This work-package is leaded by José Miguel Gutiérrez Ortega (CEO of TAXON)
Species can spread to new locations if they find suitable habitats (eventually over several generations, by stepping-stones). The spatial network of suitable habitat is thus an important component of physical connectivity. Within each region (three to four sites), partners will obtain and gather data on habitats in order to map the zones corresponding to hard bottoms (with their depths and, for cliffs, their orientation, which are main drivers of community composition). Establishing the possibility of connection among any pair of sites is controlled primarily by the effective presence of hard bottoms in both sites and by favorable dispersal routes connecting them (WP1). Since more precise data are available in various locations, we will also organize additional environmental and habitat information (very fine grained 3-dimension hard bottom data and biocenosis data are sometimes available). To do so, we will perform (1) the compilation of environmental, hard bottom species and habitat data (made for each region by the adequate partners), (2) the collection of new field data to fill-in the gaps identified (during dives planned for WP4), and (3) the analysis of environmental, species and habitat data (habitat maps, connectivity level characterization within areas). We will use the GIS environment, with multi-layer georeferenced data bases. We will thus implement GIS databases based on compiled as well as new data. We selected the QGIS package to operate GIS layers and we propose to implement the Data Base for SEAMoBB through PostgreSQL.