Spatial analyses and trends benthos Voordelta

A collaboration of Ecosub, Greenstat and Statistics Netherlands has carried out additional analyses on behalf of Rijkswaterstaat WVL based on long-term data of benthic animals in the Voordelta for the period 2004-2018. The analyses were in the context of the evaluation of the nature compensation for the construction of Maasvlakte 2 (MV2), with the establishment of a bottom protection area (BBG) by excluding beam trawl fisheries as an important measure. A 10% improvement of the benthos biomass in the BBG would compensate for the loss of surface area due to MV2.

Previous analyses were not sufficient to arrive at an unambiguous assessment of a possible success of the BBG. On the one hand, this had to do with the great natural variability in the Voordelta, on the other hand, there was also a strong and unforeseen increase in the shrimp fishery. Moreover, it was only during the monitoring that it became apparent that the effect of the ban on beam trawl fisheries in the BBG was hardly measurable because this type of fishing had already been significantly reduced in the period preceding the establishment of the BBG.

Greenstat provided the extensive GIS analyses of the spatial patterns in the benthos to enable a further ecological interpretation of the data series. The data from the benthos were linked to abiotic data such as depth and bottom shear stress as well as data from fisheries (e.g. based on AIS - Automatic Information System).

download : report in Dutch - Spatial analyses and trends benthos Voordelta