Publication Abstract

The Geo-Habitats of the central English Channel: a generation on from Holme and Cabioch, how do their interpretations match-up to modern mapping techniques?

The Geo-Habitats of the central English Channel: a generation on from Holme and Cabioch, how do their interpretations match-up to modern mapping techniques?

Roger Coggan, Markus Diesing

In the latter half of the 20th century, Norman Holme and Louis Cabioch reported separate programmes of work describing the benthic fauna and habitats of the ‘English’ Channel. Holme was based in southern England, while Cabioch was based in northern France. Naturally, each tended to focus their sampling effort in their own national waters, with only a few stations being sampled across the Anglo-French ‘divide’. Both researchers developed their own interpretation of the channel ecosystem, describing similar latitudinal gradients in habitats and fauna that reflect the notable environmental gradients of the area, and both produced a ‘map’ of sorts to show the distribution of the different benthic communities they had identified. These interpretations were based predominantly on samples collected by small trawl or dredge and only in the later years made use of the (then) emerging technologies of underwater cameras and acoustic systems. A generation on, these technologies have reached a level of maturity and reliability that enable them to be used routinely on seabed surveys, and there has recently been another tranche of survey work in the channel, aimed at describing and mapping seabed habitats. This paper will compare and contrast the 20th and 21st century work. The modern surveys are consistent with the interpretations made by Holme and Cabioch, but provide significantly greater resolution to the habitat maps through greater understanding of the linkage between the geology and biology of the seabed.

Reference

Roger Coggan, Markus Diesing (2009) The Geo-Habitats of the central English Channel: a generation on from Holme and Cabioch, how do their interpretations match-up to modern mapping techniques? NGF Abstracts and Proceedings, 2: p. 18.

http://www.geohab.org/agenda2009.html#coggan

R.A. Coggan*, M. Diesing*

NGF Abstracts and Proceedings, 2: p. 18.