Effects of a 5-year trawling ban on the local benthic community in a wind farm in the Dutch coastal zone

Abstract As part of a large impact study in a wind farm (OWEZ) in the Dutch coastal zone, the effects of exclusion of bottom trawling on the benthic community were studied by comparison with nearby reference areas which were regularly fished. In addition to a standard boxcorer for common macrofauna, a Triple-D dredge was used to collect longer-lived, more sparsely distributed infauna and epifauna. Multivariate analysis did not reveal any difference between the assemblages in and outside OWEZ with respect to abundance, biomass, and production after a 5-year closure. The Shannon–Wiener diversity... Mehr ...