Report of the Study Group Climate related Benthic Processes in the North Sea (SGCBNS)

The Study Group on Climate related Benthic processes in the North Sea (SGCBNS) was initiated by the ICES Benthos Ecology Working Group (BEWG) as a follow up initiative of the former North Sea Benthos Surveys (NSBS 1986; NSBP 2000). The aim was to facilitate future research activities concerning benthic ecosystem processes related to climate change and to establish a network of benthic long-term series. This year the chairs of the SG organized the annual meeting in November at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK.The main objectives of the SG were to study benthic ecosystem processes and to facil-itate future research on this topic. These objectives were addressed by initiating two case studies on spatio-temporal patterns of bioturbation, representing a key ecosys-tem process in benthic environments, and to establish and further develop the Ben-thic long-term series network (BELTS net) in collaboration with the Benthos Ecology Working Group (BEWG). Three papers were initiated (one paper submitted) during the course of the SG and an extensive compilation of bioturbation trait metrics of 1 042 benthic species was conducted, which will be available for the scientific commu-nity.