Deep-sea habitat mapping in the Bay of Biscay

The deep-sea habitats in the Bay of Biscay were mapped by Ifremer's deep-sea laboratory as part of the CoralFish project and an agreement between Ifremer and the French Marine Protected Areas Agency.

The method used for this habitat mapping is based on the preliminary analysis of videos and images acquired with the ROV Victor 6000 and the SCAMPI towed camera during several oceanographic campaigns: BOBGEO1 (from 14/10/2009 to 28/10/2009, mission chiefs: Jean-François BOURILLET), EVHOE 2009 (from 18/10/2009 to 01/12/2009, mission chiefs: Jean-Pierre LEAUTE and Michèle SALAUN), BOBGEO2 (from 18/07/2010 to 25/07/2010, mission chief: Jean-François BOURILLET, Ifremer Brest), EVHOE 2010 (from 18/10/2010 to 02/12/2010, mission leaders: Jean-Pierre LEAUTE and Michèle SALAUN), BOBECO (from 9/09/2011 to 11/10/2011, mission chiefs: Sophie ARNAUD-HAOND and Anthony GREHAN) and EVHOE 2012 (from 18/10/2012 to 02/12/2012, mission chiefs: Jean-Pierre LEAUTE and Michèle SALAUN).

The observed habitats were defined according to the CoralFish typology (Davies et al. 2017) and delimited according to the observations made on the images and video profiles. For the purpose of this mapping, it was decided to retain only habitats with a minimum area of 25m², i.e. segments of at least 5 metres in length, defined by at least 2 identical contiguous observations. Then, to the habitats of level 3 of the CoralFish classification, were associated the habitats of the national typology (HABREF, Michez et al. 2019) and the habitats of international typology, in particular the Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VME, ICES 2020), the reef habitat '1170' as defined by the European Habitat Fauna Flora Directive, and the OSPAR list of threatened and/or declining species and habitats.

The fields of the attritube table are as follows:

Seg_code: Unique code assigned to a habitat segment along each dive profile, the code consists of the cruise code, the dive number in the cruise and a unique number per segment Cruise: Name of the oceanographic cruise Dive: Diving number in the cruise Dive_code: Unique cruise/dive code Canyon: Canyon in which the transect is located Date: Dive date Time: start time of observation of a habitat segment Latitude: Latitude of the start of the habitat segment Longitude: Longitude of the start of the habitat segment Hab_niv1: Level 1 habitat of the CoralFish typology (Davies et al. 2017) Hab_niv2: Level 2 habitat of the CoralFish typology (Davies et al. 2017) Hab_niv3: Level 3 habitat of the CoralFish typology (Davies et al. 2017) VME: Indicates whether the transect is associated with a vulnerable (VME) or non-vulnerable (Non-VME) marine ecosystem CD_HAB: Code associated with the NatHab-Atl habitat typology/Unique identifier of the habitat. LB_CODE: Code associated with the wording of the NatHab-Atl typology/Habitat unit code; Level 1 is identified by a letter: M for soft substrate habitats, R for rocky substrate habitats and P for specific habitats. Levels 2 to 7 are identified by numbers separated by dots. TypoAtlMMN: Label associated with the NatHab-Atl habitat typology VMEHABTYPE: Label associated with a VME habitat type according to ICES typology VMESUBTYPE: Label associated with a VME habitat subtype according to ICES typology OSPAR_List: Label associated with the OSPAR habitat typology CDHABOSPAR: Code associated with the OSPAR habitat typology Natura2000: Code associated with the list of habitats of community interest (1170 = Reefs) Length: Length of the habitat segment in meters CruiseName: Name of the oceanographic cruise Cruiseship: Name of the ship used for the oceanographic cruise C_Vehicle: Name of the robot / instrument responsible for acquiring photos/videos during the oceanographic cruise C_StartDat: Start date of the oceanographic cruise C_EndDat: End date of the oceanographic cruise C_Location: Location of the oceanographic cruise = Bay of Biscay

References : Davies, J.S., Guillaumont, B., Tempera, F., Vertino, A., Beuck, L., Ólafsdóttir, S.H., Smith, C.J., Fosså, J.H., van den Beld, I.M.J., Savini, A., Rengstorf, A., Bayle, C., Bourillet, J.F., Arnaud-Haond, S., Grehan, A., 2017. A new classification scheme of European cold-water coral habitats: Implications for ecosystem-based management of the deep sea. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 145: 102-109, 10.1016/j.dsr2.2017.04.014.

Michez, N., Thiébaut, E., Dubois, S., Le Gall, L., Dauvin, J.-C., Andersen, A.C., Baffreau, A., Bajjouk, T., Blanchet, H., de Bettinies, T., De Casamajor, M.-N., Derrien-Courtel, S., Houbin, C., Janson, A.-L., La Rivière, M., Lévèque, L., Menot, L., Sauriau, P.-G., Simon, N., Viard, F., 2019. Typologie des habitats marins benthiques de la Manche, de la Mer du Nord et de l’Atlantique. VERSION 3.

ICES, 2020. ICES/NAFO Joint Working Group on Deep-water Ecology (WGDEC). ICES Scientific Reports 2 (62), 171, 10.17895/ices.pub.7503.