The effects of beam-trawl disturbance on infaunal communities in different habitats

1. Beam-trawling is a source of physical disturbance to marine sedimentary communities in areas less than 50 m deep, on the western European continental shelf. Chains attached between the beam-trawl shoes are designed to penetrate the upper few cm of the sediment, which leads to the damage or removal of some infaunal and epifaunal species. In some areas, beam-trawling may be frequent and intense, leading to speculation that it may generate long-term changes in the local benthic fauna. 2. As part of a larger MAFF study examining the ecological effects of beam-trawling, we investigated its local impact on an infaunal community in the north-eastern Irish Sea. Studies of this type are complicated by the heterogeneity of the environment, hence we adopted a replicated, paired control and treatment design to maximize the chances of detecting any effects due to trawling. 3. A side-scan sonar survey revealed that the experimental area was characterized by mobile megaripples in the south-eastern sector of the experimental area and stable sediments with uniform topography in the north-western sector. Multivariate analysis of the species abundances from the control areas separated the fauna into two distinct communities which corresponded to the different substratum characteristics. Data from the two regions were therefore treated separately when testing for the effects of trawling. 4. In the north-western sector, trawling led to 58% decrease in the mean abundance of some taxa and a 50% reduction in the mean number of species per sample. Multivariate analysis revealed that differences between control and fished sites were largely due to the reduction or removal of less common species. These effects were less apparent in the mobile sediments of the south-eastern sector, which had a naturally impoverished fauna and high level of heterogeneity. 5. Univariate variables, such as abundance and the total number of species per sample, indicated that the variation between replicate samples increased as a result of trawling disturbance. However, examination of the community data using an index of multivariate dispersion revealed no difference between fished and unfished areas. This suggests that the effects of fishing disturbance are consistent between replicate samples. 6. Fishing with demersal gears modifies communities in relatively stable sediments. Frequent and repeated physical disturbance by fishing gears may lead to long-term changes in the benthic community structure of these habitats.