Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra) Infaunal Data Collected During Academic Research Projects

• Availability: Not released
• Published by: Marine Environmental Data & Information Network
• Last updated: 31 December 2004
• Topic: Not added
• Licence: Other Licence ; View licence information

Summary

Carmarthen Bay, an extensive, shallow embayment off the south coast of Wales, UK, encompasses a wide range of rich and diverse coastal and marine habitats. Carmarthen Bay is an internationally important wintering ground for the Common Scoter duck (Melanitta nigra) and is widely regarded as the most important such site in the UK causing the site to be proposed as a Special Protection Area (pSPA) under the EC Birds Directive. The Common Scoter is strongly migratory and often travels considerable distances over land making brief stop-overs on inland waters. Its diet consists predominantly of molluscs, especially during the winter, although it occasionally takes other aquatic invertebrates such as crustaceans (e.g. barnacles and shrimps), worms, echinoderms, isopods, amphipods and insect s (e.g. midges and caddis flies) as well as small fish and fish eggs. The large concentrations of this species that occur during the moulting period and in winter are highly vulnerable to oil spills, human disturbance and the degradation of food resources as a result of oil exploration. The need for a comprehensive baseline survey of the macro fauna communities of Carmarthen Bay became a priority for government agencies such as the Countryside Council for Wales in the wake of the Sea Empress oil spill February 1996. The long-term presence of certain infaunal species and the stability of the areas populations of the species may be a factor in the importance of the Carmarthen Bay is an internationally important overwintering site for the common scoter. This dataset consists of an extensive series of surveys of the macrofauna around Carmarthen Bay and was collated to identify environmental and / or biotic conditions relating to areas where scoter number were high or low. The majority of this dataset is data generated as part of a Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) funded PhD for the University of Wales Swansea known as "Carmarthen Bay infauna scoter project". It also includes data related to a University of Wales Swansea MSc Environmental biology dissertation entitled 'Common Scoter Melanitta nigra in their wintering habitats; an investigation into the factors influencing their finer scale distribution'. Data was collected by students with CCW involvement or supervision.

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• Food sources for Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra) in Carmarthen Bay
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• All Wales Common Scoter ( Melanitta nigra ) Survey (1994 - 2002)
• Aerial Monitoring of Common Scoter Melinitta nigra in Carmarthen Bay 2010 - 2011

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• Added to data.gov.uk: 2018-07-03
• Access contraints: This data is owned partly by CCW and partly by the University of Wales Swansea/Lucy Smith. There are no access restrictions to this data. CCW may release, publish or disseminated it freely. However, there are third party use restrictions.
• Harvest GUID: 4f4c4942-4343-5764-6473-313131373933
• Extent: Latitude: 51.79964120° to 51.54399484°
• Extent: Longitude: -4.76968366° to -4.25800512°
• Spatial reference system: urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::BNG
• Dataset reference date: 2004-12-31 (publication)
• Dataset reference date: 2004-12-31 (revision)
• Frequency of update: notPlanned
• Responsible party: University of Wales Swansea. Marine and Environmental Research Group (custodian); Natural Resources Wales (NRW) (custodian); Woolmer (originator); Smith (originator)
• ISO 19139 resource type: dataset
• Metadata language: eng
• Source Metadata: XML
• Source Metadata: HTML

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Licence information

© CCGC/CCW and various third party recorders 2004. CCW owns the copyright of the collation, but the ownership of the records themselves rests with the originator. There are no use restrictions on this data. Recipients may re-use, reproduce, disseminate this data free of charge in any format or medium, provided they do so accurately, acknowledging both the source and the copyright of CCW/third party recorders and do not use it in a misleading context. It is the recipient's responsibility to ensure the data is fit for the intended purpose, that dissemination or publishing does not result in duplication and that it is fairly interpreted. Advice on interpretation should be sought where required. To avoid re-using old data, users should periodically obta in the latest version from the original source.