria used to assess marine nature conservation importance are discussed and a revised MCA citation proposed. Records currently considered sensitive have been removed from this dataset.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

http://data.jncc.gov.uk/data/5c09347c-8e86-4ca8-90a0-ccdb34a89eee-1989-MNCR-Whiteness-Voe-survey.csv

name: 1989-MNCR-Whiteness-Voe-survey.csv

Unique resource identifier

code

5c09347c-8e86-4ca8-90a0-ccdb34a89eee

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Additional information source

Hiscock (1989) Marine biological survey of upper Whiteness Voe, Shetland Islands. 13 & 14 June 1989. Rostron (1989) Sediment communities in upper Whiteness Voe, Shetland. June 1989.

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

oceans

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Marine

Marine Recorder

JNCCMNCR10000013

Habitat

MNCR

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-1.29683731

East bounding longitude

-1.285844664

North bounding latitude

60.19557086

South bounding latitude

60.18754827

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

1989-06-13

End position

1989-06-14

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2007-05-08

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

This survey was extracted from a Marine Recorder snapshot.

Conformity

Data format

name of format

Comma Separated Values

version of format

Unknown

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Open Government Licence v3.0

Limitations on public access

no limitations

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

Digital and Data Solutions, JNCC

email address

data@jncc.gov.uk

responsible party role

custodian

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

Digital and Data Solutions, JNCC

email address

data@jncc.gov.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2018-05-17

Metadata language